According to Yosef Bodansky, a researcher attached to the House counter-terrorism task force, a Middle East terrorist is now believed to have as many as 20 suitcase nuclear bombs. In addition, this same terrorist is alleged to possess biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction.

Supposedly, Chechen rebels managed to steal nuclear suitcase bombs from the Russian military. These bombs were then smuggled out of Russia and sold to Osama bin Laden, an international fugitive and terrorist hiding in Afghanistan. Readers may recall that Osama bin Laden is a Saudi national accused of masterminding the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. These bombings killed 224 people and left over 5,000 injured.

Blaming Osama bin Laden for the African bombings, President Clinton launched an air strike against bin Laden's Afghan base camp. This air strike, as Clinton's luck would have it, came shortly after he publicly apologized for the Monica Lewinsky affair. Clinton also ordered an air strike against a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, claiming it was a chemical weapons factory.

More recently, Clinton Administration officials have accused Osama bin Laden of plotting bomb attacks against the United States Embassy and two consulates in India. The U.S. government has offered five million dollars to anyone who provides information leading to bin Laden's arrest or conviction.

In Afghanistan bin Laden is considered a war hero for risking his life in the struggle against Moscow's client armies. Therefore, it is not surprising that many Afghans were dismayed at the idea that bin Laden was a threat to America. The pro-Taliban Shariat newspaper noted, "America is a superpower with a strong economy and a strong political system, so why does it have such an obsession for a person who is very weak?"

The Taliban judiciary began its own formal investigation into U.S. claims that bin Laden was waging a war of terror against the United States. The three-week inquiry was headed by Afghanistan's chief justice, Noor Muhammed Saqib. Chief Justice Saqib asked the U.S. government to provide evidence so that he could act, but the United States offered no evidence at all. "It is their shame that they have been silent," said an angry Saqib. "Anything that happens now anywhere in the world they blame Osama, but the reality is in the proof -- they have not given us any."

At his Friday press conference, Bodanksy cited Russian and Saudi intelligence sources to support his stunning allegations. He also said that Osama bin Laden was attempting to recruit "former Soviet special forces" to operate the bombs behind enemy lines.

Bodansky's sources, however, are suspect. One must always treat the claims of Russian officials with near-total skepticism. Can we really believe that the anti-Soviet bin Laden would work closely with former Soviet commandos who were his deadly enemies in the past? And what sort of Russian special forces soldier would assist an anti-Russian terrorist? It is doubtful that any such person has ever existed in the ranks of Soviet or Russian special forces. In the last analysis, it is more likely that Bodansky has been fed false information.

The same goes for the Saudis, who have probably been duped by Russian intelligence agents. The idea that a minor terrorist, confined to the wilds of Afghanistan, has obtained a nuclear arsenal that would be the envy of Libya or Iraq -- with their billions -- is absurd on its face. Besides this, the sophistication required to effectively handle weapons of mass destruction belongs only to governments that have billions of dollars and armies of dedicated technical specialists. The notion that a Saudi millionaire-terrorist -- not even a billionaire -- isolated by his enmity for American and Russia, could achieve so much with so little, is more than suspicious. It is ridiculous. That being said, Osama bin Laden is a convenient diversion for Bill Clinton and for Clinton's "friends" in the Kremlin.

The most alarming thing about the bin Laden story is the way it helps the nuclear war strategy of the Kremlin. According to the highest ranking defector from the Russian General Staff, Colonel Stanislav Lunev, a surprise Russian nuclear strike would begin with the deployment of 7,000 Spetsnaz commandos to the United States. These would enter the U.S. as civilians. At the same time, nuclear suitcase bombs together with biological and chemical weapons would be smuggled into the U.S. along the same routes used to smuggle narcotics.

The purpose of initiating a general nuclear war with suitcase nuclear bombs involves the need for "diversion" and "disruption" of U.S. command and control. According to former CIA analyst Peter Vincent Pry, "Strategic surprise would be achieved if the ... [Russians] could deprive the United States of strategic warning of their intention to attack."

The purpose of detonating nuclear suitcase bombs, and of unleashing biological and chemical weapons within the U.S., would be to simulate a terrorist campaign by non-Russian forces. The United States, assuming it was under attack from ordinary terrorists, would not suspect the true purpose. Russian Spetsnaz would target U.S. command and control and early warning systems, as well as other targets that would create maximum confusion.

The United States early warning network consists of three DSP launch detection satellites and six radars. The satellites are presently in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. These satellites are able to detect Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and Submarine Launch Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) once their engines are ignited during a launch sequence. Each of the three DSP satellites has a ground station with uplinks. If these ground stations are destroyed by suitcase nukes, and if the early warning radars are damaged, the United States would be blinded.

If U.S. political and military leaders were killed or assassinated by Spetsnaz commandos, the result might be that nobody in authority would realize the strategic implications of the attacks on early warning systems. All that the Russian generals need to achieve surprise is 35 minutes of paralysis, blindness, and confusion. That is what the 7,000 Spetsnaz commandos would be aiming at.

Now that we've been told that any Spetsnaz commandos caught on American soil are probably working for bin Laden, we will be looking the wrong way.

Last May United States military intelligence detained a group of Russian tourists who were visiting all the dams along the Colorado River. It turns out that these "tourists" were suspected to be Russian Spetsnaz. They were visiting the sites they would attack in the event of war.

The Russian General Staff regards a future war with America as "inevitable." These are not my words, but the words of a colonel who served the Russian General Staff for nearly 35 years. In this context the news about bin Laden is more ominous than a small terrorist group with nuclear weapons. There has been a larger group of criminals and terrorists living in the Kremlin since 1917. And they have a lot more than 20 suitcase nuclear bombs.