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Homeland Security’s Chertoff Warns of Nuclear Terror Threat
US Department of State ^ | Jan. 26, 2007 | David McKeeby

Posted on 01/26/2007 7:11:36 PM PST by FairOpinion

Washington –- Today, the international community faces a test of its willingness to stop nuclear terrorism, says Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

“You can’t put that genie back in the bottle once a weapon of mass destruction or a nuclear bomb gets into the hands of a terrorist,” Chertoff said in a January 26 panel discussion at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Terrorism is high on the forum’s agenda this year. It constitutes one of the top threats to global security, according to a survey of international business and political leaders attending the event.

“What we face in the 21st century is the ability of even a single individual, and certainly a group, to leverage technology in a way to cause a type of destruction and a magnitude of destruction that would have been unthinkable a century ago,” Chertoff said.

As the destructive potential of the next large-scale terrorist attack grows with every technological advance, Chertoff said, so too does the risk of failing to detect terrorists before they strike.

Governments thus are faced with the challenge of striking the right balance among providing security, facilitating free flow of goods and services, and protecting citizens’ civil liberties.

It is for this reason, Chertoff said, the United States approaches counterterrorism from the perspective of risk management. Because working to prevent every conceivable threat would be virtually impossible, the United States focuses its efforts on identifying and preventing the greatest threats.

Countries must be willing to stand together and take decisive action against hostile regimes and nonstate entities seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction for future attacks, he said.

“At the end of the day, if those who are trafficking in this activity don’t take seriously our will to enforce the rules, all the paperwork in the world is not going to make a difference,” Chertoff said.

PANELISTS CONSIDER ROOT CAUSES OF TERRORISM

Chertoff joined Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukut Aziz, leader of the British Conservative Party David Cameron and the European Union’s counterterrorism coordinator, Gijs de Vries, who also discussed the root causes of terrorism and how best to confront them.

Tackling terrorism requires more than security operations and sophisticated technologies. Deprivation, in the form of poverty and the lack of basic political freedoms and economic opportunities, turns people into terrorists, Aziz said.

The international community must do more to help alleviate poverty and must redouble diplomatic efforts to promote a working Israeli-Palestinian peace, a settlement in Lebanon and progress in Iraq -- all causes exploited by terrorists to rationalize their attacks, he said.

The world must reject terrorists’ attempts to justify their murderous acts in the name of religion, the panelists said.

"Terrorism is not a friend of anybody. Terrorism is not linked to any faith," Aziz told the panel. “It is a mindset we are dealing with.”

“I accept that Islam is a peaceful religion and does not endorse this use of violence,” Chertoff said.

The panelists also agreed that a careful balance between security and civil liberties is essential.

“We’ve got to be very strong in combating terrorism but equally strong in defending liberty, democracy and the things we are actually fighting for,” Cameron said.

“That means that not everything is permitted in the War on Terror,” de Vries said. “To use detention without trial, or detention without charge, to use secret prisons, should not be acceptable.”

Chertoff, a former prosecutor and federal judge, agreed, but added that governments must weigh the potentially catastrophic consequences of a successful terrorist attack as they pursue terrorists. Because of “the complexity of global terrorism,” thwarting terrorism might require measures beyond those commonly utilized in prosecuting criminals, such as increased intelligence collection.

“We are going to have to come to a sustainable approach to this that safeguards fundamental liberties, but does not regard every security measure as inherently a civil liberties problem,” Chertoff said.

A video link to the panel discussion and more information on the 2007 annual meeting are on the World Economic Forum's Web site.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: chertoff; davos; jihad; nuclear; terrorism; wot
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To: Nathan Zachary

"Small? 10 million Muslims is a "small" population?"

There's only - at most - about 3 million Muslims in the United States.

"If we can only prevent more from flooding in, that would be good. "

Ah, but our government not only has no plans to do this, but is going out of its way to bring in more.


41 posted on 01/26/2007 9:25:44 PM PST by EnochPowellWasRight
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To: Nathan Zachary
Ya beat me the poverty point. There should be a sitcom where this guy volunteers to be a terrorist but ends selling the cell phones and using the air flight tickets go gambling in Vegas. He always has to explain to his terrorist boss how he almost succeeded but with just some more cash, and that blond assistant with the big breasts, he'll get the job done. It could be like Benny Hill or On the Buses if you're into or know older Brit TV.
42 posted on 01/26/2007 9:38:18 PM PST by Blind Eye Jones
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To: garv

Ditto!


43 posted on 01/26/2007 9:44:17 PM PST by Pro-Bush (hater)
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To: Nathan Zachary
[considering the sloppyness of the Ruskies handling of it in all the former soviet bloc "Stans", many of which have large muslim populations. ]
 

"Tit for Tat".
 
Jimmuh Carter basically seeded the 1979 Islamic Revolution in order to destabilize those Soviet "Stans". 
 
The Soviet invasion and defeat in Afghanistan, and the subsequent implosion of the Soviet economy were a direct result.
 
As was 9/11 and our current situation in Iraq.
 
I suspect there are more than a few members of the inner party who are smirking at our predicament.
 
We used Islam as a weapon and now the shoe is on the other foot.

44 posted on 01/26/2007 9:49:56 PM PST by VxH (There are those who declare the impossible - and those who do the impossible.)
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To: Nathan Zachary

As a percentage it is less than 1% of the population. While new immigrants in ghettos may have the isolation required to engage in terrorism, I hold out some hope that at that small a portion of the populace Muslims will be rapidly assimilated and inculcated in American values. If not, at least they will presumably have American neighbors who will rat them out for suspicious activities.


