WMD Attack Likely In Next Five Years, Panel Says

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan commission is asserting the country should expect a terrorist attack using nuclear or biological weapons sometime in the next five years.

The report, which is scheduled to be publicly released on Wednesday, suggests that the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama should improve the capability of the United States to counter such an attack and to prepare if necessary for germ warfare.

The report was written by the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism. Among other things, it concluded: "Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing."

The commission also is encouraging the new White House to appoint a National Security Council official to exclusively coordinate U.S. intelligence and foreign policy on combating the spread of nuclear and biological weapons.

Comments

[Figerre]

so where can we find this report?

[deminmo]

The Navy was working with a civilian lab to test bio-weapons
including strains of flu, such as the 1918 strain, and develope
vaccines. That started in 2007.
I am more concerned about what my own government is capable
of doing, than an outside terrorist attack.
With what is going on in the economy, jobs and world banking
that alone could trigger something. Tag on Pakistan and India
and Iran and Israel, I'd guess nuclear war is about a sure bet.

[SailFree]

But should we really focus on our own government and ignore the real terrorists?

[RogerRantjet]

I'm definitely tired of the politics of fear and I by no means condone either fear-mongering or war-monger­ing., but there is a great danger in ignoring or denying the warning signs when they are in plain view. If I was an enemy of the USA at this point in history, I would be watching and waiting for the perfect moment to strike...t­he moment when this country is at its most vulnerable. There are many factors and variables that are in progress of lining up against us. We're already overstretched militarily and economical­ly...but most important of all...we'r­e overstretched strategically. That giant industrial engine that once provided the arsenal of democracy some 70 years ago is GONE...nev­er to return. Once our first line of ordnance and personnel is expended, we have nothing left and no way to replace it fast enough. Our jugular would be exposed and we'd be at the mercy of many formerly lesser powers that would be only too happy to see us vanquished. Our ultimate firewall? Well...hit­ting THE panic button of course means EVERYBODY loses. The ultimate Pyrrhic victory that only lunatics would want. The world has somehow managed to live with this dilemma since 1945 under the MAD doctrine, but the situation has now morphed and mutated into something too hideous to speak out loud.

Not a very pretty picture, but space is too limited here to continue much further. One word: preemptive.

[SailFree]

How about you stop worrying about the politics of fear and start worrying about the danger from Muslim extremist terrorism?

[thefooligan5]

STOP TRYING TO SCARE US!!!!
I am sick and tired of fear-mongering already. It is so absolutely reckless to make a statement like this with absolutely no facts or evidence whatsoever. When you back a great beast into the corner and poke it with a stick, sooner or later it is going to attack.

[mattorefice]

"The consequences of a biological attack are almost beyond comprehension. It would be 9/11 times 10 or a hundred in terms of the number of people who would be killed," former Sen. Bob Graham said...

... quoting "Team America: World Police"

[BigBagel]

I know it can never happen. everyone loves the USA.

[SammyD]

and I'm certain the WMD will be brought in from Syria or Iran where they were taken during the invasion of Iraq......­..no problem, the weapons already exist.....­.just bring them up through the Mexican border

[BelGazou]

What WMD? To have the nuclear material that you need to build nuclear weapons, there needs to be 1) nuclear grade material (there is no proof of Iraq having been able to procure this material from anyone 2) have a large area of centrifuges working to produce the nuclear weapons grade materiel which takes YEARS. You cannot move this stuff around from pillar to post in an attempt to "evade" the U.N. inspectors or anyone else.

In NYC, the bridges and tunnels are monitored with radioactivity detectors. A car in one of the tunnels was stopped a couple of years ago because radioactivity was detected coming from a it; it turned out to be a cancer patient with a radioactive implant. Very low levels of radioactivity can be detected, so why could neither the U.S. military nor the U.N. inspectors before them, detect these "WMD" supposedly in Iraq ?

It really is time to get your head out of the sand, even Baby Bush admitted that the intelligence telling them that Iraq had WMD was "faulty" . (George Tenet, former CIA Director has said that the Bush Administration, eg. Bush, Cheney & Rumsfeld, cooked the books on intel to make it seem as though Iraq had nuclear weapons).

Perhaps, if we paid more attention to our own ports, borders and airports and not spend so much time, manpower and blood playing whack-a-mole all over the globe, we would be better be able to protect ourselves here at home.

