Where nuke proliferation leads

North Korea will have a nuclear arsenal of eight to 10 warheads by next year.
Iran will conduct nuclear tests in 2007.
Japan will withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and rapidly develop a nuclear deterrent of its own by 2007.
South Korea does the same a year later.
North Korea begins developing three to 12 nukes a year at the same time.
A Chinese-Japanese nuclear arms race begins by 2007.
By 2009, North Korea tests a long-range inter-continental ballistic missile capable of reliably and accurately hitting North America.
By 2009, North Korea has enough nukes stockpiled to begin selling to other nations – like Venezuela and Nigeria.

These are just a few of the projections nuclear expert Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and former assistant secretary of defense, makes in the October issue of Atlantic Monthly.

Graham is the author of the highly acclaimed "Nuclear Terrorism," who believes it is entirely possible that al-Qaida already has nuclear weapons hidden in U.S. cities.

He writes in the upcoming issue of Atlantic Monthly that, unless something is done to prevent the production of nuclear weapons in countries like Iran and North Korea, shortly it will be impossible to keep them out of the hands of terrorists.

In addition, he says proliferation will lead to many other nations – including Saudi Arabia and Egypt – going nuclear.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Allison believes it is possible that "al-Qaida is hiding nuclear bombs in one or several American cities today," he wrote in the Chicago Tribune last month. "So who can say that the trucks the FBI warned about might not contain weapons of mass destruction?"

Allison explains that the highly enriched uranium needed to build a simple nuclear weapon is smaller than a football.

"It could be smuggled through American borders and into the metropolis the way illegal drugs come into the city every day: in uninspected cargo containers delivered by ships and trains, contraband smuggled over the Canadian-American border, or innumerable other ways," he says.

Allison reminds Americans that in May 2003, bin Laden obtained a fatwa from a Saudi cleric providing religious justification for al-Qaida's use of nuclear weapons against the U.S.

"Titled 'A Treatise on the Legal Status for Using Weapons of Mass Destruction Against Infidels,' it asserts that 'if a bomb that killed 10 million of them and burned as much of their land as they have burned Muslims' lands or dropped on them, it would be permissible,'" he explains.

Bin Laden has repeatedly promised to trump Sept. 11 with a more spectacular terrorist attack on the U.S.

"The ultimate terrorist spectacle would be an American city enveloped by a nuclear mushroom cloud," writes Allison.

As WND has reported, for more than 10 years, bin Laden has planned to use nuclear weapons in a terrorist attack on the U.S. The plan is dubbed "American Hiroshima." In fact, as first reported in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, captured al-Qaida operatives and documents suggest the weapons have already been smuggled into the country.

For continuing and complete coverage of Osama bin Laden's "American Hiroshima" plans, subscribe to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online, intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND.

Previous stories:

Al-Qaida's nuclear efforts: 'sophisticated, professional'

Pentagon drills for nuke terror

Turkish police seize Russian uranium

How Pakistan's Dr. X sold al-Qaida Islamic bomb

Author says prepare for nuclear terror

If al-Qaida has nukes, why wait to use them?

Hiroshima marks 60th anniversary of bombing

Nuke terrorists' favorite dates

Chertoff warns of nuclear terrorism

Nunn sees nuke terror threat