Global Security Newswire

U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden on Sunday disputed assertions made by his predecessor that the United States faced a serious risk of a nuclear strike by al-Qaeda, CBS News reported (see GSN, Feb. 9).

In a "Face the Nation" interview, Biden said former Vice President Dick Cheney was "misinformed or he is misinforming" in his critique that the Obama administration is not doing enough to combat terrorism.

The vice president was responding to comments made by Cheney earlier in the day in an ABC interview in which he said "I think the biggest strategic threat that the United States faces today is the possibility of another 9/11 with a nuclear weapon or a biological agent of some kind, and I think al-Qaeda is out there even as we meet trying to figure out how to do that."

The Obama administration must do everything it can to safeguard against such an attack Cheney said: "If the mindset is 'It's not likely,' then it's difficult to mobilize the resources and get people to give it the kind of priority that it deserves."

Biden countered that while he thought such worries were "legitimate" he did not think that an act of nuclear terrorism attack was "likely" given "all of the resources we have put on this, considerably more than the last administration did, to see to it that it will not happen."

The vice president said the Obama White House's track record of eliminating 20 senior al-Qaeda members and an additional 100 allies was stronger than the Bush administration's effort.

"We agree, the worst nightmare is the possession of nuclear weapons or a radiological weapon by al-Qaeda" Biden said, adding," the reason it's unlikely is because we have been relentless, absolutely relentless in isolating al-Qaeda (CBS News, Feb. 14).