Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey revealed in a recent interview that it is “a very real” possibility terrorists could hit the United States again in the upcoming few months.

This seems to confirm recent remarks made by FBI Director Robert Mueller to NewsMax.com that “al Qaeda’s paramount goal is clear: to detonate a nuclear device that would kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.”

Having a keen sense of the obvious, FSM deduces that these national security professionals know a lot more than they are willing or able to say publicly.  Consequently, their statements, including those of DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff who expressed a “gut feeling” that the same attacks would occur, should serve as a wake up call to us all.  But…what should or can we do?

As a matter of pure logic, former Director Woolsey remarked that the first and most important condition necessary to keep America safe is “not to tie the president’s hands” when it comes to our intelligence programs.  A prime example of what not to do is the spectacle that transpired in the Senate just this past week with liberals insisting that court orders be obtained under the FISA program to intercept suspected terrorist conversations occurring between foreign countries!  What are they smoking?

Citizens take note: whatever Senators wanted to enforce FISA restrictions on the president in these circumstances should, in our humble opinion, be kicked out of office. We are not playing paddycake with terrorists who lust for our deaths.  This is all out war and our “leaders” need to get serious but fast about winning it.  Note: Every Republican who voted was in favor of the amendments to FISA. They were joined by seventeen Democrats: Bayh, Carper, Casey, Conrad, Feinstein, Inouye, Klobuchar, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln, McCaskill, Mikulski, Nelson (Fla.), Nelson (Neb.), Pryor, Salazar, and Webb.  Twenty-eight Democrats, amazingly, voted against this vital measure.

Even considering the imminent scenario of another big terrorist attack, Woolsey indicated that a nuclear explosion is probably not as likely as a biological attack or a dirty bomb explosion.  A dirty bomb, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is:

one type of a “radiological dispersal device” (RDD) that combines a conventional explosive, such as dynamite, with radioactive material. The terms dirty bomb and RDD are often used interchangeably in the media. Most RDDs would not release enough radiation to kill people or cause severe illness – the conventional explosive itself would be more harmful to individuals than the radioactive material. However, depending on the scenario, an RDD explosion could create fear and panic, contaminate property, and require potentially costly cleanup.

A biological attack with a bacterium like anthrax is also a possibility.  Anthrax, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is a very dangerous agent. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies agents with recognized bioterrorism potential into three priority areas (A, B and C). Anthrax is classified as a Category A agent. Category A agents are those that:

- pose the greatest possible threat for a bad effect on public health

- may spread across a large area or need public awareness

- need a great deal of planning to protect the public’s health

In most cases, early treatment with antibiotics can cure cutaneous anthrax. Even if untreated, 80 percent of people who become infected with cutaneous anthrax do not die.  Gastrointestinal anthrax is more serious because between one-fourth and more than half of cases lead to death. Inhalation anthrax is much more severe. In 2001, about half of the cases of inhalation anthrax ended in death.

Clearly, in either case, we can count on many more Americans being harmed seriously, killed or otherwise devastated in such an attack.  And of course there is always the possibility of more than one attack and instead, a series of simultaneous attacks occurring in major cities and/or rural areas, as we were recently warned might happen. 

Last but sadly not least, there is always the possibility of a nuclear attack, as much as none of us wants to believe it possibly could be true. According to the Federation of American Scientists:

Nuclear detonations are the most devastating of the weapons of mass destruction. To make this point one need only recall the pictures from Hiroshima or the international furor over the accidental but enormous radiation release from the Chernobyl power plant.

A nuclear detonation creates a severe environment including blast, thermal pulse, neutrons, x- and gamma-rays, radiation, electromagnetic pulse (EMP), and ionization of the upper atmosphere. Depending upon the environment in which the nuclear device is detonated, blast effects are manifested as ground shock, water shock, “blueout,” cratering, and large amounts of dust and radioactive fallout. All pose problems for the survival of friendly systems and can lead to the destruction or neutralization of hostile assets.

Because of the tremendous amounts of energy liberated per unit mass in a nuclear detonation, temperatures of several tens of million degrees centigrade develop in the immediate area of the detonation. This is in marked contrast to the few thousand degrees of a conventional explosion. At these very high temperatures the non-fissioned parts of the nuclear weapon are vaporized.

To say nothing of everything within its reach as well.

Clearly, the imminent threat from devastating new terror attacks should not be compartmentalized into partisanship. This is neither a Democrat nor a Republican issue. It is an issue of the utmost seriousness to every single American, as well as to all visitors to our country at any given time.

Woolsey said what we at FSM have believed for quite some time. "I think this is a long war, and we need to treat it as such; and go on a full war-footing, from everything to making it easy for John Does to give alerts when they see the flying imams doing their thing, to working closely with allies in the Middle East, I think particularly with Israel. And a wide range of similar steps."

We can only hope and pray for two things: that wiser heads will prevail in the decision-making arenas of this current administration and Congress, and that American citizens will kick out of office those fools who are not willing to protect us from those who would do us grave harm. 

What is at stake, according to our enemies, is no less than the most monumental issue of the 21st century – the survival of Western civilization.

The original article can be found at http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/

 

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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