Study: WMD Attack In U.S. Likely By 2013

Commission Report Says A Nuclear Or Biological Attack Should Be Expected Within Five Years

(CBS/AP)  The United States can expect a terror attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan commission in a study briefed Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

It suggests that 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 also is encouraging the new White House to appoint one official on the National Security Council to coordinate exclusively U.S. intelligence and foreign policy on combating 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 Missouri, acknowledges that terrorist groups still lack the needed scientific and technical ability to make weapons out of pathogens or nuclear bombs. It warns that gap can be overcome easily if terrorists should find scientists willing to share or sell their expertise.

"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," the report says.

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

Study chairman Graham said anthrax remains the most likely biological weapon. However, he told the AP that contagious diseases, such as the influenza strain that killed 40 million early in the 20th century, are looming threats. That virus has been recreated in scientific labs, and there remains no inoculation to protect against it should it be stolen and released.

Graham said the threat of a terror 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.

A three-day terror siege In India last week served as a grim reminder that the global war on terror is far from over.

The 60-hour attack apparently carried out by only 10 gunmen, armed with conventional weapons, exposed glaring weakness in India's security forces and police, and reminded Americans around the globe that terrorism is not going away.

At President George W. Bush's direction, Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice is cutting short a European trip to visit India later this week. Six Americans were among those killed in the Mumbai attacks, which ended Saturday with 172 dead and 239 wounded.

When newspaper photographer Sebastien D'Souza heard explosions at Mumbai's main train station, he grabbed his camera and tracked the militants for 45 minutes, reports CBS News' Celia Hatton.

"They know what they're doing. I think they wanted maximum damage because they killed randomly, anybody," D'Souza told Hatton.

Rice said that "ultimately, the terrorists have to be stopped because they will keep trying to bring down" civilized nations and institutions.

Al Qaeda remains the only terror 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.

"Were one to map terrorism and weapons of mass destruction today, all roads would intersect in Pakistan," the report states.

In fact, commission members were forced to cancel their trip to Pakistan this fall. The Islamabad Marriott Hotel that commission members were to stay in was blown up by terrorist bombs just hours before they were to have checked in.

"We think time is not our ally. The (United States) needs to move with a sense of urgency," Graham said.

[revolutionseeker]

WE NEED PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ii know and have no choice to accept that it is in man instinct to be greedy cruel and arrogant, but we have to do something before we destroy ourselves.
we need an effective peace movement
a love revolution....
i know there are so many that feel the same way as i do...
im 16. i dont have the resources to go world wide with this...someone needs to help the world realise money in turn doesnt matter but wont matter even more once all life on earth has been neuced... ):

[rf35]

We need to nuke Pakistan while Bush is still in office.

I think the target over America will be much reduced once Obama takes office.

[zietzke-2009]

Sounds like more fear tactics by the Industrial Military complex...They need to build more WMD for our protection and for their obscene profits....A lasting legacy from everybody''s best friend....Mr. George W. Bush.

As long as the current Monkey government of this country continues to follow failed foreign policies, we will continue have threats.

Its time to change our political diapers and toss the pooop out to the garbage can.

[peter hindrup]

Rice said that "ultimately, the terrorists have to be stopped because they will keep trying to bring down" civilized nations and institutions.

Absolutely! I totally agree! Just as soon as Israel, the US and their allies the UK and Australia are put back in their boxes, and the civilised nations take control %u2014 Iran, China, European countries and the like, the world will be a much more pleasant and far safer place.

Cannot come soon enough!

[mrmeatspin]

We must kill all of our enemies to be safe.That is the only way some say.

Posted by Seer57 at 10:27 PM : Dec 02, 2008
+ report abuse

*****

or you can fly to afghanistan and suck obama''s d1ck..till he forgets about blowing us up

are you ready to do your patriotic duty OR ARE YOU ALL TALK AND BIT CHING AND NO ACTION?

[seer57]

We must kill all of our enemies to be safe.That is the only way some say.

[seer57]

Hey ,Obama said all that terror talk was just fear during the campaign. Why is that *** head taking it serious now.? HHHMM. His true colors are starting to show.

[beader59]

Does our gov''t just want to control us with fear or what? Let''s just give the terrorists reasons for killing us.

