BREAKING!!! FBI DIRECTOR CALLS PRESS CONFERENCE TO WARN OF NUCLEAR STRIKE ON AMERICA

From the FBI:

We are here to discuss one of the most dangerous and deadly threats we face:
nuclear terrorism. Few threats fall into the same class in terms of sheer
devastation, damage, and loss. Few strike such fear in the hearts of the public.
And few threats are so appealing to terrorists around the world, for the same
reasons.
This morning, I want to talk about the threat of nuclear terrorism.
I want to touch on our collective efforts in the United States to keep our
citizens safe. And I want to discuss what we in the international community must
do to contain this threat.
Our roadmap is clear. We must start with the
source: we must secure loose nuclear material. We must share intelligence about
those who wish to buy and sell such material, and we must stop those who do.
Most importantly, we must stand strong together, for nuclear terrorism is a
global threat that requires a global response.
Assessment of the Threat
By some estimates, there is enough highly enriched uranium in global
stockpiles to construct thousands of nuclear weapons. And it is safe to assume
that there are many individuals who would not think twice about using such
weapons.
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.
Al Qaeda has demonstrated a clear intent to
acquire weapons of mass destruction. In 1993, Osama bin Laden attempted to buy
uranium from a source in the Sudan. He has stated that it is Al Qaeda’s duty to
acquire weapons of mass destruction. And he has made repeated recruiting pitches for experts in chemistry, physics, and explosives to join his terrorist
movement.
Bin Laden is no small thinker. Prior to 2001, Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed – the mastermind of the September 11th attacks – suggested flying a
small plane filled with explosives into CIA Headquarters. As noted by the 9/11
Commission, bin Laden reportedly asked him, “Why do you use an axe when you can
use a bulldozer?”
If 9/11 was the “bulldozer” of which bin Laden spoke, we
can only imagine the impact of a full-scale nuclear attack.
Unfortunately,
Al Qaeda central is not our only concern. We face threats from other terrorist
cells around the world, and from homegrown terrorists who are not affiliated
with Al Qaeda, but who are inspired by its message of hatred and violence.
Several rogue nations – and even individuals – seek to develop nuclear
capabilities. Abdul Khan, for example, was not only the father of Pakistan’s
nuclear bomb, he peddled that technology to North Korea, Libya, and Iran. Khan
was one of many to prove that it is indeed a seller’s market in the so-called
atomic bazaar.
We have often said that the next terrorist attack is not a
question of if, but when. If we up the ante to a nuclear terrorist attack, we
know it is a question of if, but we cannot let it become a question of when. Now
is the time to act.
Our Collective Efforts to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism
I want to talk for a moment about our collective roles in combatting nuclear
terrorism. While the FBI investigates all acts of terrorism in the United
States, the prevention of a nuclear attack is a responsibility shared by many.
Our investigations are joint efforts in every sense.
In October 2005, for
example, a radiation sensor at the Port of Colombo, in Sri Lanka, triggered an
alarm for an outbound shipping container. The container was sent to sea before
it could be examined.
Working with their Sri Lankan counterparts, personnel
from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy determined
that the suspect container could be on one of six ships, three of which were
bound for New York. Officials around the world, from Italy to India, screened
various containers on these ships as they moved from port to port. Scientists
from Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Laboratory worked with FBI experts to analyze
why the sensor may have been triggered, and whether any of the containers held
weapons-grade nuclear material. FBI agents and analysts searched computer
databases for criminal or terrorist ties to the ships in question.
We worked
with our state and local counterparts in New York and New Jersey to put response
plans into place. As three of the ships pulled into the Port of Newark, FBI
personnel and officials from the United States Coast Guard, and Customs and
Border Protection, screened and secured several containers.
Although this
investigation turned out to be nothing more than the disposal of scrap metal
mixed with radioactive material, it illustrates the need for a quick and a
coordinated response.
That coordination begins with training. We need to
know how best to respond to a pending threat before a real need arises. To that
end, we routinely train with federal, state, and local agencies and first
responders.
The FBI’s Hazardous Devices School, for instance, provides bomb
disposal training, using state-of-the-art equipment. In the past 36 years, we
have trained more than 20,000 first responders, and nearly 3,000 bomb
technicians stand ready to respond if we are threatened with a nuclear terrorist
attack.
We also train our law enforcement counterparts across the country
and around the world to detect, deter, and disrupt weapons of mass destruction.
Field exercises include the smuggling, sale, transport, and use of hazardous
material.
The International Counterproliferation Program, for example, is a
partnership of the FBI, the Department of Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and
the Department of Homeland Security.
Together, we are training our foreign
partners in WMD detection, border security, undercover investigations, nuclear
forensics, and crisis management. To date, we have trained more than 5,000
participants from more than 23 countries.
This September, for example, four
of our partners in this Global Initiative – Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and
Georgia – will participate in an integrated exercise. We will run a hypothetical
threat of a radiological dispersal device from start to finish, to see whether
we are solid, and where we need to improve.
By training together, we can
better work together. In recent years, we have worked with many of you on highly
sensitive matters related to the trafficking and threatened use of nuclear
material. I am not able to discuss those cases today, because the details remain
classified.
The mere existence of these cases, however, with buyers seeking
to obtain nuclear materials and willing sellers peddling samples, illustrates
the size and the seriousness of the threats we face. These cases also illustrate
the continued need for information sharing and collaboration.
Containing the
Threat of Nuclear Terrorism
Let me spend a moment discussing how best to
contain the threat of nuclear terrorism.
We all face the prospect that at
some point in the near future, a terrorist will steal, smuggle, buy, or build a
nuclear weapon. We must focus on prevention; we cannot afford to wait for a
calling card to announce an attack.
Strong intelligence is our primary
asset. We must collect intelligence from those closest to the threat, from port
security and border control to state and local law enforcement. And we must
share that intelligence with those who need it.
But intelligence alone is
not enough. If we uncover information about potential nuclear trafficking or a
pending plot, we must be able to move at a moment’s notice.
We cannot sit
back and wait for others to act. To do so is to continue to feed the crocodile,
hoping he will eat you last, as Winston Churchill once said. Our safety lies in
protecting not just our own interests, but our collective interests.
We
cannot simply hope that stockpiles will be secure, that smugglers will somehow
be stopped, that devices will fail to detonate. Hope alone will not suffice.
Each and every country must safeguard its nuclear material. Those who run
the black market must be locked up and shut down. Possessing, peddling, and
purchasing nuclear material must be prosecuted. And terrorists must be cut off
at the source.
Our greatest weapon is unity. 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.
No person,
no police officer, no agency, and no country can prevent a nuclear terrorist
attack on its own. There are too many unlocked doors and unknown players, too
many ports and porous borders.
Yet together, we can stop the smuggling of
nuclear material. We can stop those who seek to buy such material on the black
market. And we can stop terrorists from using this technology to threaten our
citizens. We can, and we must.
Throughout the Cold War, the threat of
nuclear attack loomed large. In 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis,
President Kennedy addressed the American people, saying, “My fellow citizens,
let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have
set out. . . . Many months of sacrifice and self-discipline lie ahead . . .
months in which many threats and denunciations will keep us aware of our
dangers. But the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing.”
The dark
days of the Cold War have been relegated to the history books. The United States
and Russia ultimately resolved many of their differences through deft diplomacy.
But terrorists do not want a seat at the diplomatic table. They do not respond
to reason or rationale, nor do they share any desire for peace and prosperity.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
Indeed, the greatest danger for each of us here
today would be to do nothing. We must take action. And we must do so together.
Our safety can only be secured with the help of the international community.
Years ago, we stood across from one another, divided by walls and different
ways of life. Today, we stand together in this Global Initiative. We are united
in a common cause. It is my sincere hope that in the years to come, we will have
no need to meet to address this threat. Let us begin to make that hope a
reality.
Thank you and God bless.

