U.S. Goal: Keep Weapons of Mass Destruction Out Of Terrorists' Hands
--Bush administration works with allies to deny WMD access
By Jacquelyn S. Porth
Washington File Security Affairs Writer
13 March 2002
Washington -- A primary U.S. goal in the war against terrorism is to ensure
-- as President Bush told the corps of cadets at the military college of
South Carolina last year -- that "the authors of mass murder" are "never
allowed to gain or use the weapons of mass destruction (WMD)."
During his December 11 speech at the Citadel in Charleston Bush said the
great threat to civilization "is that a few evil men will multiply their
murders and gain the means to kill on a scale equal to their hatred."
"America's next priority [in the campaign] to prevent mass terror is to
protect against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the
means to deliver them," the president said, thereby announcing the
establishment of a broad, clear goal -- the fulfillment of which will reach
to all corners of the globe.
In his State of the Union address on January 29, Bush warned that countries
such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea, and their terrorist allies, constitute
"an axis of evil" posing "a grave and growing danger" for their pursuit of
WMD. He said the United States "will work closely with our coalition to
deny terrorists and their state sponsors the materials, technology, and
expertise to make and deliver" WMD.
The need for such action is urgent. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Director George Tenet says WMD programs "are becoming more advanced and
effective as they mature and as countries-of-concern become more aggressive
in pursuing them." Because of the dual-use nature of chemical and
biological agents and the inherent difficulty in distinguishing legitimate
commercial ventures from offensive weapons programs, he said, there is "a
significant risk within the next few years that we could confront an
adversary -- either terrorists or a rogue state -- who possess them."
Evidence of terrorists' intentions -- uncovered in their training camps,
safe houses, caves and tunnels in Afghanistan -- has included instructions
for making chemical weapons, diagrams of U.S. nuclear power plants and
public water facilities, descriptions of key American historic landmarks,
and maps of U.S. cities. Other al-Qaeda stashes in Afghanistan have
included documents ranging from fake identity papers to bomb-making
instructions, and the weapons caches included tons of ammunition and
artillery as well as armored tanks and anti-aircraft guns.
While no evidence has yet surfaced that al-Qaeda members were building a
nuclear weapon, it is clear that they were accumulating relevant
information. A recent CNN report referred to a 25-page document about
nuclear weapons and design found abandoned in Afghanistan. Two Pakistani
scientists are also thought to have shared their knowledge with the al-Qaeda
network, according to the account.
The CIA believes that the network may have been seeking a radioactive
dispersal weapon, or "dirty bomb" as it is also known. In addition, a
former member of al-Qaeda provided testimony in a New York federal court in
2001 that he had set up meetings in Khartoum in the 1990s to help the
network try to acquire uranium. Radio Free Europe also reported last year
on a failed al-Qaeda attempt to acquire nuclear warheads from Chechen rebels
in Russia in 1998.
Tenet told members of Congress that al-Qaeda "was working to acquire some of
the most dangerous chemical agents and toxins," and he provided documents
showing that a sophisticated biological weapons (BW) research program was
being pursued. While much of the evidence outlined above has been
accumulated as a result of the coalition military engagement in Afghanistan
known as "Operation Enduring Freedom," al-Qaeda operatives are also said to
have been active in 67 other nations.
Whatever progress has been made by al-Qaeda or a host of other WMD
aspirants, terrorists have demonstrated "suicidal tendencies and are beyond
deterrence," according to Senator Richard Lugar (Republican, Indiana). "We
must anticipate that they will use weapons of mass destruction if allowed
the opportunity. The minimum standard for victory in this war (against
terrorism) is the prevention of any of the individual terrorists or
terrorist cells from obtaining" these weapons.
In the absence of prevention, the world may face a horror like the one
experienced by the citizens of Tokyo when the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo group
attacked the subway system with the chemical nerve agent Sarin in 1995. Aum
Shinrikyo also reportedly made several botched efforts to conduct attacks
using biological agents.
The war against terrorism is being prosecuted in a world which Lugar
describes as being "awash with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and
materials of mass destruction stored principally in the United States and
Russia but also in India, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria,
Sudan, Israel, Great Britain, France, China and, perhaps, other nations."
A 2002 CIA report on proliferation states that "the threat of terrorists
using chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials appears to be
rising -- particularly since the September 11 attacks." It cites a senior
Osama bin Laden operative as claiming during a trial in Egypt in 1999 that
his group possessed chemical and biological weapons. The report also refers
to bin Laden's 1988 statement that acquiring WMD is a "religious duty" and
points to crude nuclear weapons diagrams discovered in a suspected al-Qaeda
house in Kabul.
September 11 and the havoc spread by terrorists in New York and Pennsylvania
and at the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. is etched in everyone's mind as
an illustration of what can happen when commercial airliners are converted
by terrorists into aircraft bombs. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has
cited the nexus of terror and WMD. Turning jetliners "into missiles and
driving them into buildings and killing thousands of people -- we know
roughly the effect of that. It was thousands," the secretary said,
referring to the innocent citizens of 80 nations who were killed in those
attacks. Biological, nuclear, radiological dispersal, or chemical weapons
in the hands of terrorists, could, for example, "kill tens of thousands and
hundreds of thousands, not simply thousands," he added.
Defense Department officials are particularly concerned about the potential
of al-Qaeda to acquire and use chemical or biological weapons because,
unlike other terrorist groups backed by a state-sponsor that might place
restrictions on their use, al-Qaeda doesn't have any state behind it that
might stop them.
Bush's State of the Union message focused attention on WMD and turned up the
heat on certain countries which National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice
said "are a clear and present danger" to the United States and the rest of
the civilized world. Why? "Because the Iranians, who spread and support
terror around the world, the North Koreans, who proliferate these weapons,
and the Iraqis, who make a region of great importance to us unstable,
clearly are a clear and present threat to America, America's interests, and
America's allies."
While the spotlight of the moment may be on these three nations, there are
other state-sponsors of terrorism. According to "Patterns of Global
Terrorism," published by the State Department in 2001, these include Syria,
Libya, Sudan, and Cuba.
Syria and Sudan have been faulted for providing safehaven to groups such as
the Palestine Islamic Jihad. According to another 2001 report published by
the Pentagon on proliferation, Syria is likely to maintain and improve its
missile programs, as well as its chemical and biological weapons
capabilities. While Sudan has been reportedly interested in chemical
weapons acquisition and use in the past, this report suggests Khartoum's
desire to moderate its image internationally "will cause Sudan to proceed
with its chemical warfare program with caution." A 2002 CIA report on
proliferation states, however, that Sudan may be interested in a BW program.
Libya reportedly still maintains contact with the Palestine Islamic Jihad
and other groups and has yet to comply fully with UN Security Council
requirements related to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The Pentagon
report states that Libya continues to pursue an indigenous chemical weapons
production capability and wants to buy long-range missiles.
Cuba allegedly has ties with Latin American insurgents and has provided
safehaven to some Basque terrorists, but is not a proliferator.
Rumsfeld said the terrorist list includes a number of countries that "are
active, developing weapons of mass destruction, and ... have relations with
terrorist networks. And we must not sit idly by as a country, as a world,
and accept that outcome -- that eventually, if we wait long enough,
eventually it's reasonable to expect that terrorist nations will provide
weapons of mass destruction to terrorist networks."
In the end the issue is accountability. President Bush put it this way:
"For states that support terror, it's not enough that the consequences be
costly; they must be devastating. The more credible this reality, the more
likely that regimes will change their behavior, making it less likely that
America and our friends will need to use overwhelming force against them."
Sources