HOMELAND INSECURITY

Cities push for help
against nuke terror

Ohio activist, municipalities demand Washington take action

Published: 01/17/2006 at 1:00 AM

WASHINGTON – Three Ohio cities have adopted resolutions urging the federal government to make protecting the nation from nuclear terrorist attacks the top security priority.

On the heels of news that federal law enforcement authorities have been using radiation detectors to search for terrorist nuclear devices in the nation’s capital and five other cities, Phineas Anderson of Perrysburg, Ohio, a former employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, got his town to adopt a resolution stating that “the threat of a nuclear bomb being detonated by terrorists in an American city is real and growing” and that urgent steps need to be taken to prevent a catastrophe.

He followed up by getting Toledo and Sylvania to follow suit.

The resolutions urge Congress to work with other countries and the United Nations to “immediately implement actions that will secure to a high standard fissile nuclear material and nuclear weapons around the world.”

Ohio state Sen. Randy Gardner and Rep. Bob Latta, both Republicans from Bowling Green, are working at the state level to organize a letter of support to be signed by legislators.

Anderson is planning to visit Washington in the coming weeks to visit Ohio’s senators and representatives to take up the campaign.

He got interested in the topic after hearing a talk by Graham Allison, author of “Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe,” speak last year. He helped bring Allison to Toledo for an appearance last October.

Just before Christmas, the U.S. government confirmed it has been monitoring radiation levels at more than 100 mosques, homes, businesses and other sites in and around the nation’s capital and at least five other cities since Sept. 11, 2001, providing further evidence law enforcement officials suspect terrorists have secreted nuclear or radiological weapons inside the country.

WorldNetDaily first reported on al-Qaida’s decade-long plans to detonate nuclear devices in seven major U.S. cities simultaneously in an operation it calls “American Hiroshima.”

In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained.

The nuclear surveillance program began in early 2002 and has been run by the FBI and the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team, or NEST.

The other cities monitored in the U.S. News report include Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York and Seattle.

As WorldNetDaily reported, former FBI consultant Paul L. Williams describes how al-Qaida has already purchased some post-Soviet mini-nukes and hired Russians to help them operate them. The report was first published in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by WND’s founder.

One of the sources for the information is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, who is now in U.S. custody.

As previously reported by G2 Bulletin, al-Qaida has obtained at least 40 nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union – including suitcase nukes, nuclear mines, artillery shells and even some missile warheads. In addition, documents captured in Afghanistan show al-Qaida had plans to assemble its own nuclear weapons with fissile material it purchased on the black market.

Special offers:

For complete coverage of Osama bin Laden’s “American Hiroshima” nuclear terrorist threat, subscribe to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium, online, intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND.

What to do if nuclear disaster is imminent – get free report on practical steps for survival of terror attack.

If you’d like to sound off on this issue, please take part in the HREF="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/polls/">WorldNetDaily poll.

Previous stories:

The search for nukes in Washington, D.C.

Bush not vigilant enough on nuclear terror threat

Al-Qaida nuke reactor threat

High risk of nuke terror this month, says expert

New York scrambles amid ‘credible threat’

Bali blasts kick off early ‘Ramadan Offensive’

Nuke terror set for Ramadan?