Nuclear Terror
http://www.iht.com/articles/39354.htmlTHE NEW YORK TIMES
Tuesday, November 20, 2001
For most people there is no more frightening threat than terrorists with nuclear weapons. Assuming that Osama bin Laden does not already have them - the assumption most experts make - everything possible must be done to prevent him or other terrorists from obtaining them. . The starting point is Russia, where poorly protected nuclear bombs and materials remain vulnerable to theft. It is not enough that Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin have agreed to greatly reduce the number of nuclear missiles in each country's arsenal. The two leaders must also do more to safeguard the remaining weapons and any vulnerable nuclear materials in Russia that could be used to make bombs if stolen. Russia insists that it is guarding its weapons carefully. But a Russian general raised concern recently when he revealed that terrorists have twice this year conducted surveillance at a Russian nuclear arms storage facility, presumably with an eye to storming it. Another Russian general created alarm four years ago by asserting that many of Russia's small, portable nuclear bombs could not be accounted for. That was emphatically denied at the time, and was denied again just recently. . An alternative path to nuclear capability is for terrorists to make a weapon themselves. That would be extremely difficult for most groups, far harder than making a chemical or biological weapon, but it cannot be ruled out. The primary barrier has always been the difficulty of obtaining or producing the highly enriched uranium or the plutonium that would be needed. Unfortunately, the opportunities for theft have multiplied in recent years as the political and economic disintegration of the former Soviet Union has left many sites only loosely guarded, and their nuclear experts impoverished and vulnerable to bribes. . With enough plutonium or highly enriched uranium in hand, a terrorist group with three or four specialists in its ranks, a machine shop and sufficient time could probably make a crude nuclear weapon, weighing more than a ton. That, at least, was the alarming verdict of five American nuclear weapons experts who examined the question a few years ago. Even terrorist groups that were short on expertise and had only low-grade radioactive materials from medicine or industry could make a "dirty bomb" in which radioactive materials are placed around conventional explosives, with the goal of contaminating a large area. . With so much nuclear material potentially vulnerable, it would seem imperative to swiftly safeguard the warheads and fissile materials not yet adequately protected. . Farsighted cooperative programs launched a decade ago have done much to upgrade security at Russian nuclear facilities and to retain Russian scientists who might be tempted to sell their expertise. But the effort is proceeding at too lackadaisical a pace, and the Bush administration seems inclined to let it creep along. A task force led by Howard Baker, a former senator, and Lloyd Cutler, a former White House counsel, called this year for a huge increase in financing. Congress has approved less than $200 million for such programs in the 2002 fiscal year, a small fraction of what the panel recommended, and the Bush administration has rebuffed attempts to boost the supplemental terrorism package to provide more. One way or another, more money should be found. . Even more important, Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin need to summon the political will to brush aside all obstacles that have slowed the program. Otherwise, the growing sophistication of terrorist groups will eventually overtake the lagging efforts to keep nuclear weapons out of their reach.
- THE NEW YORK TIMES.
THE END
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