The United States is looking for nukes in all the wrong places

From ForeignPolicy.com November 1, 2009 via The Woodward Report Blog ^ | November 1, 2009 | MICHAEL KRAIG

[thisisthetime]

The United States is looking for nukes in all the wrong places. Nuclear terrorism won't come from countries; it will come from vast networks of operatives with only tenuous links to states. Nor are terrorists likely to get their nuclear material from rogue regimes. Far more probable is that they will steal it or obtain it through the growing global black market. If this is to be prevented, the United States and its allies will have to give their counterproliferation mindset a sweeping overhaul.

Today's terrorist threats are far less tangible than the traditional, state-centric security ones embodied by such countries as Iran, North Korea, India, Pakistan, and Israel. Rather than diplomatic channels, terrorist networks use advanced information technology to advance their ideology, goals, and missions. They are bound by none of the norms and restraints of states.

Of course, none of this is news in the world of counterterrorism. And in the years following the September 11 attacks, the U.N. Security Council passed a set of resolutions mandating that all states take action to tackle nonstate extremists with violent goals. The most important of these for nonproliferation was U.N. Resolution 1540, which calls on countries to monitor and regulate the activities of illicit nonstate actors while securing potentially deadly materials that could be used to fashion a weapon of mass destruction.

The biggest challenge relates to highly enriched uranium (HEU) -- the stuff that could be most easily made into a crude nuclear device. A "gun type" warhead would require only two shaped blocks of HEU, slammed together by a focused conventional explosive, to generate a small but real fission reaction. Making the weapon would be fairly easy from a technical perspective once the necessary amount of HEU is obtained; instructions can even be found on the Web.

[353FMG]

The West is not under a nuclear terrorist threat — why should Muslims want to destroy the West if they have the intention to convert it?

Besides, there is no need for violence any longer in the conquest of the West. The terrorists can relax and be patient as the West self-destructs.

[darkside321]

agreed the goal of islam is to convert the whole world to their believes. (and then may kill the minority who is left and does not want to convert). and there for a nuclear terrorist attack would not fit very well into this concept.
Just imagine how “rampant” the western world would get if one of our cities would end in a terrorist mushroom cloud.
there would be a good chance that Islam may would not survive the definitely following global war against them.

[Sender]

But you are thinking from a rational, western mindset. Many of the jihadis are not. Also, from a practical perspective, a nuclear attack on a major city during our tough financial times would just about bankrupt us and would tie up all available resources and attention for a long time. With the current administration, it would probably result in the withdrawal of forces now overseas to assist in the recovery. A bankrupt US in chaos, with troops sent home, would be seen as a big win for the muz. Remember, we don’t have John Wayne, or even George Bush, in office. Obama would not do the Right Thing.