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Special Report to NewsMax.com Readers

Col. Lunev's Advice Heeded: Pres. Bush Draws Up Nuclear Plans

By Christopher Ruddy

Monday, March 11, 2002

The recent "leak" of a classified Pentagon report that the U.S. military
recently has drawn up plans to use nuclear weapons against seven nations
was no accident.


The Pentagon report identifies China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Iran,
Libya and Syria as nuclear targets, and directs military planners to begin
preparing nuclear strike plans in case of a nuclear, biological or
chemical weapons attack on the U.S. or "in the event of surprising
military developments."

U.S. officials were quick to confirm the report, which no doubt sent a
serious signal to rogue states about what will happen if the U.S. is hit
with a nuclear device.

This "news" of the nuclear war plans should not be surprising to NewsMax
readers.

President Bush and the Pentagon are only following the advice given to
them by NewsMax columnist and Russian defector Col Stanislav Lunev.

On Sept. 24, Col. Lunev's column headlined: Bush Must Warn Rogue States of
Nuclear Retaliation.

Lunev, the highest-ranking military spy ever to defect from Russia, warned
the White House that the terrorist threat would not abate: "These groups
clearly have received sufficient funds, supplies, support and hospitality
from rogue nations – all of whom have close ties to Russia's military and
intelligence agencies."

Lunev continued ominously: "... we are in a full-blown war, the stakes are
high for each side. No one can rule out that these terrorists may have
biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. No one can rule out their use.
International terrorism currently has enough power to challenge the West
and, using weapons of mass destruction, perhaps hit us with a devastating
blow."

Col. Lunev also said, "The planning, network and resources involved in the
operation of Sept. 11 suggests to me that one or more countries were
behind this, and also that Russian intelligence agencies were likely aware
of the possibility of these attacks."

Lunev argued that the Sept. 11 attack was simply a precursor to a much
larger attack.

The terrorists and their backers are clever propagandists and realized
that a mass destruction attack against the U.S. would rouse Muslim and
world opinion in the U.S.'s favor.

The terrorists, Lunev thinks, "realized America would retaliate."

Only in the aftermath of U.S. retaliation, which the world has since
witnessed in Afghanistan, Lunev wrote that "we must worry about the next
attack, which may be an escalation in scope and severity over the ones of
Sept. 11."

Lunev then gave advice that has now been heeded by the Bush
administration: "My suggestion is that the U.S. must warn rogue states,
i.e., Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya, that if these groups use a weapon of
mass destruction on an American city, the U.S. military will not do any
investigations, there will be no delay – the U.S. will use similar weapons
on their population centers and military targets."

On Oct. 16, just over a month after Sept. 11, Lunev worried again about a
nuclear attack, in an urgent memo to President Bush, which was published
on NewsMax.com (see: Memo to Bush: A Plan to Prevent Weapons of Mass
Destruction).

Lunev candidly informed President Bush: "Right now, there is no way to
assure America that such weapons [of mass destruction] will not be used.
We must be honest and admit that time may already have run out.

"The terrorists have had a huge time advantage over us. They had almost
the whole past 10 years to move without sanction from the U.S. government.
For all practical purposes, these terrorists may have already deployed
weapons of mass destruction here."

It should be remembered that it was Lunev who, as a GRU defector, first
told the CIA that Russia had already deployed suitcase nuclear bombs
inside the U.S.

In the wake of the al-Qaeda attacks, Lunev was justifiably troubled that
other rogue operators, such as Iraq and North Korea, would use the
opportunity to detonate a nuclear device in America – with the hope that
it would be conveniently blamed on bin Laden.

"Already, I have encouraged you to warn all backers of al-Qaeda, including
any and all backers of terrorist groups and nations, including Iraq, Iran,
Syria and others, that the use of weapons of mass destruction on American
soil will cause the U.S. to use such weapons against any and all backers
of these terrorists.”

Lunev added, in his Oct. 16 memo, "You should tell them the U.S. will
retaliate without investigation and go after 'likely suspects.'"

Lunev then advised the president on a critical tactical maneuver: He
should not simply warn rogue nations of a potential nuclear retaliation,
he must draw up plans to do so.

Lunev wrote, "You should not just warn rogue nations, you must have your
Pentagon begin to prepare to use such weapons against these nations.

"If you do, the many spies in the U.S. government will report back to
rogue nations that you are serious and if a weapon of mass destruction is
used against America, you will respond with fury. Then no one will be
safe.

"I can assure you that this will be unsettling to America's enemies."

Lunev then reminded the president how successfully this strategy had
worked during the Cold War.

"In the early 1960s, President John Kennedy was faced by a similar nuclear
threat from rogue nation Cuba. Kennedy did not warn Castro that he would
hit Cuba if the U.S. was so attacked.

"Kennedy went right for the jugular. He warned Nikita Khrushchev in no
uncertain terms that any nuclear attack by Cuba on the U.S. would require
a "full retaliatory" strike at the Soviet Union.

"When the Soviets heard the 'bad news,' that Kennedy was not going to be a
pushover, weapons of mass destruction were immediately removed from Cuba.

"You must emulate Kennedy now. You should do so sooner rather than later,"
Lunev concluded in his memo.

President Bush, wisely, chose to take the advice.

Editor's note: You can hear Col. Lunev in his own words, uncensored, in
the powerful audiotape NewsMax has published: "CIA FILES." "CIA FILES"
includes the full story of what Col. Lunev told the CIA -- and his
warnings about Russia's links to terrorist groups, as well as their plans
using suitcase nuclear bombs in America -– CLICK HERE to get "CIA Files":
http://www.newsmax.com/jump/ciafiles