WarSclerotic

Al-Qaida is on the verge of producing radioactive weapons after sourcing nuclear material and recruiting rogue scientists to build “dirty” bombs, according to leaked diplomatic documents.

A leading atomic regulator has privately warned that the world stands on the brink of a “nuclear 9/11”.

Security briefings suggest that jihadi groups are also close to producing “workable and efficient” biological and chemical weapons that could kill thousands if unleashed in attacks on the West.

Thousands of classified American cables obtained by the WikiLeaks website and passed to The Daily Telegraph detail the international struggle to stop the spread of weapons-grade nuclear, chemical and biological material around the globe.

At a Nato meeting in January 2009, security chiefs briefed member states that al-Qaida was plotting a program of “dirty radioactive IEDs”, makeshift nuclear roadside bombs that could be used against British troops in Afghanistan.

As well as causing a large explosion, a “dirty bomb” attack would contaminate the area for many years.

The briefings also state that al-Qaida documents found in Afghanistan in 2007 revealed that “greater advances” had been made in bioterrorism than was previously realized. An Indian national security adviser told American security personnel in June 2008 that terrorists had made a “manifest attempt to get fissile material” and “have the technical competence to manufacture an explosive device beyond a mere dirty bomb”.

Alerts about the smuggling of nuclear material, sent to Washington from foreign U.S. embassies, document how criminal and terrorist gangs were trafficking large amounts of highly radioactive material across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

The alerts explain how customs guards at remote border crossings used radiation alarms to identify and seize cargoes of uranium and plutonium.

Freight trains were found to be carrying weapons-grade nuclear material across the Kazakhstan-Russia border, highly enriched uranium was transported across Uganda by bus, and a “small time hustler” in Lisbon offered to sell radioactive plates stolen from Chernobyl.

In one incident in September 2009, two employees at the Rossing Uranium Mine in Namibia smuggled almost half a ton of uranium concentrate powder – yellowcake – out of the compound in plastic bags.

“Acute safety and security concerns” were even raised in 2008 about the uranium and plutonium laboratory of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear safety watchdog.

Tomihiro Taniguchi, the deputy director general of the IAEA, has privately warned America that the world faces the threat of a “nuclear 9/11” if stores of uranium and plutonium were not secured against terrorists.

But diplomats visiting the IAEA’s Austrian headquarters in April 2008 said that there was “no way to provide perimeter security” to its own laboratory because it has windows that leave it vulnerable to break-ins.

Senior British defence officials have raised “deep concerns” that a rogue scientist in the Pakistani nuclear program “could gradually smuggle enough material out to make a weapon”, according to a document detailing official talks in London in February 2009.

Agricultural stores of deadly biological pathogens in Pakistan are also vulnerable to “extremists” who could use supplies of anthrax, foot and mouth disease and avian flu to develop lethal biological weapons.

Anthrax and other biological agents including smallpox, and avian flu could be sprayed from a shop-bought aerosol can in a crowded area, leaked security briefings warn.

The security of the world’s only two declared smallpox stores in Atlanta, America, and Novosibirsk, Russia, has repeatedly been called into doubt by “a growing chorus of voices” at meetings of the World Health Assembly documented in the leaked cables.

The alarming disclosures come after Barack Obama, the U.S. president, last year declared nuclear terrorism “the single biggest threat” to international security with the potential to cause “extraordinary loss of life”.

Egypt must transition peacefully into a democratic regime and it must do so now, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday, hours after beleaguered Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced he would retire only later in the year.

	Barack Obama speaking about the situation in Egypt at the White House, Feb. 1, 2011.
	Photo by: AP

Mubarak announced earlier Tuesday that he would not run in the next elections in the country, following mass protests that have been ravaging the country for the past week.

In a televised speech, Mubarak announced that he would step down at the next elections scheduled for September, saying he “did not have the intention of running in the next election and wanted to spend my life trying to serve the people,” adding that he wanted “to finish my role while Egypt is at peace.”

The next presidential election is scheduled for September, but in his address, Mubarak pressed his cabinet to speed up elections.

Commenting on the ongoing protest in Egypt as well as Mubarak’s vow to retire later in the year, Obama indicated later Tuesday that Washington would like to see Egypt transition into democracy as soon as possible, saying that “what is clear, and what I indicated tonight to President Mubarak, is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now.”

	Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., making a statement on the crisis in Egypt, Feb. 2, 2011.
	Photo by: AP

“Furthermore, the process must include a broad spectrum of Egyptian voices in opposition parties,” Obama said, adding that such a move “should lead to elections that are free and fair. And it should result in a government that’s not only grounded in democratic principles, but is also responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people.”

Speaking of Mubarak’s need to bow to the will of his people, the U.S. president said that all of us who are privileged to serve in positions of political power do so at the will of our people.”

“Through thousands of years, Egypt has known many moments of transformation,” Obama said, adding that “the voices of the Egyptian people tell us that this is one of those moments, this is one of those times.”

Obama also commended the passion and the dignity that has been demonstrated by the people of Egypt,” saying they served as “an inspiration to people around the world, including here in the United States, and to all those who believe in the inevitability of human freedom.”

“To the people of Egypt, particularly the young people of Egypt, I want to be clear: We hear your voices. I have an unyielding belief that you will determine your own destiny, and seize the promise of a better future for your children and your grandchildren,” the U.S. president said, indicating that he was “committed to a partnership between the United States and Egypt.”

Also speaking of Mubarak’s decision to step down on Tuesday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry applauded the “important announcement by President Mubarak to bring his presidency to an end and pledge that free and fair elections will be held.”

“I believe that President Mubarak should now work with the military and civil society to establish an interim caretaker government,” Kerry said, expressing doubt, however, if Mubarak’s declaration would appease the Egyptian masses.

“It remains to be seen whether this is enough to satisfy the demands of the Egyptian people for change. We arrived at this point because millions of Egyptians spoke with one voice and exercised fundamental rights we Americans hold dear,” Kerry said, adding that the Egyptian public “made it clear the future they want is one of greater democracy and greater economic opportunity.”

Speaking more of the changes Egypt would have to undergo in the wake of the political earthquake that shook the Arab nation, Kerry said that “much work remains to be done to turn this auspicious moment into lasting peace and prosperity.”
“Egyptians must now prepare for elections and achieve a peaceful transition of power,” the U.S. senator said, adding that he hoped the Egyptian army would “continue to show the restraint it has so admirably exercised these past days.”

“And opposition leaders must come together to develop a process that will ensure that all of Egypt’s voices are heard,” Kerry said, adding that, “as friends of the Egyptian people, there is much that the United States can do as well. Egypt has been a close ally of the United States for many years, and it is my fervent hope that our relationship can grow stronger as the Egyptian people take control of their destiny.”