Panel warns US bio attack likely in next 5 years
WASHINGTON: The United States can expect a terror attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan
commission in a study briefed on Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
It suggests that the Obama administration bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists.
“Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing,” states the report. It is scheduled to be publicly released on Wednesday.
The commission also is encouraging the new White House to appoint one official on the National Security Council to coordinate exclusively US intelligence and foreign policy on combating the spread of nuclear and biological weapons.
The report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, led by former Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and Jim Talent of Missouri, acknowledges that terrorist groups still lack the needed scientific and technical ability to make weapons out of pathogens or nuclear bombs. It warns that gap can be overcome easily if terrorists should find scientists willing to share or sell their expertise.