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WMD in Wrong Hands is "Greatest Security Risk" This Decade, Wolfowitz Says

Thursday, May 15, 2003
By SFC Doug Sample
U.S. Army
American Forces Press Service

"One problem with threat-based approaches is that our intelligence about chemical and biological threats is inherently limited and uncertain -- given the ease with which these capabilities can be concealed, especially when compared with nuclear or major conventional weaponry. Advances in biotechnology and in other areas of science also leave us vulnerable to the possibility that we will always be several steps behind a sophisticated adversary, who may vary his choice of threat agents faster than we can develop threat-specific responses. Consequently we think it’s important that DoD invest in research and development of a number of different promising technologies simultaneously -- to counter both known and unknown chemical and biological threats and to get on the front side of the threat curve."
-- Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, National Defense University Conference on Counterproliferation, Fort Lesley J. Mcnair, Washington, D.C., May 13, 2003

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Weapons of mass destruction in the wrong hands is the "greatest security risk of this decade," said deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz during a symposium at the third annual Conference on Counterproliferation May 13.

The United States will continue to have a requirement for a "robust WMD elimination capability" even after the discovery and the destruction of Iraq's WMD capabilities, he noted.

Wolfowitz's comment came in the wake of the May 12 terrorist bombing attacks on a residential compound in Saudi Arabia that killed 34 people, including eight Americans. It served as a harsh reminder that the United States war against terrorism is not over, he said.

The symposium was held at the National Defense University's Center for Counterproliferation Research at Fort McNair in Washington May 13-14. Wolfowitz addressed an audience of military and civilian leaders on the Pentagon's progress to end the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the war on terrorism.

In an era where chemical and biological weapons have multiplied, the deputy secretary said the United States' priority has got to be on "preventing attacks and protecting our people and our military forces."

Wolfowitz said the Sept. 11 attacks "awakened" the United States to an era of mass terror that "changed the way we have to think about national security."

They demonstrated in the "clearest terms" that the United States "can't simply wait" for a crisis to develop or for enemies to accumulate the means to harm the country before it acts. He added that another attack on the homeland is likely to happen.
(More: DefenseLINK.mil)
2003 © U.S. Department of Defense.

Dan