Does Osama Have a Nuclear Bomb? ‘Nobody who knows for sure is talking publicly. Yet for much of the last decade, government reports and intelligence experts have been warning that bin Laden has been trying to build the bomb. The reports have been sporadic but persistent: A 1999 article in the Jerusalem Report magazine claims “bin Laden has several nuclear suitcases,” and a 1998 New York Times article says that a bin Laden aide was arrested in Germany on charges of trying to buy highly enriched uranium.’ Wired