The activation of the latest Topol missile unit brings the total to 40 of the advanced missiles in service. The Topol-M is armed with a lightweight H-bomb design that can muster over a half-million tons of TNT in punch.

The Topol missiles were deployed by Russia on Dec. 21 in the Saratov region and are now ready to hurl their single H-bomb warheads to any point on Earth. Ironically, the new Russian 550 kiloton warhead was created with the help of Bill Clinton and U.S. computer maker Silicon Graphics.

In 2003, Mountain View-based Silicon Graphics pleaded guilty to two felony counts of illegal exports to the Russian nuclear weapons lab in 1996. In 1997 the GAO wrote a report on what Silicon Graphics exported.

"Silicon Graphics sold four computers to Chelyabinsk-70 in the fall of 1996 for $650,000," states the 1997 GAO report on supercomputer exports. Chelyabinsk-70 is well known as a major Russian nuclear weapons lab.

In fact, IBM and Silicon Graphics both sold supercomputers directly to Russian atomic weapons labs. IBM was fined $8.5 million on its $7 million sale. Then-Commerce spokesman Eugene Cotilli pointed out in October 1998 that the Commerce Department investigation led to the conviction.

However, the Clinton administration did not start investigating until the Russian minister in charge of MINATOM (Ministry of Atomics) announced publicly that the U.S. computers would be used for nuclear weapons research.

Clinton Export Policy

It was no accident that supercomputers left America bound for nuclear labs in the Ural Mountains. In 1994, Silicon Graphics and several other major computer companies hired Tony Podesta to lobby for them. Tony Podesta is the brother of John Podesta, then the assistant to the president and staff secretary for Bill Clinton.

In 1994, John Podesta was charged with Clinton computer technology export policies such as high-speed systems. In 1994, Sun, Silicon Graphics and Cray supercomputers were all suddenly authorized to travel with Ron Brown to Russia, India, China and other points on the globe.

In 1995, during John Podesta's employ at the White House, computer CEOs and a lobbyist from Tony Podesta's company attended a secret meeting at the White House on supercomputer exports. The group of computer companies then represented by Tony Podesta admitted in writing that they attended more than one "classified" briefing held by the Clinton administration.

China and Russia Not a Threat

The computer companies and Tony Podesta obtained secret access to the Clinton White House for a reason.

According to a May 1995 document sent to Ron Brown by the Podesta lobbyist, "controls on computer exports to Russia and China for commercial, civil end-users should be eliminated; controls on exports for actual military end-uses may be appropriate until there is greater certainty that neither country poses a threat to U.S. national security."

I must note that directly after the exports to Russia took place, John Podesta left the Clinton White House to work for – you guessed it – his brother at Podesta Associates.

In response to a series of questions about his interests in the illegal exports, John Podesta replied through Clinton White House attorney Michael B. Waitzkin that he sought and was granted a waiver of conflict of interest from White House counsel in 1997.

Please note that John Podesta obtained that waiver some four years after his original term of service, two years after the closed meetings were held and a year after the illegal exports took place.

Sun Export

Another prime example occurred on Dec. 26, 1996, when a Hong Kong reseller for Sun Microsystems, Automated Systems Ltd., sold a supercomputer to the Chinese Scientific Institute, a technical institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a state laboratory specializing in parallel and distributed processing.

At some point after the sale but before delivery, the computer was sold to the Yuanwang Corporation. Yuanwang is an entity of the Chinese army unit COSTIND (Commission on Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense). Yuanwang supplies equipment to the Chinese nuclear weapons labs at Lop Nor.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Sun Microsystems had been aware of this corporation's Chinese military ties. There is ample evidence that the Chinese were not lying.

PLA Nuke Lab

According to the Commerce Department's own documents, several meetings with Chinese army-owned companies took placed prior to the export to Yuanwang. The documents include a list of Chinese military companies, compiled by Commerce and given to the Clinton administration by People's Liberation Army (PLA) Gen. Ding Henggao. Yuanwang is one such company.

On April 6, 1994, an unclassified memo was sent from Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) official Col. Blasko to Commerce officials Deliberti, Albanse and Isbell. The memo states that Yuanwang Corporation was a Chinese army-owned firm, along with other known PLA-owned companies such as China National Nuclear and China North, NORINCO.

In 1995, Commerce Department official Barry Carter sent a letter with attachments to Eden Woon, "Executive Director" of the Washington State China Relations Council. Carter included with his letter a Feb. 25, 1995, letter from Gen. Ding, complete with military contacts for business. Included in the list given to Woon was "YUANWANG CORP" – the PLA-owned company responsible for the illegal Sun computer transfer in 1996.

Sun Pays a Fine

In December 2003, Sun Microsystems Inc. and its subsidiaries agreed to pay $291,000 in fines after the computer giant allegedly exported computers to China for military purposes.

Sun stated that it settled the case "without admitting or denying the allegations."

"Sun maintains comprehensive procedures to comply with all aspects of U.S. and, where applicable, foreign export control laws," states the official company line e- mailed to questioning reporters.

Despite the denial of wrongdoing, the fact remains that China is fielding a new series of lightweight nuclear bombs designed with the help of U.S. supercomputers exported under the wandering eyes of Bill Clinton.

Part of the Clinton legacy left to the 21st century is a whole new series of weapons that are easier to manufacture, smaller, cheaper and ever more popular among terrorists. The scientists who make the weapons of mass destruction have been busy in 2003, and several military powers will find new toys stuffed in their jackboot stockings this Christmas.

However, H-bombs are not built by elves working overnight in the North Pole but in secret nuclear labs armed with U.S. supercomputers.