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‘Al-Qaida nukes reach USA’

New Delhi, November 12
Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network may have successfully transported several nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction to the USA, a Pakistani daily has reported.

Stating that Pakistani and American investigators were “jointly probing” the possibility of such an attack when the United Nations General Assembly was on, ‘The Frontier Post’, quoting sources close to the investigators, said they “have reached a conclusion that at least two briefcases of nuclear weapons may have reached the US shores”.

“The investigators have been able to identify at least one briefcase of weapons acquired by Al-Qaida from Central Asian rogue groups,” the report said.

It said the weapon identified was a small 8-kg device that carries at least 2 kg of fissionable plutonium and uranium. “The device, of Russian make, carries serial number 9999 and manufacturing date October, 1988.”

Describing the device as “simple”, the report said the radioactive materials were kept in separate compartments, on top of which the charging mechanism is placed. “The charging mechanism can be activated through a timer or even through a cell phone command”, it said. PTI