Nuclear Terrorism is most urgent threat (CNN Special)

Nuclear terrorism is most urgent threat
By Valerie Plame Wilson, Special to CNN
April 8, 2010 7:02 a.m. EDT
www.cnn.com
Valerie Plame Wilson: Nukes not OK
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Valerie Plame Wilson is a former CIA officer who worked to stop spread of nuclear materials
* She says nuclear weapons and terrorism represent No. 1 threat faced right now
* Plame says nations need to reduce nuclear arsenals and tightly control materials
* If governments don't act now, we will witness use of a bomb in our lifetime, she says

RELATED TOPICS

* Terrorism
* Nuclear Weapons
* Central Intelligence Agency
* Nuclear Proliferation

Editor's note: Valerie Plame Wilson is a former covert CIA operations officer who now works at the Sante Fe Institute, a nonprofit science research think tank.

(CNN) -- The story of how I became a national figure in the media is widely known, but few people know what I actually did for the CIA.

I was a covert operations officer specializing in nuclear counter proliferation -- essentially, making sure the bad guys didn't get the bomb.

My job was to create and run operations that sought to peer into the procurement networks and acquisition chains of rogue nations. It was intense, tactical, creative and demanding. I believed that there was no more important work to be done.

I resigned from the CIA in 2006 because it was no longer possible to do the covert work for which I was highly trained and which I loved. This happened because in 2003, my covert identity was revealed in retaliation against my husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, who wrote an op-ed piece in which he accused the White House of distorting the intelligence that was used to draw us into the Iraq war.

But I did not lose my belief that the danger of nuclear terrorism was the most urgent threat we face. Nor did I lose my passion for working, albeit in a new way, to address that threat. I am working on this issue now as part of the international Global Zero movement, in which political, military and faith leaders, experts and activists strive for the worldwide elimination of all nuclear weapons.

We know that terrorist groups have been trying to buy, build or steal a bomb.

In the past two decades, there have been at least 25 instances of nuclear explosive materials being lost or stolen. There is enough highly enriched uranium, or HEU, in the world today to build more than 100,000 bombs.

Terrorists looking to buy or steal HEU could look to the approximately 40 countries with nuclear weapons materials. And then there are rogue individuals out there who are running black markets selling nuclear materials and technology.

Pakistan's Dr. A. Q. Khan did it for years before my group at the CIA brought him down in December 2003 after catching him red-handed selling a full-scale nuclear bomb to Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya.

If terrorists manage to get their hands on enough HEU, they could smuggle it into a target city, build a bomb and explode it. A hundred pounds of highly enriched uranium could fit in a shoebox, and 100,000 shipping containers come into the United States every day.

The nuclear threat is not limited to terrorism.

There are also the dangers of proliferation and accidental or unauthorized nuclear launch. Today, nine countries have more than 23,000 nuclear weapons, and the U.S. and Russia still maintain thousands of nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert, poised for launch within a few minutes.

The only way to eliminate the danger that nuclear weapons will be used by countries in conflict, by accident or by terrorists is to lock down all nuclear materials and eliminate all nuclear weapons in all countries: global zero.

Today we have a real opportunity to set the course to global zero. U.S. President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, whose countries have 22,000 nuclear weapons or 96 percent of the world's stockpile, are signing an agreement to reduce their strategic nuclear arsenals by a third each. This is the most significant arms reduction treaty in two decades and a crucial first step.

Next week, Obama is hosting the leaders of 48 countries at a summit in Washington to address the global nuclear threat and initiate programs to secure all nuclear materials worldwide. With the U.S. and Russia leading the way, 2010 could mark the beginning of the end of nuclear weapons.

But achieving global zero will take years, a realistic plan of action and tremendous amounts of political will. In February, leaders of the Global Zero movement met in Paris, France, and outlined a step-by-step plan to eliminate all remaining nuclear weapons.

