A Nuclear Attack By Terrorists Is “Inevitable”

We’ve heard this before. We’ve been hearing it for years, actually. But it seems the warnings are becoming more frequent….more urgent.

A NUCLEAR attack by terrorists causing widespread panic, chaos and death is inevitable and will happen soon, a senior Scottish police officer has warned.

Ian Dickinson, who leads the police response to chemical, biological and nuclear threats in Scotland, has painted the bleakest picture yet of the dangers the world now faces.

Efforts to prevent terrorist groups from obtaining materials that could be made into radioactive dirty bombs – or even crude nuclear explosives – are bound to fail, he said. And the result will be horror on an unprecedented scale.

“These materials are undoubtedly out there, and undoubtedly will end up in terrorists’ hands, and undoubtedly will be used by terrorists some time soon,” he declared. “We must plan for failure and prepare for absolute terror.“

What a killjoy, eh?

He said: “An incident will continue for days and all the public will see is people dying without reason. What will we do when our children come home from school with blisters on their skin and their parents don’t know what to do?

“What happens if 10 deaths, 50 deaths, 100 deaths start occurring in an unconnected and random way all over the country? The public will be rightly and understandably terrified.”

Casualties caused by radiation, which most people don’t understand, would trigger widespread “panic and fear”, said Dickinson. And the response of the emergency services “would be chaotic” because of a shortage of resource.

Do you have your supply of potassium iodide, yet? Why not?

Dickinson’s nightmare analysis was backed up by Dr Frank Barnaby, a nuclear consultant who used to work at the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire. “The amazing thing is that this hasn’t happened already,” he told the Sunday Herald.

“We should expect it any minute. It’s an obvious thing for a terrorist to do. A primitive nuclear explosion would simply eliminate the centre of a city like Glasgow or Edinburgh.”

The Edinburgh conference heard a series of other warnings about the risks of radioactive materials being stolen and used to cause devastation.

“As the terrorists look for the next spectacular attack, we know that al-Qaeda in Iraq is calling on nuclear scientists to join in the jihad,” said William Nye, director of counter-terrorism and intelligence at the Home Office in London.

Richard Hoskins, from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Office of Nuclear Security in Vienna, revealed that there had been 1266 confirmed incidents in which radioactive materials had been stolen or lost around the world since 1993.

Oh, and have a happy Monday.

Hat tips to: Atlas Shrugs

and National Terror Alert