Al Qaeda Publises Online "Dirty Bomb How-to Guide" Markey, Clinton: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Abdicates Responsibility for Dirty Bomb Security

AL QAEDA PUBLISHES ONLINE "DIRTY BOMB HOW-TO GUIDE" MARKEY, CLINTON: NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION ABDICATES RESPONSIBILITY FOR DIRTY BOMB SECURITY

Representative Edward Markey (MA) and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) today again called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to tighten controls on nuclear materials that could be used to create a dirty bomb, especially in light of recent reports that Al Qaeda had published a "how-to-make-a-dirty-bomb-guide" online. According to the March 2, 2006 edition of Global Issues Report, "the militant Islamic online forum AlGhorabaa.net, a site commonly used by Al-Qaida and Iraqi insurgents, recently circulated Arabic-language instructions on how to make a radium dirty bomb." The article reportedly includes photos and detailed directions in order to "make the experiment easy and available for you, my brother the mujahid, as they say, in the kitchen."

"The NRC is on another planet if it thinks the issue of tracking dirty-bomb material is a public health issue, not an issue of preventing a terrorist from deploying and detonating a weapon in the war on terror," said Rep. Markey. "We wouldn't ask each state to take primary responsibility for overseeing loose nuclear weapons, yet the NRC is proposing that much of the federal responsibility over loose nuclear material be imposed on state environmental and health inspectors."

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2077&Itemid=141