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It may mean nothing more than Michael Chertoff subscribing to Joe Farah's "G2 Intel Bulletin".
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are being sarcastic with this statement.

Actually, I'm wondering if Chertoff got the special discount rate for government subscriptions to WorldNutDaily and other Farah-fearmongering publications...heh.

Seriously now, there is no doubt a threat of future terrorist events taking place, and they may involve chemical, biological or radiological devices.

That does not mean that a chemical attack will be anything greater than the anthrax letters we saw post-9/11, biological threats are (IMHO) the greatest threat because once unleashed, the viruses have to run their course and that can mean hundreds of thousands, even millions of victims.

But an actual nuclear weapon? While it is within the realm of possibility, it is the most remote of all threats due to:

a. if terrorists attempt to utilize a so-called "suitcase nuke" from decades ago (as other posters far smarter than I am have already pointed out), those devices are very likely inert by this time.

b. a home-brewed device is going to be shaky at best, with no guarantees that it will even detonate. al Qaeda cannot risk a major failure of that magnitude, their own concerns over their dwindling credibility will probably steer them away from trying to assemble their own weapon.

c. a new weapon, provided to terrorists by North Korea or Iran is the most likely, although North Korea is more prone to be the supplier because once Iran gets itself a nuke, they're going to keep it for their own use. But getting a nuke, any nuke, into the U.S. is not going to be as easy as it might seem on 2-hour TV dramas.

If a radiological attack takes place, it will more likely be a "dirty" bomb, i.e., conventional explosives with radioactive material jacketing the device, probably obtained from the industrial sector, or perhaps colleges with small reactors. The damage will not be based on the actual explosive yield, but on the psychological effect such an attack would have on the public.

Ironically, Bob Just over at WorldNutDaily must have had anchovies on his pizza before turning in to bed the other night, because he's got a scary scenario about terrorists attacking the U.S. with 'black' smallpox, and other nefarious schemes, and his only defense to this seems to be to "encourage" the public not to lose their nerve if and when such an attack takes place.

Now as for Chertoff, he is correct to point out the possible threats that we are facing, but remember that even at the height of the Cold War, when the Soviets had thousands of nukes aimed right at us, had a big bolt from the blue taken place, America would have responded in kind, with massive retaliation, and the Soviets would have ceased to exist as a society. If Islamic terrorists somehow defied the odds and managed to detonate a nuke anywhere on U.S. soil, the whole of the Islamic world would soon be glowing green glass, because if the U.S. did NOT respond that way, we might as well run up the white flag and surrender. That's what Yomama bin Crawdaddin thought we would do after 9/11.

He thought wrong. Just ask the Taliban and/or Saddam, and ask the Afghan and Iraqi people who are now breathing free air.

Maybe Chertoff is a silent partner of WorldNetDaily(joke). I agree the possibility of a chemical attack may not be any greater than the anthrax letters but we, the public, have confirming the odds. We also don't know if the possibility of a nuclear attack is any less or greater than other threats. I'm sure there are posters more knowledgeable regarding nuclear suitcase bombs than you or I. It may very well be missing something,but I can't help but wonder how those posters would have more knowledge if terrorists are planning to use nuclear suitcase bombs more than the head of Homeland Security?

Keep in mind the terrorists defied the odds on 9/11/01. I doubt anyone know automatically discounts terrorists using planes as WMD's. We shouldn't rule out nuking Mecca if terrorists employ a nuke attack against the U.S.

" If Islamic terrorists somehow defied the odds and managed to detonate a nuke anywhere on U.S. soil, the whole of the Islamic world would soon be glowing green glass, because if the U.S. did NOT respond that way, we might as well run up the white flag and surrender."

What makes you think we would respond any differently, than we did to 9/11/2001 ?

We zeroed in to the best idea of where the attack originated. We did nothing whatsoever to Saudi Arabia, home country to the majority of the perps.

I have no idea of the real capability of our nuclear arsenal, in terms of maximum kill power, if directed at major population centers.

Let's assume one nuclear device was exploded in the US, killing 500,000. Let's further assume it is learned it came in via Mexico and that the perps were from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morroco.

Would we retaliate against those four nations (Mexico included) for providing the birthplaces and transit route?

Hitting Holy sites is certain to widen the entire war, with little to no "military" target benefit.

Any place you bomb, you still need ground troops to occupy and control.

Blowing up petroleum related installations shuts down the world's economy, but even if we spared them, locals might well blow them up.

The alternative is a more localized "police" action like Afghanistan, which I recall has a population around 17 million. We don't control everything there.

And our present Army and Marines are too few, to handle much more on-the-ground occupation.

The best course of action looking forward from today, is mainly preventative.

Clamp down the borders drastically. Admit no muslims, period, for any reason.
Expell virtually all non-citizen muslims.
Begin Homeland de-islamification of every citizen and legal resident muslim, like we did in Germany after WWII. That means each individual is scrutinized.
Detain anybody in the slightest suspect; like Internment.
Warn every nation in the world to do likewise, under huge threats.
Begin draft, and go to full world war mobilization mode.