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Former Indiana congressman and 9/11 Commissioner Tim Roemer made the case for adopting the commission's recommendations in Terre Haute in 2006. (HPI Photo)
By BRIAN A. HOWEY
INDIANAPOLIS - “The destruction of an American city in our lifetime ….”
Those were the words echoing from Sen. Dick Lugar’s presidential campaign of 1995-96. A dozen years later, Americans distracted by collapses on Wall Street and in Detroit awoke last Tuesday to similar warnings, this time from 
“World At Risk: The Report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism.”
It predicts a “weapons of mass destruction” attack within five years on American soil.
The report states, “The intent of this report is neither to frighten nor reassure the American people about the current state of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. It is to underscore that the U.S. government has yet to fully adapt to these circumstances and to convey the sobering reality that the risks are growing faster than our multilayer defenses. Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing.”
The report describes agents of terror staking out a pathogen lab at Georgia State University and another in San Antonio. “They were looking for even the slightest security vulnerability - anything that might give an edge to terrorists seeking to steal small quantities of Ebola virus or other lethal disease agents for which there are no treatments, no known cures.” They were checking civilian access to loading docks and measuring security camera span widths … in broad daylight.
“Osama bin Laden has mandated obtaining a nuclear weapon and using it against the United States,” WMD Commission member Tim Roemer, the former Indiana congressman and member of the 9/11 Commission, told Howey Politics Indiana this week. “There’s a religious obligation to do this.”
Sen. Lugar and Ambassador William Burns at the Luch facility in Russia in August 2007. The facility was the scene of a 1998 theft of highly enriched uranium that could have destroyed an American city. The Nunn-Lugar program has placed a series of safeguards at Luch. (HPI Photo by Brian A. Howey)
Roemer appears to be on a short list for director of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to the New York Times. When asked if the President-elect’s transition team is vetting him, Roemer declined to comment, citing the sensitivity of the situation. Roemer served six terms in the 2nd CD and drafted the legislation creating the 9/11 Commission, which he then served along with former Hoosier congressman Lee Hamilton. As a congressman, he also led efforts to reform U.S. intelligence capabilities.
On Sept. 20, Roemer and fellow WMD Commissioners, former U.S. Sens. Jim Talent and Bob Graham, were on their way to Islamabad when “three hours out” Blackberries and cell phones began ringing simultaneously: The Islamabad Marriott - their destination - had been devastated by a bomb. Roemer calls it a “coincidence” but a sobering one. He says, “There’s a growing threat. It will happen in New York City, London, Islamabad ….”
The report also tells of several other incidents where labs or nuclear facility breaches have taken place, such as the Luch Scientific Production facility in Podolsk, Russia, a scene I covered with Lugar and Nuclear Threat Initiative Chairman Sam Nunn in August 2007. In 1998, a worker there tried to sell 18.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium on the black market before Russian security agents arrested him.
The report describes what a nuclear terror attack in Chicago might look like: “A nuclear bomb explodes at Sears Tower. Everything from Navy Pier to the Eisenhower Expressway disappears. The United Center and Grant Park are destroyed. A firestorm sweeps from the White Sox’s U.S. Cellular Field on the South Side to the Cubs’ Wrigley Field on the North Side.”
Roemer, who briefed President Bush and Vice President Elect Joe Biden on Wednesday, said the report is aimed at spurring action from the White House to Congress to the citizenry. It does not advocate appointing a WMD czar, but establishing a top tier seat on the National Security Council headed, perhaps, by Biden. It urges Congress to flex its oversight as “the 911 Commission urged them to do.” And it asks citizens to be diligent.
What can you do? Write or call your congressman and urge them to fulfill the original 9/11 Commission recommendations. You can easily email at www.house.gov. Do it today.
Somewhat ominously, Roemer says that “all roads lead to Pakistan,” which, in light of the Mumbai terrorist attack of last weekend has placed both that country and India on a virtual war footing.
Lugar responded to the report by saying, “We must take every measure to address WMD threats.” The report urges the implementation of programs that Lugar has long advocated. “We must eliminate those conditions that restrict or delay our ability to act,” he said.
“The United States has the technical expertise and diplomatic standing to dramatically benefit international security. American leaders must ensure that we have the political will and resources to implement programs devoted to these ends.”
The good news in these dire scenarios is that Obama has repeatedly said he “gets it.” In an April 29 interview with HPI, Obama said that WMD “will be a top priority. It will be something I care deeply, deeply about. We can defeat terrorists who are equipped conventionally. The devastation they could do with weapons of mass destruction would be unimaginable and we have to make sure we are doing everything we can do in that scenario.”
An attack with WMD on American soil seems almost too fantastic to comprehend. The reality, conveyed by Lugar and Roemer, is that Obama enters office with a critical clock ticking, ticking, ticking ….
Howey is publisher of Howey Politics Indiana at www.howeypolitics.com
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This entry was written by and posted on December 6, 2008 at 10:00 am and filed under Brian Howey Column. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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