Truth or terrorist bluff?
Dave

SYDNEY, Australia (March 21) - Osama bin Laden's terror network claims to have
bought ready-made nuclear weapons on the black market in central Asia, the
biographer of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader was quoted as telling an Australian
television station.

In an interview scheduled to be televised on Monday, Pakistani journalist Hamid
Mir said Ayman al-Zawahri claimed that ''smart briefcase bombs'' were available
on the black market.

It was not clear when the interview between Mir and al-Zawahri took place.

U.S. intelligence agencies have long believed that al-Qaida attempted to
acquire a nuclear device on the black market, but say there is no evidence it
was successful.

In the interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp. television, parts of which
were released Sunday, Mir recalled telling al-Zawahri it was difficult to
believe that al-Qaida had nuclear weapons when the terror network didn't have
the equipment to maintain or use them.

''Dr Ayman al-Zawahri laughed and he said 'Mr. Mir, if you have $30 million, go
to the black market in central Asia, contact any disgruntled Soviet scientist,
and a lot of ... smart briefcase bombs are available,''' Mir said in the
interview.

''They have contacted us, we sent our people to Moscow, to Tashkent, to other
central Asian states and they negotiated, and we purchased some suitcase
bombs,'' Mir quoted al-Zawahri as saying.

Al-Qaida has never hidden its interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.

The U.S. federal indictment of bin Laden charges that as far back as 1992 he
''and others known and unknown, made efforts to obtain the components of
nuclear weapons.''

Bin Laden, in a November 2001 interview with a Pakistani journalist, boasted
having hidden such components ''as a deterrent.'' And in 1998, a Russian
nuclear weapons design expert was investigated for allegedly working with bin
Laden's Taliban allies.

It was revealed last month that Pakistan's top nuclear scientist had sold
sensitive equipment and nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea,
fueling fears the information could have also fallen into the hands of
terrorists.

Earlier, Mir told Australian media that al-Zawahri also claimed to have visited
Australia to recruit militants and collect funds.

''In those days, in early 1996, he was on a mission to organize his network all
over the world,'' Mir was quoted as saying. ''He told me he stopped for a while
in Darwin (in northern Australia), he was ... looking for help and collecting
funds.''

Australia's Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the government could not rule
out the possibility that al-Zawahri visited Australia in the 1990s under a
different name.

''Under his own name or any known alias he hasn't traveled to Australia,''
Ruddock told reporters Saturday. ''That doesn't mean to say that he may not
have come under some other false documentation, or some other alias that's not
known to us.''

Mir describe al-Zawahri as ''the real brain behind Osama bin Laden.''

''He is the real strategist, Osama bin Laden is only a front man,'' Mir was
quoted as saying during the interview. ''I think he is more dangerous than bin
Laden.''

Al-Zawahri - an Egyptian surgeon - is believed to be hiding in the rugged
region around the Pakistan-Afghan border where U.S. and Pakistani troops are
conducting a major operation against Taliban and al-Qaida forces.

He is said to have played a leading role in orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks on the United States.

AP-NY-03-21-04 1608EST