By KUNA,
Washington : A bipartisan US congressional panel warned Tuesday the world is at risk for a nuclear or biological attack in the next five years.
The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism said the international community must act decisively and with great urgency to counter such a threat.
Without urgent action, “it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013,” the commission said in its report “World at Risk”.
In a release Tuesday, one day ahead of the panel’s formal conference on the reports findings, the commission’s chairman former Florida Senator Bob Graham said “our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing”.
The congressional panel based its findings on interviews with more than 250 governmental and non-governmental experts.
The panel is calling on the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama to prepare, if necessary, for germ warfare, saying terrorists are more likely to be able to obtain biological than nuclear weapons, with anthrax a particular danger, and warned that threats are “evolving faster than our multilayered responses”.
It also calls on the administration to radically overhaul its policies toward South Asian countries where terrorists find safe havens. The panel highlights Pakistan as a nation rife with extremists and where nuclear and biological materials must be better secured.
The panel also calls for a renewed focus on nuclear non-proliferation.
The congressional commission was established last year and is charged with investigating the spread of terrorism and nuclear and biological weapons.