NIGHTMARE TALIBAN-MAFIA ALLIANCE A POSSIBILITY

London (Based on Newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat Web Site). Arab security
sources have disclosed that Osama Bin Laden has sent experts to
Eastern Europe to search for enriched uranium.

However, their attempts failed (to achieve any results) and (he)
incurred financial losses due to fraud.

The sources added that those experts, however, have continued to
search for enriched uranium (to maintain) the cover (of the operation)
and to divert attention from the fact that Chechen elements loyal to
Bin Laden are searching for manufactured nuclear weapons - not uranium
or plutonium - in former Soviet republics, which have such weapons.

Other reports indicate that an intelligence service of a European
country has foiled an attempt to ship nuclear warheads to Bin Laden
and the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan. These nuclear warheads,
estimated to be 20, came from nuclear arsenals in Ukraine, Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan, and even Russia. The reports added that five Turkmen
nuclear experts acted as middlemen in the deal and that one of those
experts worked at the Iraqi Tammuz nuclear reactor which was bombed by
Israel in 1981. Some agencies do not rule out the possibility that
other experts have joined this team. That is especially so as hundreds
of them are looking for work and they are prepared to accept salaries
of less than 2000 dollars per month.

Arab security sources have expressed fear that the mission of the
aforementioned nuclear team is to transform those nuclear warheads
into smaller weapons which can be easily concealed and transported for
the purpose of carrying out terrorist operations in the United States
and Europe. The sources added that this has become a real headache for
several world and Arab intelligence services that have been
coordinating (their activities) and cooperating for years in order to
forestall such serious terrorist threats which have put armed
fundamentalist organizations on the road to acquiring nuclear weapons.

The bleakest scenario is that nuclear weapons will fall into the hands
of fundamentalist organizations that cooperate with each other.

For example, at present, there is close cooperation between the Bin
Laden organization and the Chechen Mafia which has ties with other
Mafia groups in Eastern Europe.

Arab military experts consider such security reports to be very
serious. That is because after the collapse of the Soviet Union, chaos
spread in very sensitive military units.

There was limited smuggling of radioactive materials and nuclear
weapons which were stolen from among the tens of thousands of such
weapons - in the arsenals of former Soviet republics (30,000 nuclear
warheads in Russia alone) and secret nuclear cities - which were not
under control.

In this new phase, it seems that the black-market trade in nuclear
weapons is no longer monopolized by smugglers or businessmen who have
connections with Third World countries which are trying to acquire
nuclear technology. The Mafia's involvement in this field and its
attempts to buy nuclear warheads for the Taliban show that Mafia gangs
have put all their smuggling experience into this trade which is very
profitable. Undoubtedly, the Taliban's offer was very tempting and,
for the Russian Mafia, it was a strategic deal that would enable it to
control the narcotics and nuclear weapons' trade throughout the world.

Consequently, the Russian Mafia would be able to take the top position
in the world by removing the Italian US Mafia from a position that it
has monopolized since its inception.

It is known that the Taliban controls the largest opium, as well as
other drugs', plantations in the world.

By way of comparison, suffice it to say that Afghanistan produced 41
tonnes of opium in 1984. A UN report mentioned that production in 1998
reached 3,800 tonnes - a 16 per cent increase over 1997. Thus,
according to international organizations, Afghanistan has become the
largest producer and exporter of opium in the world.

Other intelligence reports say that the agreement between Bin Laden
and the Taliban on the one hand, and the Russia Mafia on the other,
goes beyond the barter of nuclear weapons for opium.

A Russian intelligence report has disclosed that Mafia gangs have
managed to monopolize the production of opium, as well as the right to
"supervise its quality", in several heroin factories in Kotieh and
Peshawar near the Pakistan border, Zarni near Iran, and Mazar-e Sharif
near Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Therefore, security services fear
that the Mafia has formed an alliance with the Taliban and other
extremist organizations in Afghanistan. The Mafia will use its large
smuggling networks to flood the world with heroin in exchange for
small nuclear weapons to be used for terrorist operations against
targets in several areas.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the
opinion of the newspaper