45 posted on 01/26/2007 9:55:40 PM PST by amchugh
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To: FairOpinion

Is this a new warning or last weeks warning?


46 posted on 01/26/2007 9:57:18 PM PST by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll keep getting what you always get.)
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To: amchugh
Look here.
47 posted on 01/26/2007 10:56:43 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Nathan Zachary

--O Allah, Lord of the Devils--

So that makes Martin Brodeur a servant of Allah <:P


48 posted on 01/26/2007 11:30:16 PM PST by rfp1234 (Custom-built for Bill Clinton: the new Toyota Priapus.)
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To: Nathan Zachary

Ishaq:510 “When the Apostle looked down on Khaybar he told his Companions, ‘O Allah, Lord of the heavens and what they overshadow, and Lord of the Devils and what into error they throw, and Lord of the winds and what they winnow, we ask Thee for the booty of this town and its people. Forward in the name of Allah.’”


49 posted on 01/26/2007 11:36:28 PM PST by rfp1234 (Custom-built for Bill Clinton: the new Toyota Priapus.)
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To: FairOpinion
“I accept that Islam is a peaceful religion and does not endorse this use of violence,” Chertoff said.

There went any credibility he might have had going in.

50 posted on 01/27/2007 12:00:52 AM PST by webheart
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To: Nathan Zachary
Your absolutely correct.

I have not seen 24, but I can certainly imagine similar scenario's.

For instance, hurricane Rita was in the Gulf of Mexico, it was heading right for us here in Houston.

Officials call for an evacuation. What transpired over the next few days was horrific.

I-45, I-10, Hwy 59 and other major routes out of Houston were completely log jammed for a couple of days.

The scene looked like a science fiction movie. People spent the night ON the hwy, in their cars. They ran out of gas, food, drink.

After the mess cleared, there were automobiles strewn all over the place...the ones that broke down or ran out of gas, that is.

There was NO gas to be had. All local businesses along the highways were closed. Absolutely mobbed of everything. People walking off the hwy, leaving their cars to find food and gas. It was a maddening event. Trash scattered everywhere, and I don't mean a little, I mean massive amounts of trash everywhere.

Now, the hurricane never hit Houston! My point being, if there were to be a dirty bomb, nuke, chemical or bio weapon detonated within a large urban area, if there were massive casualties, People will panic in every city in America and will try to get out of the city centers....thus causing similar situations.

Desperation and violence will break out, then the ol ball gets to rollin.
51 posted on 01/27/2007 6:07:45 AM PST by servantboy777
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To: amchugh

You said: I'm recovering from illness today.

Me thinks your illness is in your head!

I don't care what alternative we use to kill Muslims. They are the enemy and they are out to destroy us. They are willing to die to kill us. And we must kill them first.

Of course, war requires sacrifice. We will have losses. We are capable of winning wars without man-to-man conflict.

Let's use our technology and show our force. What has happened that we don't have the same determination to win as we did during WWII?

You may not agree, but I think you are more seriously ill than you realize.


52 posted on 01/27/2007 7:58:54 AM PST by i_dont_chat (I have the right to offend. You can take offense or not.)
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To: servantboy777
There was NO gas to be had. All local businesses along the highways were closed. Absolutely mobbed of everything. People walking off the hwy, leaving their cars to find food and gas. It

And the National Guard and Army tanker trucks sent to fill folks up, had the wrong sorts of nozzles, never having changed from the older fatter "leaded" gas nozzles. Or so I heard anyway.

53 posted on 01/27/2007 3:33:54 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Nathan Zachary
If you think most of the terrorists dying in Iraq and elsewhere are "well off"...you aren't paying attention.

IMO, Aziz is partly correct.......

54 posted on 01/27/2007 3:42:38 PM PST by Osage Orange ("The man who most vividly realizes a difficulty is the man most likely to overcome it.")
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To: El Gato

I had not heard that, but I wouldn't doubt it.

Chaos.


55 posted on 01/27/2007 4:33:59 PM PST by servantboy777
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To: FairOpinion

Laying the groundwork for, "See? We warned you!"


56 posted on 01/27/2007 4:36:42 PM PST by airborne (Elect an Airborne Ranger,Vietnam Veteran for President ! Duncan Hunter 2008!!)
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To: i_dont_chat

I'm saying killing all Muslims is impractical. Why didn't we genocide the Japanese in WWII? There are some parallels between how we felt about them and their code of Bushido after Pearl Harbor to how we feel about radical Muslims today.


57 posted on 01/27/2007 6:09:55 PM PST by amchugh
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To: amchugh
Why didn't we genocide the Japanese in WWII?

If not for the atomic bomb, we might have been forced to pretty much do that. The Emperor, Hirohito, decided to surrender rather than lose his people wholesale. He's probably the only one who could have ordered them to surrender, and not been immediately killed. Being thought a god has it's advantages.

In the event, the final battle(s) against the Germans were much more vicious than those against the Japanese. Especially in the East, between the Russians and the Germans. The Germans were still fighting when the writ of the Third Reich covered only about a 2 X 7 mile area surrounding the Hitler Bunker.

By final battles, I mean those leading directly to surrender. In effect in Japan, there no final battles, they decided they'd had enough *before* we had to invade their homeland. (Laying aside that Okinawa and Iwo Jima are technically part of Japan).

58 posted on 01/27/2007 7:37:08 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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