WMD Terrorism and Usama bin Laden
The article WMD Terrorism and Usama Bin Laden was written by Mathew Osborne and Kimberly McCloud. It details the testimony of Jamal Ahmad al-Fadl who was once Bin Laden’s associate during his trial at a New York District court on February in 2001. It summarizes Bin Laden’s attempts to acquire uranium from Sudan. It also includes a chronology of incidents that are related to Bin Laden and his interests in nuclear weapons. The article provides an insight of how Bin Laden and Al-Qa’ida acquire nuclear weapons and how their continued acquisition of nuclear weapons has increased terrorist attacks [ CITATION McC01 \l 1033 ].
Al Fadl’s testimony, if taken seriously, will be crucial in the war against terrorism and more particularly defeating Al-Qa’ida. Nonetheless, skeptics doubt his testimony because of his lengthy police record in Sudan and Hungary and the circumstances that led to his fall out with Bin Laden. Al Fadl warned the American embassy official that intended to attack the United States which was not taken seriously. Subsequently, the U.S embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were bombed that was followed by the 9/11 attack in U.S.A. Had he been taken seriously by the government and U.S security agencies, these attacks would have been avoided or the resulting impact of the attacks would have been minimized.
There are those who argued that the U.S government was spending a lot of public resources in protecting and housing Al –Fadl after he agreed to cooperate with the U.S government. The government needs to devote more resources and effort in fighting terrorism. In order to fight terrorism security agencies need information of how terrorist organizations such as Al-Qa’ida operate and source nuclear weapons. The amount spent on housing and protecting Al-Fadl to provide crucial information about Bin Laden and Al-Qa’ida is insignificant compared to the benefits that will accrue from preventing potential terrorist attacks and destroying terrorist groups.
Reference
McCloud, K., & Osborne, M. (2001, March 7). WMD TERRORISM AND USAMA BIN LADEN. Retrieved May 21, 2011, from James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies: http://cns.miis.edu/reports/binladen.htm
