Widened threat from unconventional weapons face Bush administration
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Saturday, January 13, 2001
WASHINGTON — The incoming administration of President-elect George
W. Bush faces a world in which 25 countries now possess or are in the process
of acquiring and developing nonconventional capabilities. This includes
nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
A new Pentagon report, entitled "Proliferation: Threat and Response," also
said Osama Bin Laden's agents have received chemical weapons and are being trained
in their use. The report said terrorists aligned with Bin Laden had planned
a chemical weapons attack in New York as early as 1993. The terrorists
gathered the components but did not assemble it.
"The followers of Osama Bin Laden have already trained with the use of
toxic chemicals," a Defense Department report says.
Defense Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed
Services Committee on Thursday that the Bush administration will focus on
defending against terrorism and nonconventional attacks. "In a world of
smaller, but in some respects more deadly threats, the ability to defend
ourselves and our friends against attacks by missiles and other terror
weapons can strengthen deterrence and provide an important compliment purely
to retaliatory capabilities," Rumsfeld said.
Iran and North Korea — both of which have either intermediate- or
long-range missiles — already have biological and chemical weapons, the
report said. Iran is seeking nuclear weapons while neighboring Iraq wants to
restore its pre-Gulf war capability.
"Iraq which prior to the 1991 Gulf War had developed chemical and
biological weapons and associated delivery means, and was close to a nuclear
capability, may have reconstituted these efforts since the departure of UN
inspectors from Iraq in late 1998," the report said.
Libya has chemical capabilities and is trying to buy long-range
missiles, the report said.
U.S. officials said Bin Laden will be a leading concern for Bush. They
said his administration will have to deal with the prospect that Bin Laden
and his allies will launch nonconventional weapons attacks against U.S.
targets.
The fight against Bin Laden, the officials said, will involve billions
of dollars to stop the
proliferation of nonconventional weapons as well as to establish a response
by U.S. authorities to any such attack. Scenarios include attacks on U.S.
troops abroad and on civilians within the United States.
"So the next administration is going to have to continue these important
efforts to reduce the flow of terror weapons going into the global arms
bazaar," Defense Secretary William Cohen said. "It's going to have to
improve the readiness of our forces to protect themselves and survive and
fight on one of these contaminated battlefields. It's going to have to
direct additional billions of dollars to these efforts; continue with the
new joint task force [and] special teams of National Guardsmen. They're both
designed to assist communities in the event of an attack on U.S. soil."
Saturday, January 13, 2001
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