Congress Can't Afford To Delay Action On Real Nuclear Option

Thursday, April 27, 2006

By Tim Roemer, Indianapolis Star

May 10, 2005

The U.S. Senate has been debating a "nuclear option," a proposal related to the confirmation process of judicial nominations. While this is an explosive issue and certainly has consequences for the Supreme Court, there is a more critical nuclear option we should be focusing on: the chilling reality that terrorists are constantly working to acquire nuclear weapons.

The United States has the tools to stop a potential nuclear 9/11, but Congress is not taking the steps needed to protect us from what Osama bin Laden has promised, a "Hiroshima-type event" on American soil.

There is motive and opportunity for this nightmare to occur. In February 1998, bin Laden issued a religious order that called the murder of any American "the individual duty for every Muslim who can do it." Three months later, he added, "We do not differentiate between military and civilian. As far as we are concerned, they (Americans) are all targets."

Disturbingly, the opportunity for al-Qaeda to acquire the materials for construction of a crude nuclear weapon is just as great as the motive. Today, some 20 tons of highly enriched uranium exist at 130 civilian research facilities in 40 countries, many of which have no more security than a chain-link fence and a night watchman. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that there have been 16 thefts involving highly enriched uranium and plutonium. This loose nuclear material represents the source of a potential al-Qaeda bomb.

The unraveling of Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan's nuclear smuggling network has exposed a dirty secret -- that the knowledge to build a bomb is up for sale. Taliban sympathizers were part of the team that worked with Khan to develop Pakistan's illicit nuclear weapons program. A well-funded al-Qaeda has the opportunity to get the knowledge to build a bomb from sympathetic nuclear scientists and smugglers who are willing to sell their wares to the highest bidder.

Recent revelations that Pakistani nuclear knowledge made its way to such places as North Korea and Libya should serve as an alarm for the possibility of the world's worst terrorists linking up with the world's worst weapons.

In order to prevent the proliferation of these weapons and accelerate their collection, the 9/11 Commission made specific recommendations to Congress. Much remains to be done.

First, counter-proliferation efforts must be strengthened by the United States working with the international community to develop laws and an international legal regime with the universal jurisdiction to enable the capture, interdiction and prosecution of those who smuggle, hide or fail to disclose the presence or location of these materials.
Second, there must be an expansion of the Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict weapons materials by air, land and sea. The PSI will be more effective if it utilizes the intelligence and planning resources of the NATO alliance. It also must be open to non-NATO countries, including Russia and China.
Third, there must be stronger bipartisan support for the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, known as the Nunn-Lugar program, which is the U.S. government's main instrument for securing the loose fissile materials that are still scattered around the former Soviet Union. Currently, Nunn-Lugar is in need of expanded authorities and funding to operate outside the former Soviet Union and a reduction of repetitive reporting requirements that delay critical work to secure nuclear materials.
Finally, the commission recommended that the U.S. encourage international support, including funding, in order to prevent the catastrophic costs the world would face should such weapons find their way into the hands of terrorists.

Even with the knowledge we have and the recommendations made, tons of weapons-grade nuclear material remain at unsecured locations across the globe. Regimes such as North Korea and Iran continually expand their nuclear weapons potential while U.S efforts to clean up loose nuclear material are under-funded, mired in administrative requirements and years away from keeping the world safe from the threat of an al-Qaeda bomb.

As a partisan Senate wrestles over the politics of deploying a judicial "nuclear option" this week, the immediate order of business should be a civil and constructive debate about a terrorist nuclear option.

Tim Roemer, president of the Center for National Policy in Washington, is a former Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee and served on the commission investigating the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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