B61-11

THE US 'ANNOUNCED' THEIR INTENTION TO USE B61-11 BUNKER BUSTERS ON LAST
NIGHT'S NEWS BULLETINS (BUT SOMEHOW FORGOT TO REFER TO THE FACT THAT THEY
ARE CLASSIFIED AS TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS)


2:00 a.m. Oct. 8, 2001 PDT
Following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon,
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was questioned on ABC television's This
Week program about the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons in the
expected conflicts to come. 

In practiced Pentagonese, Rumsfeld deftly avoided answering the question
of whether the use of tactical nuclear weapons could be ruled out. 

Though large "theater" thermonuclear devices -- doomsday bombs -- don't
fit the Bush administration's war on terrorism, smaller tactical nukes do
not seem out of the question in the current mindset of the Defense
Department. 

The most likely candidate is a tactical micro-nuke called the B61-11, an
earth-penetrating nuclear device known as the "bunker buster." 

The B61-11 was designed to destroy underground military facilities such as
command bunkers, ballistic missile silos and facilities for producing and
storing weapons.