Loose Nukes

Keeping nuclear material out of the hands of terrorists is the announced goal of the Nuclear Security Summit meeting yesterday and today in Washington, attended by representatives of over 40 countries including Israel. It has its work cut out for it. Approximately 35 pounds of uranium-235 (about the size of a grapefruit) or nine pounds of plutonium-239 is enough to make a working nuclear bomb, according to the political scientist Graham Allison. Today, an estimated 4.6 million pounds of nuclear material is dispersed in 40 countries.

Unfortunately, Egypt and Turkey are set to sideswipe the nuclear-terrorism meeting to criticize Israel's reputed nuclear-weapons capability. Faced with this prospect, Prime Minister Netanyahu opted to stay home and send Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor in his stead.  It appears that Israel will not be mentioned in the final communiqué being crafted by the Obama administration. Next month, however, Arab states attending a meeting of parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) can be counted on to equate Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity with the unambiguous and real present danger of a nuclear-armed Iran.

The one true link is between the menace of nuclear terrorism and Islamist extremism. A.Q. Khan, Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, and an array of his associates provided knowhow to North Korea, Libya, and Iran. For its part, Tehran maintains a murky relationship with al-Qaeda and open ties with Hizbullah and Hamas. These organizations have shown no compunctions about engaging in anti-civilian warfare. That may explain why the American President calls a nuclear weapon in the hands of a terrorist organization the biggest threat to the Western world. Yet neither Iran nor North Korea is on the table at today's Washington summit.  

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