Here’s A Day-Brightener For Ya
By Mitch Berg
The Sunday Herald – Scotland’s award-winning independent newspaper
A NUCLEAR attack by terrorists causing widespread panic, chaos and death is inevitable and will happen soon, a senior Scottish police officer has warned.
Ian Dickinson, who leads the police response to chemical, biological and nuclear threats in Scotland, has painted the bleakest picture yet of the dangers the world now faces.
Efforts to prevent terrorist groups from obtaining materials that could be made into radioactive dirty bombs – or even crude nuclear explosives – are bound to fail, he said. And the result will be horror on an unprecedented scale.
“These materials are undoubtedly out there, and undoubtedly will end up in terrorists’ hands, and undoubtedly will be used by terrorists some time soon,” he declared. “We must plan for failure and prepare for absolute terror.”
Dickinson is assistant chief constable with Lothian and Borders Police, and has responsibility through the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland for protecting Scotland from chemical and nuclear attacks. He has been closely involved in co-ordinating the country’s counter-terrorism response.
He said: “An incident will continue for days and all the public will see is people dying without reason. What will we do when our children come home from school with blisters on their skin and their parents don’t know what to do?
“What happens if 10 deaths, 50 deaths, 100 deaths start occurring in an unconnected and random way all over the country? The public will be rightly and understandably terrified.”
Oh, there’s more.
November 28th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Not to worry. President Bush is totally on top of this threat. He’s got covert CIA operatives tracking blackmarket nuclear material precisely to fight the chances of nuclear terrorism.
President Bush knows the importance of this work and zealously safeguards this important classified work.
/jc
November 28th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Not to downplay too much what this guy is saying, but it’s his business to frighten people into dedicating more time and resources to anti-terrorism efforts. The better prepared we are, the better prepared we are or so the idea goes.
November 28th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
As Slash points out,
What they were referring to is a dirty bomb attack (as I recall) using nuclear material. Not a nuclear explosion. Whether it’s one or the other, is really not material, though.
First, the reaction of the Bush administration has been to improve controls on fissile materials almost not at all. Point to Slash.
Second, the ineptitude of this administration at managing and shaping events in Pakistan, the most hostile Sunni extremist state out there outside of Saudi Arabia, and the one with a. A VERY large number of possible recruits, and b. Oh by the way, the only Sunni state with nuclear weapons.. well, I don’t exactly see the column you’ve posted in here as jstification for the attack on Iraq, the conduct of the ‘War on Terrrrrrr’ or any other conflation you’ve implied. If anything, it’s the exact opposite, and here’s why.
Bush is holding a peace conference at which Sunni’s are “overjoyed that the US has re-engaged moderate Muslims” because the neo-con approach of killing them until they stop attacking failed utterly. Our attack on Iraq, for example, only succeeded in increasing recruiting numbers for Al Qaeda, and the comment that they (the moderates) are overjoyed underscores the fact that we were disdainful of helping moderate muslims, that we aligned with hardcore pro-Israeli lobbyists that the Muslim/Arab world only understands violence, and should be treated as such. In short, we were exteme in our response – and the (Muslim) moderates took note.
That extremist message permeated the right-wing blogosphere for 5 years. I’d bet you’d find the same basic message many places, from RightWingNews to Pair O Dice even today- yet here is Bush, attempting to say “We’ve got to solve the Palestinian problem by negotiation, including sacrifice/comprimise by Isreal, or you’ll never solve the Middle-East.” This approach flies in the face of what the hard right in Israel (and here) want, and the hard right in Isreal are protesting. They are commenting that it represents ‘mollycoddling terrorists’ and shouldn’t happen until Hamas agrees Israel has the right to exist. Does any of that sound familiar?
Yet, Israel has accepted that it’s necessary, that engaging moderate Muslims is really even mandatory for Israel’s long term heath. I made that comment here six months ago – and was treated with contempt. Now Bush is doing so, as is Isreal, are they both wrong, or was your contempt a reflection of your ignorance?
But what’s more, it exemplifies the fact that our conduct from 2001 to 2006 was unsuccessful, it resulted in Al Qaeda being stronger, not weaker, now than in 2001. The initial gains from eradicating them from Afghanistan have been lost, especially since we now no longer have a clear state from which we can identify and track movements. They are more diverse and robust than ever before.
So if the point here is, ‘See, we were RIGHT, these guys are out there and they’re dangerous”, then the point is infantile, because NO ONE said Muslim Extremists wouldn’t pursue dirty bombs, NO ONE said they weren’t dangerous, but you’re trying to wag the dog – you’re suggesting that because they are dangerous – therefore attacking Iraq, and treating the Muslim world as hostile, is justified. No such thing is true. Iraq has NOTHING at all to do with controlling fissile material, and treating the arab world with contempt had the exact opposite desired effect. If you think you didn’t, I urge you all to go back and consider how many places and how many times you said things like “Muslims embrace terrorism.” Those comments matter, they show a profound ignorance of muslims, and are profoundly insulting. Similarly, saying things like “Islamofacism” reflect profound ignorance of Islam, and are equally galling to moderate Muslims, and rightly so.
So this column only shows that you’ve screwed the pooch. While Rome was burning, you were engaged in Iraq, to the toon of 1.5 Trillion dollars. You whistled and fiddled while Al Qaeda diversified and rebuilt, you stood idley by while nuclear material sits and sat ungaurded and relatively uncontrolled.
This column isn’t an affirmation of your conduct, it’s an indictment. An indictment that you’re either too foolish to grasp, or wilfully choose to misunderstand. You appear to be perpetuating the same ‘fear fear fear’ mongering that has gone on for six plus years now – yet still seem unable to grasp that your solution was to the wrong fear and to the wrong problem.
November 28th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
A highly ironic article considering the recent reconsiderations on the toxic effects of radiation. A nice overview is available from that well known conservative tool, der Spiegle: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,519043,00.html.
Let’s just say the lefties with an agenda to promote in the willingly compliant mass media haven’t gotten the numbers even close to right.