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| Pakistan weakest link in world security: US report |
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Thursday, December 04, 2008
WASHINGTON: Terrorists are “likely” to use nuclear or biological weapons in the next five years, a US commission highlighting Pakistan as the weakest link in world security warned Tuesday.
Without urgent action, “It is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013,” the bi-partisan commission said in its report “World at Risk.” The report, ordered by Congress and based on six months of research, warned the incoming US administration of Barack Obama and says, “America’s margin of safety is shrinking.”
The report was due to be presented to President George W Bush Wednesday, the White House said, and also to vice president-elect Joseph Biden, according to officials from Obama’s transition team.
The main dangers highlighted by the commission on the prevention of weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism are the rapid spread of atomic technology in countries such as Pakistan and Iran and poor security in biotech industries worldwide. Although Pakistan is a close US ally, its inability to control swaths of territory, violent political instability, and a nuclear standoff with neighbouring India make the Islamic nation the most lethal tinderbox of all.
“Were one to map terrorism and weapons of mass destruction today, all roads would intersect in Pakistan,” the report said. “There is a grave danger it could also be an unwitting source of a terrorist attack on the United States, possibly with weapons of mass destruction,” the report said.
Speaking on CNN, one of the authors of the report, former senator Bob Graham, called Pakistan the “intersection of the perfect storm.”
The commission said terrorists were more likely to be able to obtain biological than nuclear weapons, with anthrax a particular danger, and warned that threats were “evolving faster than our multi-layered response.” But despite the message in “World at Risk” that the United States is unprepared, the White House welcomed what it said was proof of Bush’s strong security record.
“Under President Bush’s leadership, extensive progress has been made on securing the world’s weapons of mass destruction and protecting our citizens from a WMD attack,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said. “Our WMD preparedness has been transformed,” Stanzel said in comments sent by email. Congresswoman Jane Harman, the Democrat heading the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Terrorism Risk Assessment, also downplayed the warnings.
“It’s time to retire the fear card,” she said in a statement. “We need to educate and inform the American people, not terrify them with alarming details about possible threats to the homeland ... Congress has in fact done a great deal to minimize and mitigate WMD threats.” The commission was led by Graham, a Democrat, and former congressman James Talent, a Republican. Speaking after the report’s release, Graham repeated his commission’s dire prognosis in an interview with CNN.
Chances of preventing terrorists from acquiring such horrific weapons are “getting thinner and thinner,” he said. “What it will take is a few scientists prepared to become terrorists.” The commission was tasked by Congress in 2007 as part of the security response to the hijacked airliner attacks of September 11, 2001 against New York and the Pentagon. The main recommendations of the commission, aimed principally at the incoming Obama White House, are: safeguard uranium and plutonium stockpiles and step up measures against nuclear smuggling rings; toughen the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; ensure access to nuclear fuel for countries committed to developing only peaceful atomic technology; prevent new nuclear equipped countries including Iran and North Korea from possessing uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing capabilities; tighten security in domestic bio-sphere institutes and laboratories urgently; call for an international conference of countries with major biotechnology industries; secure nuclear and biological materials in Pakistan; constrain a growing Asian arms race; agree with Russia on extending essential monitoring provisions of the strategic arms reduction treaty due to expire in 2009 and create a White House advisory post on weapons of mass destruction proliferation.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
