Carry-on nukes: suitcase bombs: separating fact from fiction.

• Position: Words with Linton Brooks - Interview

Is a nuclear warhead small enough to fit in a suitcase fact or Hollywood fiction? Ambassador Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said during a trip to Russia his counterparts there were kind enough to show him models of suitcase bombs that were small enough to be carried by one person. "You'd have to be strong, but you could carry it," he told military reporters. And if the Soviet Union's designers could make such a thing, U.S. engineers could undoubtedly do the same, he said.

Harkening to the adage that "close" only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and nuclear bombs, Brooks said the real threat is a group of terrorists sitting in their basement, constructing a large, crudely made nuclear bomb and transporting in the back of a rental truck or aircraft. They don't have to get too close to their target, or make a sophisticated bomb, for it to be effective, he...