A bipartisan commission came to the conclusion that the U.S. will be attacked by 2013, either by nuclear or biological weapons. Chemical weapons were not included, but the panel may not know the difference. And these are some of the incredibly non-encouraging findings by the committee.
“Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing,” along with “The biological threat is greater than the nuclear; the acquisition of deadly pathogens, and their weaponization and dissemination in aerosol form, would entail fewer technical hurdles than the theft or production of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium and its assembly into an improvised nuclear device,” states the report.
The study noted that the U.S. had been focused on preventing nuclear terrorism, and said that a similar emphasis needed to be placed on biological weapons as well. Study Chairman Graham said the threat of a terrorist attack using nuclear or biological weapons is growing “not because we have not done positive things but because adversaries are moving at an even faster pace to increase their access” to those materials.
Graham went on to say if the attackers in Mubai had access to such weapons, they would not hesitate to use them, and the death toll would have easily skyrocketed.
But Pakistan was again named as the number 1 problem, as access to weapons and terrorists are all too close together. “Were one to map terrorism and weapons of mass destruction today, all roads would intersect in Pakistan,” the report states.
The commission also stated the obvious, saying that high population centers are the likely targets of such attacks, which I honestly don’t know why they bothered to include that statement. I mean, they might as well have said that terrorists will target the living and most probably leave the deceased alone. I suppose they had their reasons, or at least I hope they did.
But just how did they come to the figure out that we would be attacked by 2013? It reminds me of the scientists from 25 years ago, that said California would suffer a catastrophic earthquake by (fill in random year). If they are wrong, nobody bothers to remember, but if they are right, they are hailed as geniuses. Actually, it is the same scam that fortune tellers have in that respect.
So how seriously should we all take this warning? Seriously enough, but it is hard to know when someone almost every week is telling us about another danger, and we all become deaf to the warnings as the cry of “wolf” has been heard so many times.