The plan, backed by hundreds of former heads-of-state, foreign ministers, national security advisers and military commanders, calls in its first phase for the U.S. and Russia to cut their arsenals to 1,000 total warheads each. All other countries with nuclear weapons would freeze their arsenals, and the international community would conduct an all-out global effort to block the further spread of nuclear weapons and to secure all nuclear materials.

Locking down nuclear bomb-making materials involves building secure facilities for storage, accounting for all stockpiles, guarding materials in transit (transportation being the most vulnerable to terrorist attack and seizure), regulating exports, interdicting smuggling operations, ending production of new bomb materials and ultimately eliminating existing stockpiles.

These steps would be followed by the first multilateral negotiations in history for reductions by all nuclear weapons countries.

I'm proud to be working with the Global Zero movement and its team of world leaders and grass-roots organizers, presidents and college kids. I want to do everything I can to raise public and political support for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

And that is why I said yes when Lawrence Bender, producer of "An Inconvenient Truth," "Good Will Hunting" and "Inglorious Basterds," asked me to be in an extraordinary and chilling documentary film, "Countdown to Zero," which premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and will be released in U.S. theaters in July.

The film will be a stunning wake-up call to citizens and our political leaders about the urgent threats posed by nuclear weapons, including proliferation, nuclear terrorism and accidental nuclear launch. It will build awareness and support for the Global Zero movement to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Based on my experience in the field, I believe that if governments don't act now to begin eliminating all remaining nuclear weapons, we will witness in our lifetime the use of the bomb by a country or terrorist group.

To get governments to act, everyone needs to get involved, to make their voices heard, to bring this issue to the top of the political agenda, to everyone's kitchen table and to the front pages of every blog and every newspaper.

There is still time to change direction and set our course to global zero, but the clock is ticking. To learn more about the issue and get involved in the growing movement, go to globalzero.org and sign the declaration.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Valerie Plame Wilson.

This doesn't surprise me in the least.

Since the break up of the old Soviet Union (Russia) a number of countries that were in their union is where they had a large number of their nukes. Hence when they broke up into what is now the Russian Federation, the nukes were never taken care of. Those now "states" kept the nukes much to Moscows' dismay. That enriched uranium and plutonium has been out there for sale for quite some time. However I am guessing those counties that have them are asking quite a hefty sum for them, one that even the terrorist/extremists aren't able to pay for, or on the other hand, they may already have bought the stuff and are waiting for just the right timing and location to detonate the stuff. These people are not the type to rush into any type of plan. Looking at the targest that they have attacked before, you can clearly see that time and planning are one huge thing that they do. Henceforth, if 9/11 were just a spur of the moment thing, there would have been other attacks. That hasn't happened. In fact the Christmas day attempt this past year in my opinion was a diversion of sorts. It is kind of like a magician using slight of hand. Look over here, and while you are distracted looking over there, they are doing something over there. The drug runners do this all the time. I knew a Coast Guard captain down in Gulfport/Biloxi, MS when I lived down there. He said that when they have a tip of a huge load of drugs coming in, they clearly know that there is an equally higher number coming in somewhere else along the coastline. That is just the way it works. Same thing with the terrorists.

I think anyone that thought that 9/11 was just a one time deal and that our National Security agencies (CIA, NSA, etc.) would be able to detect and protect us for further attacks, is living frankly in Oz (my favorite place by the way). However the Ukraine claims that the nukes were removed before the USSR desolved. Either way, all of these ares have high Muslim (and in some cases radicalize Muslim) population. In the heyday of the might of the USSR (under Stalin, Khruschev, and Brezhnev)their nuclear supply was something to be very concerned about especially if anyone here remembers the stand off called "The Cuban Missle Crisis". That was probably the closest we have ever come to have nukes sent in our direction.

