A Stop-the-Presses Alert from Robert S. Mueller III.
By Jerry Seper for the Washington Times, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III yesterday said that it was only a matter of time and economics before terrorists will be able to purchase nuclear weapons and that the world’s law-enforcement community must unite to prevent it.
“Our greatest weapon is unity,” Mr. Mueller said at the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism law-enforcement conference in Miami. “That unity is built on intelligence and interagency cooperation. It is built on the idea that, together, we are smarter and stronger than we are standing alone.”
Mr. Mueller said federal authorities, working with their counterparts overseas, must secure loose nuclear material, share intelligence about those who wish to buy and sell such material, and stop those who do — adding that by some estimates, there is enough highly enriched uranium in global stockpiles to construct thousands of nuclear weapons.
Mr. Mueller said the economics of supply and demand dictate that someone, somewhere will provide nuclear material to the highest bidder, and that material will end up in the hands of terrorists. He said the al Qaeda terrorist network has demonstrated a clear intent to acquire weapons of mass destruction, noting that Osama bin Laden sought to buy uranium in Sudan in 1993.
But, he said, al Qaeda is not the only concern, adding that the United States faces threats from other terrorist cells around the world and from homegrown terrorists not affiliated with al Qaeda but who have been inspired by its message of hatred and violence.
Yes, Mr. Mueller, speaking of that message of hatred and violence, what are your plans for dealing with that?