The massive, high profile Nuclear Security Summit in Washington today appears to be devolving rather rapidly into the fear-mongering over hypothetical nuclear threats, with President Obama declaring that America’s biggest threat in the short, medium and long-terms was “the possibility of a terrorist organization obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
President Obama declared today that “we know” al-Qaeda is trying to obtain nuclear weapons, and that they “would have no compunction at using them.” The allegation is hardly new, of course, and fretting about “loose nukes” has been a popular topic of discussion whenever foreign aid or domestic budgets come up for debate.
But while a solid decade of this hand-wringing about al-Qaeda’s hypothetical nukes has revealed no new evidence that they are any nearer to realizing this ambition, though analysts warn that it is “plausible” that al-Qaeda or some other terrorist group will eventually nuke something at some point in the future.
Which is hardly a cause for the sudden call to action, of course. Rather it seems the real goal is to find something for the summit to focus on that isn’t too uncomfortable. The Administration’s ambitious goal to secure every last bit of weapons-grade nuclear material already saw Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceling his visit over fears that the complete lack of transparency in Israel’s program would be brought up, and several other nuclear nations seem to have similar concerns.
In the end the summit will net some pledges from nations like Chile and the Ukraine, but the defaulting back to the “safe” issue of al-Qaeda’s hypothetical future nukes will ensure that no major changes are made.
This is the old Neo-Con pretext for USA intervention in Pakistan. Part of that plan was to denuke Pakistan, or secure their nuclear weapons under US (thus Israeli) supervision.
It is also the same invention that Dick Armey has chronicled Cheney using privately to pressure him (successfully) into voting for the war on Iraq. According to Armey, Cheney told him that there was intelligence that Hussein either had or was close to having suitcase nuke capability.
I seriously doubt that the same people who try without success to light shoes and underpants in order to bring down commercial airliners will ever have the knowledge to detonate a nuclear device. Mohammed Kahn yes. Al Qaeda not in this century. They are simply not SPECTRE caliber despite what the news media would have the world believe. Box cutters and AK-47's are more their style. Even the anthrax attack was too sophisticated for them. They would have poisoned themselves.
Al Qaeda is just another zionist vehicle to instill fear in the world while putting the blame on others.
Wasn't Tim McVeigh's backup plan a loose nuke? Obama seems to be more a loose nutcake.
What goes unasked is WHY America is "threatened" by terrorist organizations. You don't see other countries worrying about it. But they mind their own business.