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http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC07.php?CID=404

The Strategic Threat of Nuclear Terrorism

“Featuring Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Director, Department of Energy Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence”
June 16, 2008

ARTICLE-SPEECH SNIPPET: “On June 16, 2006, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. The following is the prepared text of his remarks.

In 1998, Osama bin Laden said that it was an Islamic duty to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and it is through this prism that most people view the threat of nuclear terrorism. The post-9/11 successes against the Taliban in Afghanistan yielded volumes of information that changed our view of al-Qaeda’s nuclear program. We learned that al-Qaeda wants weapons to use, not a program to sustain and build a stockpile, as most states would. Al-Qaeda obtained a fatwa in May 2003 from Saudi cleric Naser al-Fadh that attempted to justify the use of weapons of mass destruction. Moreover, al-Qaeda spokesman Suleyman abu Ghayth said in 2003 that it is al-Qaeda’s right to kill 4 million Americans in retaliation for Muslim deaths that al-Qaeda blames on the United States. In January 2006, bin Laden threatened that “operations are being prepared and you will see them in your own backyard,” and past experience strongly suggests that they will strive to conduct an attack more spectacular than 9/11. Based on such information, most people would agree that al-Qaeda personifies today’s nuclear terrorism threat.

It would be a mistake, however, to view nuclear terrorism strictly through the prism of the threat posed by al-Qaeda today. Taking this view leads to a simplistic solution — if we prevent al-Qaeda from acquiring a nuclear capability, we eliminate the threat. As important as this is, the sober reality is that the threat posed by nuclear terrorism is much broader than the aspirations of any single terrorist group. We live in a world of escalating levels of asymmetric vulnerabilities. Increasing numbers of disaffected groups are turning to violence to achieve their goals.”