U.S. Urges Cooperation to Battle Nuclear Terrorism

By Jon Fox
Global Security Newswire

MIAMI — International cooperation is imperative to address the threat of nuclear terrorism, FBI chief Robert Mueller said yesterday, opening a weeklong conference here (see GSN, June 8).

Mueller also stressed the importance of securing nuclear materials before terrorists can get obtain them.

“Nuclear terrorism is a global threat that requires a global response,” he said.  “No one country can prevent a nuclear terrorism attack on its own.”

Mueller, who became FBI director one week before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, called the specter of nuclear terror one of the world’s most serious and deadly threats.

Terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, have demonstrated their desire to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction, and it is just a matter of time before someone sells such devastating weapons to the highest bidder, he said.

Deploying radiation detection equipment at ports and borders around the world is just one part of necessary security measures, Mueller said.

“It is safe to assume there are many individuals who would not think twice about using such a weapon,” Mueller told the crowd of foreign and domestic defense and law enforcement officials attending the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement Conference (see GSN, May 11).  “We must start with the source.  We must secure loose nuclear material.”

“Each and every country must safeguard its own nuclear material,” he said.  “Our safety can only be secured with the help of the international community.” 

The United States has provided relevant training to more than 5,000 individuals from more than 23 countries through the International Counterproliferation Program, an initiative involving the FBI, the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Homeland Security Department.  The training has included instruction in WMD detection, border security, undercover investigations, crisis management and nuclear forensics (see GSN, June 1).

The United States in September, in conjunction with four foreign partners — Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Georgia — plans to conduct an exercise responding to an incident involving a radiological weapon, “from start to finish to see where we are solid and where we need to improve,” the FBI chief said.  “By training together we can work better together.”

Intelligence gathering, information sharing and collaboration are essential, he said.  “We all face the prospect in the near future that a terrorist will steal, smuggle, buy or build a nuclear weapon, and we must focus on prevention.  We cannot afford to wait for a calling card to announce an attack.”

Before Mueller’s address, the Miami conference was linked via satellite with a conference in the Kazakh capital of Astana, where officials are meeting this week to discuss the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.

The program was announced during the 2006 Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, as a joint initiative between the United States and Russia.  Since then, 52 nations have joined the program, committing to secure nuclear facilities and materials (see GSN, July 17, 2006).

It was the third such meeting regarding the Global Initiative and representatives from 40 countries were in attendance, said John Rood, assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation.  The International Atomic Energy Agency and the European Union sent officials as observers.

Rood, who was attending the Kazakh conference as a U.S. representative, said delegations discussed individual efforts to counter nuclear terrorism, including Morocco which “gave us a fine presentation that was very rich in substance.”

Speaking to reporters later in the day in Miami, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales called international cooperation the “unsung story” in the fight to prevent nuclear terrorism.

“We have to be working together.  We have to share information.  We have to be sharing best practices,” he said before reporters promptly turned the questions to the lingering scandal surrounding the firing of nine federal attorneys, which critics have called politically motivated.

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