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Al Qaeda fighters. |
Al Qaeda's belief system seeks to justify resorting to any level of violence to attack the West, and specifically the United States, as a means toward its ultimate goal
of establishing Islamic law throughout the Muslim world under al Qaeda’s
guidance. This terror network has demonstrated that it is not worried about crossing the nuclear threshold and causing unprecedented levels of destruction and is unconcerned with retaliation or its followers' reactions. If Al Qaeda can develop the capabilities required to acquire and use nuclear weapons, there is little doubt that it will resort to nuclear terrorism.
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Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Shoko Asahara. |
Terrorists with even a moderate level of rationality recognize that using nuclear weapons would involve crossing major political and psychological thresholds and would entail enormous risks. Nevertheless, the growing lethality of terrorist attacks in recent years also suggests a desire on the part of some groups to create a very deadly spectacle. An attack with a nuclear weapon or IND represents the ultimate in highly visible attacks. The grandiosity of the event could appeal to a group's leadership, and possibly to its political sympathizers as well, because it would demonstrate enormous destructive capability and heighten their own sense of power. In addition to the sheer destructive impact of a nuclear explosion, the aura of fear surrounding nuclear weapons could give a terrorist organization significant political capital. The mere threat of a terrorist attack would have a powerful psychological impact on the public and could force a government into negotiations with the terrorist group.
A personal preoccupation with nuclear weapons by terrorist leaders might also
drive a group to pursue the nuclear option. Such was the case with Aum Shinrikyo
in the late 1980s. Although the group also experimented with chemical and
biological weapons, the cult's leader, Shoko Asahara, predicted a violent end to
humanity, sparked by a nuclear cataclysm. Asahara hoped to start a nuclear war
between the United States and Japan (in spite of the fact that Japan has no
nuclear weapons), claiming that Aum members would survive such a catastrophe.
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