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Report Finds U.S. Not Doing Enough to Prevent Terrorists from Obtaining Nuclear Weapons
The latest Sept. 11 commission report on government antiterrorism efforts found that the Bush administration has made “insufficient progress” in efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Aug. 8). The now-private commission said President George W. Bush must make nuclear terrorism prevention “his top national security priority and ride herd on the bureaucracy to maintain a sense of urgency.” The report found that “good progress” has been made in stopping the financing of terror organizations and in the promotion of economic improvement policies in Arab and Muslim countries. However, the commission reported “minimal” or “insufficient progress” in seven of the 13 areas it explored. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that the president “appreciated all the hard work of the commissioners, and our focus is on building upon the steps already taken.” She said the administration had already taken action on 37 of the 39 recommendations made by the committee in summer 2004. “The administration holds prevention of a potential nuclear terrorism attack as an extremely high priority, and we are implementing an aggressive and comprehensive strategy against such a possibility,” Perino said, noting that the president has asked for $316 million in fiscal 2006 for a new Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. In the report, the commission expressed surprise that the White House had not made more of an effort to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons. That is the case even considering an agreement reached this year to increase the number of Russian nuclear sites open for security improvements and inspections, according to the commission (see related GSN story, today). Experts said that Russian nuclear sites terrorists could easily obtain weapon-grade nuclear material from poorly secured Russian sites. “The most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response,” said commission Chairman Thomas Kean. “We have no greater fear than a terrorist who is inside the United States with a nuclear weapon. The consequences of such an attack would be catastrophic for our people, for our economy, for our liberties.” Kean said the Russian agreement was one of the “good steps” taken by the president, but warned, “they’re not nearly enough” (Philip Shenon, New York Times, Nov. 15). Half of the nuclear materials in Russia have not had needed security upgrades, Kean said, according to Reuters. The commission also found that little progress has been made on issues such as weapons proliferation. “This kind of grade — unfulfilled, insufficient, minimal progress — those grades are failing grades. … That is an unacceptable response,” said commission member Timothy Roemer (Carol Giacomo, Reuters/ABC News, Nov. 14).
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