Strictly speaking, this is just the hearsay report of a (possibly self-serving) Pakistani journalist, claiming that Al-Zawahri made this claim.
But, issues of credibility and timing aside, it is perhaps a historical inevitability that at some point, a faction of radical Islamicists will get their hands on such a weapon.
Policy ideas, anyone?
Well, for starters, it’d be nice if we had an administration that took recovery of enriched uranium and other nonproliferation issues as seriously as they take spending billions on knocking out theoretical North Korean ICBM’s.
Bush Stresses Importance of Nunn-Lugar Programs but Cuts Funds in 2005 Budget Request
U.S. Lags in Recovering Fuel Suitable for Nuclear Arms
It’s beginning to seem like it’ll take a Nuclear version of 9/11 to get these guys off the dime.
Does anyone know the yield of a “suitcase nuke”? Is it just a tactical device capable of taking out a few blocks? A Hiroshima-type bomb? I gots ta know.
This Article about a different case of allegedly missing suitcase nukes mentions 1 kiloton.
I was just about to post the same link provided by Kellner
Yield for the similar-sized ‘Davy Crockett’ weapon in the US arsenal was variable from 0.1-1 Kiloton.
I’m not an expert on this technology but apparently the question of whether such small Russian tactical nukes even existed has not been satisfactorily resolved. If they did exist AND if some were stolen back in the '90s AND if they somehow made it to a black market for weapons, AND if they actually contained fissile material (again an expert should comment but I see no reason why such a device would ever be stored fully armed), it is highly likely the fissile material has by now deteriorated to the point where the weapons would be unable to produce their designed yield. They still could possibly work as a ‘dirty’ conventional weapon.
Regardless, this appears to be scaremongering by al-Zawhari. The version of the article I saw (link) states that al-Zawhari was interviewed in 2001. I believe that his organization has nowhere near the ability to mount operations that he may claim; basically if they had usable nuclear or chemical weapons, and a means to deliver them, they most likely would have have used them by now.
As for policy? Best would be not to make small, portable nukes to begin with, as they really seem to be of little tactical utility.