October 11, 2001: Nuclear Bomb Squad Sent to New York Following Intelligence Report of Possible Al-Qaeda Device

According to Graham Allison, a Harvard professor and expert on national security issues, the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST), the agency that investigates nuclear threats (see September 5-15, 2001), is sent to New York City following an intelligence report that al-Qaeda may have smuggled a nuclear device into that city. The CIA has received a report from a source code-named Dragonfire that the terrorist organization has obtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon from the former Soviet Union. During the search for the weapon, Vice President Dick Cheney and several hundred federal employees are relocated to a secure underground bunker. No weapon is found. [Los Angeles Times, 9/19/2004; Blueprint Magazine, 10/7/2004]