[impeach___w]

Does anyone have a suggestion box where we can each vote on our favorite location for such an attack?

[payner08]

This is a very good example of bad journalistic whims. We could be killed by a comet in 6 months. Is thier grant up?
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

[brianbwb-2009]

You know what - just forget everything I said before brian. What you siad is positively uncertifiable.

History certifies it.

"Shortly before his untimely death, former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told the House of Commons that "Al Qaeda" is not really a terrorist group but a database of international mujaheddin and arms smugglers used by the CIA and Saudis to funnel guerrillas, arms, and money into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan..."

This is well documented, and public information.

"... When Osama bin Laden was an American agent in Afghanistan, the Al Qaida Intranet was a good communication system through coded or covert messages..."

This is also well documented.

"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ''devil'' only in order to drive the ''TV watcher'' to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money."

While this is a summation of his information, it is an eminently logical conclusion, given the subsequent history.

[brianbwb-2009]

"I can tell you that police brutality and humiliation does not have a color barrier from first hand experience. (More acurately stated, some police are going to be intimidating no matter WHAT color you are in order to get the information they want.)" Posted by Speakinup2

You might want to check the statistics about how many "Blacks" are killed, or injured as a result of a "normal" encounter with police as opposed to how many "Whites", or how many "White" versions of Amadou Diallo or Abner Louima there are, you might be surprised.

[ahmet35-2009]

Al Cia - da will do it to use nukes on others !!!

[johnstossel]

How can this be? Everyone knows that the world is going to end on December 21, 2012. Amen.

[brianbwb-2009]

"...So, I don''''t know your circumstances, so I''''ll have to take it on faith that you have been wronged in all of these types of circumstances. HAve you...?" Posted by Speakinup21

Yes I have, every single one, and I know of many people who have also experienced every single one, I also know of people experiencing every single one even now, not 40 years ago.

Again I want to see improvements in these areas for all Americans, not just the "Black" ones, but because of my experiences, I want to make sure that we are not again excluded should those improvements
materialize.

You see when we forget history, we invite it to repeat itself, this is why I will never forget. The German Jewish victims of the ultra right understand this well.

[brianbwb-2009]

"How do you think your assumption that I made an assumption feels ?" Posted by Speakinup21

It feels off topic, my point was because of those experiences, which you cannot deny, and I will never forget, I and many others were not fooled by the fear mongering drumbeat to make war on people who had done nothing to us, and were no threat, having been carpet bombed back a century or so by Bush''s father, who was also meddling in business that was not the US'' business.

[barbaram99]

I ''member we talked about the oil thing in class years ago . And if we ever mess with the middle east it will be over oil and we said that in 73 or 74. That is what it is over. oil.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Brian, I''''m not sure anyone in Detroit would notice."
Posted by Centerfall94

You might be correct, but their not noticing does not make it any less wrong, it only adds to the sum total of wrong.

The law should notice, if no one else does.

[brianbwb-2009]

"What country did the US invade before 9-11? Vietnam? Korea? What does that have to do with Muslim friutcakes?" Posted by libsh8theUSA

Actually it has nothing to do with Muslims altogether. Mainstream Islam has repeatedly condemned those who commit terrorism in the name of their religion, and those who "did" 9/11 are mercenaries hiding behind religion, since Al Qaeda claimed responsibility, and we know that Al Qaeda is a CIA asset, those dead mercenaries worked for American fruitcakes.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by skyhawk761

I will tell you what hurts my heart the most nowadays, was to see "Black" soldiers doing the same thing to Iraqis as was done to their parents, and for the same non-reasons. The Iraqis are simply defending themselves from oppression, which, if I claim right to do, I cannot deny them theirs.

When I hear young "Black" people mouthing the same irrational hatred towards Iraqis, or Muslims, that the "Whites" used to do to us, I am sadly reminded of the ending passage of Orwell''s "Animal Farm", which I paraphrase "...and in the end it became impossible to tell the pigs from the former masters.

I do not think that Dr. King gave his life so that we could become just like our oppressors, but that we might build a better world than they have so far.

Unfortunately it seems that irrational hatred is an opportunistic contagion, spreading to all who sleep.