Unfortunately many of these countries (include Pakistan, India, & North Korea) are not very rich countries and their populations are extremely poor. Their leaders would love the opportunity to enrich themselves by selling the left over materials, seeing what that type of money would bring them. The Ukraine which was a country that was seeming to tilt towards the side of the USA, and wanting to become part of the EU is now again under the control (sort of) by a president that the Russian Federation supported. Their previous president Viktor Yushchenko, was actually poisoned and while all fingers pointed to the KGB and Russia, no one was ever able to determine who in fact poisoned him. However looking at before and after pictures of Yushchenko, one could clearly see that obviously something this man ingested did affect him. They thought is that dioxin was the poison used but were never able to clearly identify it.

In any event, between the unstability of Pakistan, and the unreliability of the outlaying areas that once belonged to Russia, there is plenty of nuclear material on the black market for sale. The only problem is at this point, no one knows for sure if the materials have been bought or are still under the control of a government that is looking to make a large sum of money. That remains the $64 thousand dollar question at the moment. I don't know if our intelligence has gotten that good or if we are just simply lucky. I am also surprised that there has never been an attempt at either a mall or some other location here where someone like a suicide bomber has tried or actually been successful to detonate him/herself. Think of the fear that would put into the public. Now use that fear and think of what detonating a nuke, mostly a dirty bomb, would cause in this country in any city. The fear after such an event would paralyze us. Mark my words, the next time these groups hit us it will be a simultaneous attack. Not just one or two cities like last time (NYC, DC, & Shanksville PA) but in multiple cities at the same time. See they never thought we would shut down our airspace. I have always believe that there were more attacks planned for that day, not just the three that happened. However by getting every plane down in less than 2 hours, it cut short any plans these people had. Unfortunately, next time we won't be so lucky. Next time it will most likely be ports of entry, financial centers and large cities (New Orleans, LA, Seatlle, San Fran, NYC, Miami, Chicago, Houston, Phila/Trenton NJ). Why do I put Trenton NJ on that map? Because all of the major telephone lines that run through the northeast and are major lines of communication for our military, government, etc., run through Trenton NJ. Hopefully since 9/11 they have changed that but I don't think so. Those cities I have named are just ones that come to mind. However, it could be a different bunch all together. Either way an attack on multiple cities at the same time will literally shut down this country and kill what little is left of our economy and bring us to our knees.

Not a pretty picture. However because these materials exist and are out there, the possibility exists that this type of event can happen. Hopefully we will be lucky like we have been.

there are 6? nukes missing from the arsenal of united states and brittain.

where did they go and who has them?

and i know danged well they are known where they are and who has them!

the elites

give em enough rope and they will hang the folk of the earth.

they no longer need slaves and servants.

dove

melinda wrote:there are 6? nukes missing from the arsenal of united states and brittain.

where did they go and who has them?

and i know danged well they are known where they are and who has them!

the elites

give em enough rope and they will hang the folk of the earth.

they no longer need slaves and servants.

dove

I know that there are several, maybe as many as 10 that are missing from the Uzebekistan, Ukraine area. That has been a pretty well known fact since the USSR broke up in the '90's. Jerome Corsi has documented this and he has pretty reliable sources. Some of his work is a bit over the top but his book on Obama was dead straight on target.

Had people taken the time to read it and not been infatuated with his slick talking, we might not be in such trouble as we are right now. However that said, I am not so sure McCain would have been much better other than he is more fiscally responsible and did complain a lot when the Congress was spending like drunken sailors, no offense to drunken sailors

This current "Nuclear Summit" to me is nothing more than a "photo-op" and a chance for them all to get "sound bites" that can be played to the masses and have everyone that can't think for themselves say "Oh look, they are concerned, we don't have to worry, they are gonna keep the nukes from getting to the terrorists".

Meanwhile, Abdul and Zazi are in some shack in the middle of BFE making a suitcase bomb. As an additional side note, June 19 I believe Los Angeles is launching a "Golden Phoenix" (kind of an ironic name huh ) drill which other boards say is a false flag and to be on alert to maybe one of those "man-made" quakes which I just don't think are possible.

Here is a link:

http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20091215_5896.php