Reuters New Media Beatrice shows you the best sites for... Beatrice's Web Guide [Relationships.....] Show me! [ Yahoo | Write Us | Search | Info ] [ Index | News | World | Biz | Tech | Politic | Sport | Scoreboard | Entertain | Health ] _________________________________________________________________ Previous Story: U.S. Sees Hope for War Criminals' Surrender Next Story: U.S. Searches for Its Oldest Worker _________________________________________________________________ Friday October 3 7:09 PM EDT US Sees No KGB Role in Russia's Nuclear Arms WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The United States Friday rejected the claim of a Russian scientist that Moscow had secretly developed nuclear "suitcase bombs" under KGB orders in the 1970s specifically for terrorist purposes. "We have no information or evidence suggesting that nuclear weapons were ever developed for or put under the control of the KGB, which is part of the story here," State Department spokesman James Rubin said. Rubin, reflecting previous U.S. statements, did not deny so-called "suitcase bombs" may be part of Russia's arsenal. "We cannot comment...about the precise specifications or dimensions of any nuclear weapons," he told reporters. But he repeated the U.S. view that "there is no evidence other than hearsay to support such claims" that portable Russian nuclear weapons may have gone missing. "There's probably no issue where you have the combined resources of the U.S. government working as well together and with such determination as the issue of security of nuclear weapons, and we work on it every day, hundreds if not thousands of people in the government," he said. "And if they say that we have no information on this and they say that these accounts are hearsay, that's pretty compelling," Rubin added. Testifying before Congress Thursday, Alexei Yablokov, a respected scientist who served on the Russian National Security Council, contradicted statements by Russian officials denying the existence of the weapons and buttressed claims that many of them have gone missing. "I am absolutely sure that they have been made," he told the House Military Research and Development subcommittee. The issue arose when former Russian National Security Adviser Alexandr Lebed alleged that up to 100 portable suitcase-sized bombs were unaccounted for since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. According to Lebed, who has agreed to testify before the House committee later this month, the devices have an explosive capacity of one kiloton -- the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT -- can be activated by a single person and could kill as many as 100,000 people. Yablokov said he had spoken to the scientists who worked on the weapons and so was certain of their existence. But he said the former Soviet Defense Ministry might never have known about the so-called "atomic demolition munitions" because they were developed for the KGB spy service under a secret program. On the issue of possible missing nuclear weapons, Rubin said Moscow "continues to assure us that it retains adequate command and control and that appropriate physical security arrangements exist for these weapons and facilities." "We have no reason or evidence to doubt these assurances," he said. _________________________________________________________________ ________________________ Search News Help _________________________________________________________________ Previous Story: U.S. Sees Hope for War Criminals' Surrender Next Story: U.S. Searches for Its Oldest Worker Beatrice shows you the best sites for... Beatrice's Web Guide [Relationships.....] Show me! _________________________________________________________________ [ Index | News | World | Biz | Tech | Politic | Sport | Scoreboard | Entertain | Health ] _________________________________________________________________ Reuters Limited Questions or Comments