You think the PAL on one of the missing soviet "suitcase" nuclear devices[1] is that sophisticated?
They are booby-trapped against misuse though, so that's ok.
One such cache, identified by Vasili Mitrokhin, exploded when Swiss authorities tried to remove it from a wooded area near Bern.
I don't think civilians know enough about the current state of Soviet-era nuclear devices to be able to assess the risk very well.
Personally I'd be much more concerned about Al-Qaeda linked terrorists getting access to a Pakistani bomb. The Taliban successfully launched a raid on one of Pakistan's main naval bases[2], and NATO also admitted its concern over the Taliban's ability to target the Pakistan's nuclear installations.
Given that the Pakistan Navy noted Al-Qaeda members within its ranks it isn't difficult to imagine a scenario where they get access to the disarm-codes for any PAL-like on the bombs.
I'm not sure if this is an argument for or against domestic surveillance by the NSA, though!
Are you saying this cache near Bern blew up while containing nuclear weapons? Why haven't I heard of this before? Even with a non-nuclear explosion, such an event would make international news for a month.
Allegedly (ie, according to Wikipedia) the details are on pages 475 & 476 of a book called "The KGB in Europe" by former KGB officer Vasili Mitrokhin.
I don't know if that device was nuclear or not - I suspect not.
Edit: some details about other caches:
A former Soviet spy testified at a congressional hearing in Los Angeles on Monday that Russian intelligence operatives placed weapons and communications caches--perhaps even small nuclear devices--in California and other states as part of a plan to destabilize the United States through sabotage
They are booby-trapped against misuse though, so that's ok.
One such cache, identified by Vasili Mitrokhin, exploded when Swiss authorities tried to remove it from a wooded area near Bern.
I don't think civilians know enough about the current state of Soviet-era nuclear devices to be able to assess the risk very well.
Personally I'd be much more concerned about Al-Qaeda linked terrorists getting access to a Pakistani bomb. The Taliban successfully launched a raid on one of Pakistan's main naval bases[2], and NATO also admitted its concern over the Taliban's ability to target the Pakistan's nuclear installations.
Given that the Pakistan Navy noted Al-Qaeda members within its ranks it isn't difficult to imagine a scenario where they get access to the disarm-codes for any PAL-like on the bombs.
I'm not sure if this is an argument for or against domestic surveillance by the NSA, though!
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitcase_nuke
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNS_Mehran_attack