Study Reports U.S. Can Expect Nuclear Terrorist Attack Before 2013

Enoch · Dec 1, 2008

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,459927,00.html

WASHINGTON — The United States can expect a terrorist attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan commission in a study being briefed Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

It suggests the Obama administration bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists.

"Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing," states the report, obtained by The Associated Press. It is scheduled to be publicly released Wednesday.

The commission is also encouraging the new White House to appoint one official on the National Security Council to exclusively coordinate U.S. intelligence and foreign policy on combatting the spread of nuclear and biological weapons.

The report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, led by former Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and Jim Talent of Tennessee, acknowledges that terrorist groups still lack the needed scientific and technical ability to make weapons out of pathogens or nuclear bombs. But it warns that gap can be easily overcome, if terrorists find scientists willing to share or sell their know-how.

"The United States should be less concerned that terrorists will become biologists and far more concerned that biologists will become terrorists," the report states.

The commission believes biological weapons are more likely to be obtained and used before nuclear or radioactive weapons because nuclear facilities are more carefully guarded. Civilian laboratories with potentially dangerous pathogens abound, however, and could easily be compromised.

"The biological threat is greater than the nuclear; the acquisition of deadly pathogens, and their weaponization and dissemination in aerosol form, would entail fewer technical hurdles than the theft or production of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium and its assembly into an improvised nuclear device," states the report.

It notes that the U.S. government's counterproliferation activities have been geared toward preventing nuclear terrorism. The commission recommends the prevention of biological terrorism be made a higher priority.

Study chairman Graham said anthrax remains the most likely biological weapon. However, he told the AP that contagious diseases — like the flu strain that killed 40 million at the beginning of the 20th century — are looming threats. That virus has been recreated in scientific labs, and there remains no inoculation to protect against it if is stolen and released.

Graham said the threat of a terrorist attack using nuclear or biological weapons is growing "not because we have not done positive things but because adversaries are moving at an even faster pace to increase their access" to those materials.

He noted last week's rampage by a small group of gunmen in Mumbai.

"If those people had had access to a biological or nuclear weapon they would have multiplied by orders of magnitude the deaths they could have inflicted," he said.

Al Qaeda remains the only terrorist group judged to be actively intent on conducting a nuclear attack against the United States, the report notes. It is not yet capable of building such a weapon and has yet to obtain one. But that could change if a nuclear weapons engineer or scientist were recruited to Al Qaeda's cause, the report warns.

The report says the potential nexus of terrorism, nuclear and biological weapons is especially acute in Pakistan.
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Our world will never be the same...

webdog · Dec 1, 2008

So glad we voted in the man that will keep us safe...

LeBuick · Dec 1, 2008

It seems disturbing to me that tomorrows VP briefing is in todays news. No wonder the bipartisan commission is not identified.

Some of the things reported are no secret and wasn't worth investing in a bipartisan commission to produce the findings. Everyone knows if Al Qaeda gets their hands on nuclear or biological weapons they will be used somewhere in the world.

We must also keep in mind, an attack on the US doesn't mean they will attack on our soil. The barracks in Beirut or the recent attacks in India where they sought American's is proof of that. No matter who our next leader was, threat of attack was imminent but it appears Obama has assembled a group of the best we have to offer to keep America safe...

KenH · Dec 2, 2008

LeBuick said:

it appears Obama has assembled a group of the best we have to offer to keep America safe
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Amen. President-elect Obama's appointments since winning the election have proven that I voted for the right man as our
next president. :thumbs:

billwald · Dec 2, 2008

Americans obligated to remain frightened another 5 years. Been official policy for us to be afraid for 58 years. www.prisonplanet.com guy on Coast To Coast AM last night claims that the state national guards are in the process of being federalized and then comes the house to house search for guns.

Personally, it doesn't seem logical to stir THAT pot as long as we sheeple let them steal a $trillion or so every year. By the time the good Christian Republicans have broken the labor unions and the old people are eating out of dumpsters we will not have the energy to revolt.

Study Reports U.S. Can Expect Nuclear Terrorist Attack Before 2013

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