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   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.
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