| 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! [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitcase_nuke [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNS_Mehran_attack |