1. TERRORISTS ARE LIKELY TO USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Thalif Deen, staff writer, JANE’S DEFENSE WEEKLY, February 11, 1998, p. 5.
"The object of terrorist attacks is normally to achieve an immediate dramatic impact, and this can best be done by using weapons of mass destruction or radioactive material," Ambassador Sergey Lavrov, the Russian envoy said in a letter to Secretary General Kofi Annan. The use of nuclear weapons or an attack on a nuclear plant is "particularly attractive" to terrorists, Lavrov warned.
2. THE JAPANESE SUBWAY BOMBING PROVES THE DANGER OF NUCLEAR TERRORISM
Bernd Schmidbauer, head of German Intelligence, FRONTLINE - LOOSE NUKES: INVESTIGATING THE THREAT OF NUCLEAR SMUGGLING, 1998, http://www2.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nukes/, accessed April 20, 1998.
If nothing happens and we are unable to work together on this problem, then in the near or long term future, in a few years there will be countries able to produce weapons of mass destruction. They do not need the technology for it. If they have the material, they are jumping over several stages in development and will then be in a position to threaten us all, including by the associated terrorists, who will be able to use it. And whoever still needs examples of how this happens, he can look at Japan and the problem with the Aum cult, where what we considered the worst scenario became reality.
3. AMERICA IS EXTRAORDINARILY VULNERABLE TO NUCLEAR TERRORISM
Thalif Deen, staff writer, JANE’S DEFENSE WEEKLY, February 11, 1998, p. 5.
"The former Soviet Union's nuclear weapons and material stockpile is at risk, and America is extraordinarily vulnerable to terrorists employing weapons of mass destruction," said William Potter, director of the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
4. WE ARE ILL-PREPARED TO COPE WITH NUCLEAR TERRORISM
David Marcus, staff writer, THE BOSTON GLOBE, March 21, 1998, p. A3.
The exercise was designed to test how US intelligence specialists and scientists would work together, how international laws would hold up, and whether US agencies monitoring the borders would detect the entrance of illegal nuclear materials. The results? You might not want to know. "We were ill-prepared to cope with what would be the most devastating thing in the history of mankind: a nuclear attack on the United States," said Arnaud de Borchgrave, the flamboyant correspondent, novelist, editor, and academic who directed the project. It was plotted out by a team of specialists and sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan Washington think tank, and conservative groups such as the John M. Olin foundation.
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