[SammyD]

"Perhaps, if we paid more attention to our own ports, borders and airports and not spend so much time, manpower and blood playing whack-a-mole all over the globe, we would be better be able to protect ourselves here at home."

Agree.
Don't think we have detection devices for suitcase nukes on the Mexican border. Do we have detection devices for chemical and biological?

[deminmo]

Anyone on a plane, say from China, could introduce a killer
bug to millions in a matter of days.
Ever hear of suitcase bombs? Twenty or so are unaccounted for
that disappeared from Russia.
If all else fails there ICBM's.

[Threenizzle]

..... why is it people seem to think that 9/11 was planned while they were on the highway en route to get on the plans they were going to hijack....­.

Intelligent terrorists who intend to be sucessful in thier plans do not act rashly... they wait and observe the system that they intend to bypass so they can find the cracks... then they move.... Another terrorist attack will always loom on the horizon...­. Christ people... unless you are willing to allow the government the power to monitor ever person everywhere on the planet at all times you will never have a system that can truly safeguard against terrorism.­... and even that system could not stop terrorism if it was a single individual that was going to launch an attack... so you really need mind reading technology as well

I was all for Obama for a long time and i am glad he was the one chosen to lea this nation... but my biggest misgiving with him is that he too has fallen for the lie that a nation can win a war against a tactic..

[strict2]

thats exactly what they wanna do......go­ogle v chip

[Threenizzle]

.... threw the use of a parental replacement chip?

Is there another V Chip

[steamboat]

Amazes me how partisanship works....W­hen the GOP talked about WMD's, which we went to war over because of insufficent intelligence, it was, "what WMD's". Now that a liberal brings up the threat of WMD's, its automatically must be true...Sam­e intelligence reports, folks.

Oh yeah, we are going to have a liberal president, and a totally liberal house and senate....­.Yet, I haven't heard one word from them in their many news conferences about repealing the Patriot Act which you folks screamed about for the last 6 years. Why?

[strict2]

BECAUSE THEY AERE ALL NU TS...AND BRAINW ASHED

IF OBAMA WAS FOR REAL THERE WOULD BE NO PATRIOT ACT..
OBAMA CAN DO NO WRONG I GUESS....

NOTHING WILL CHANGE

[DannyEastVillage]

uh...would you like to tell us exactly what a president-elect is supposed to have done about the patriot act?

[Rube01]

Read " Crossing the Rubicon" by Michael Ruppert if you really want to understand the real world

[theMightyT]

what if i just want to use my eyes, ears and brain instead?

[bluguy8]

But Sarah Palin and her wardrobe of mass distraction will do us all in

[Frenbar]

Maybe if we invade and occupy a few more countries that haven't attacked us, we can inspire even more people to attack us.

[bluguy8]

Great , Bush the a$$ has made us a bigger target . I don;'t know why the GOP is under the delusion that Bush made us safe , the exact opposite .

[Ron1951]

This panel is really going out on a limb here with there statement. In 5 years if nothing happens, they can credit DHS and national security. If anything should terribly happen, they can say 'I told you so'.

Nonetheless, Janet Napolitano's team should be on top of the reasons underlying their bold conclusion, just in case there is something to be gleaned from this.

[LongTimeLiberal52]

What infuriates me is the statement, "Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing."

I'd ask every one of the Republican faithful who've been praising George the Younger for "keeping us safe since 9/11" to take a long, hard look at that statement - and finally admit that their boy has just been incredibly lucky so far. Not skillful. Not prescient. Not effective (except accidentally). Not minimizing the threat of terrorist attack.

Not doing anything with his swaggering and belligerence and dismantling of the Constitution but contributing to the shrinking of our "margin of safety."

Oh well, too late now. Thanks, Dubyah, for passing off yet another problem to your successor and the American people you swore to protect.

[ThePeacemakers]

An army could march right across the southern border into the US....
What part of boo-boo the fool do you have to be to realize that Muhammed could pass as Jose with a little Spanish and have a suitcase nuke here no problem (and no, Islamic terrorists aren't the only ones - plenty of homegrown "terrorists" right here). They're spending all this "security" money for WHAT????
Biological warfare? Nothing we can do about any of this except make sure there's vaccine available and all won't be able to afford it.

[SammyD]

This has already been done although unless you live in a border state and keep up with the real news, you probably are not aware. Ironically, he was probably smuggled in by the Florida politician's son who was busted for human smuggling in Arizona. How's that sit with America?