From France 24 News (with thanks to author Paul Williams):

Security experts from around the world meeting here Monday warned of
the threat of a terrorist nuclear attack, and called for renewed efforts to
crack down on black market sales of nuclear and radioactive material.

"Nuclear terrorism is a global threat that requires a global
response," said FBI director Robert Mueller, as he inaugurated an international
conference on nuclear terrorism, a component of the Global Initiative to Combat
Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT).

He described nuclear terrorism as "one of the most dangerous and
deadly threats" that nations around the world face.

President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin
announced the initiative in July 2006 at the G8 summit of industrialized nations
meeting in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

At the time the two leaders urged nations around the world to work
to fight the threat of nuclear terrorism by working to better safeguard nuclear
material and radioactive substances.
Officials from some 30 nations that
signed on to the initiative were present at the Miami conference.

The mechanics of assembling a nuclear explosive is relatively easy,
experts said. Much more difficult is gaining access to highly enriched uranium
or plutonium necessary for the bomb.
"The laws of supply and demand dictate
that someone, somewhere, will provide material to the highest bidder," Mueller
said.

Vladimir Bulavin, the deputy director of Russia's Federal Security
Bureau, said that the threat of nuclear terrorism "is still the main threat of
every country."

Russia has taken steps to control the threat through close
"accounting and control of nuclear material," Bulavin said.

Mueller called for cracking down on the international nuclear
technology black market, warning that the likes of Al-Qaeda network leader Osama
bin Laden -- responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States
-- are actively seeking nuclear material.

Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan -- father of his country's
nuclear program who in 2004 confessed to providing nuclear secrets to Iran and
North Korea -- "is one of many to prove that there is a sellers' market" of
nuclear technology.

"This is not about catching the crook after the crime is
committed," said Mueller's boss, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who was also
at the event.

"Rather, it is about prevention -- and keeping weapons and the
building blocks for them, accounted for, secure, outside of illicit markets, and
away from terrorists."

Addressing the foreign law enforcement officials in the audience he
said: "Communication, sharing and coordination ... are the essence of what will
ultimately make our network stronger than the terrorist network."

The meeting, lasting nearly a week, will include conferences on
smuggling trends and detection of nuclear material around the world, border
security, improvised nuclear devices and "dirty bombs," bombs that spread
radiation.

Experts said there is a strong possibility of a terrorist nuclear
attack on the United States following the September 11 attacks.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a publication that operates
the "Doomsday Clock" to signal the chances of a nuclear catastrophe, currently
has the clock set at five minutes to midnight.
Scientists at the bulletin last year moved the hand forward from seven minutes to midnight, saying that the likelihood is high because of terrorists on suicide missionslooking for spectacular strikes.