Nuclear Power Plants Vulnerable to Attack, Former CIA Officer Says

[kristopher]

By Matthew Harwood 03/16/2010 -

The United States is woefully unprepared to protect its nuclear power plants from a terrorist attack, a former CIA officer divulged on CNN.com yesterday.

Charles S. Faddis, the former head of the CIA's unit on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, writes that he investigated security measures at many U.S. nuclear power plants during research for a book on the state of U.S homeland security. He found them wanting. His call to secure these sites comes after President Barack Obama guaranteed $8 billion in government loans to a company to construct two new nuclear power plants in Georgia.

"Before we start building reactors we need to address another urgent matter," he writes. "We need to make current reactors secure."

A terrorist attack against a nuclear power plant isn't a theoretical vulnerability, Faddis, the author of "Willful Neglect: The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Security," explains. Last month, Yemen detained a Somali-American man in a roundup of suspected al Qaeda militants. New Jersey-native Sharif Mobley subsequently came to the attention of the U.S. media last week when he shot and killed a hospital guard in an escape attempt in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a. Prior to leaving the United States for Yemen, Mobley worked at three different nuclear power plants from 2002 to 2008, the Daily News reports. Faddis also reminds readers that 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed originally wanted to crash airliners into nuclear power plants as part of the 9-11 terrorist operation.

A chief problem, writes Faddis, ...

http://www.securitymanagement.com/news/nuclear-power-plants-vulnerable-attack-former-cia-officer-says-006870

[BunkerHill24]

1. The CIA was born from a fear and still functions cultured of fear

Heck, maybe we need to extend and expand the CIA. I would imagine the five billion yearly budget given out by the American taxi payers is never enough.

[kristopher]

2. Or we could just recognize that nuclear power plants are a stated target

...of terrorists intent on sabotage, and start spending the appropriate amount of money that the risk justifies.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/201527.php

[BunkerHill24]

3. YUP....Iran is the current nuclear energy power to be "sabotaged"

...by the CIA.

[joshcryer]

4. Pretty much, they have some of the worlds largest uranium reserves.

[BunkerHill24]

5. ..and we are in negotiations with likes of Natanyahoo......go figure!

[NNadir]

6. You mean a bunch of terrorists are going to drive tanks up the New York State Thruway?

Accompanied by King Kong?

I contemplated this bit of anti-nuke paranoid imaginings in another fun article I wrote on another website, one run by anti-nukes: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/12/28/14154/799">Contemplating the Terrorist Who Strikes the Indian Point Nuclear Station.

How come you don't give a rat's ass about actual terrorist attacks?

It seems that in 2001, terrorists funded by Wahabist oil money, took a giant dangerous fossil fuel device and ran it into a pair of large buildings in a small town in Southern New York.

Ever hear of it?

No?

Any thoughts of, um, banning oil and tall buildings because of observed terrorist attacks?

No?

Your foedtid imagination is more important than observed reality?

Why am I not surprised?

And speaking of terrorist threats, how come this one doesn't cause you to consider abandoning that fucking truck?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/2/213937/2970">Terrorist Threat Against Dangerous Fossil Fuel Storage Facility Leads to Call for Fossil Fuel Ban.