The United States needs a dramatic increase in defense spending as well as a massive overhaul of its national security decision-making process in order to avoid a catastrophe, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Monday.

“[We need] a national security budget and a homeland security budget driven by meeting the capabilities of our opponents, not by meeting their intentions. We are today running very big risks in the name of saving a few billion dollars that may end up killing several million Americans. The time to fix that is before the disaster happens,” said Gingrich.

He described several threats to national security such as nuclear, biological, and cyber attacks, as well as electromagnetic pulse attacks that could wipe out most of the country’s electrical structure. Gingrich stated that the U.S., like Japan, should start militarizing outer space in order to protect the massive amounts of communication technology orbiting the Earth.

Gingrich also criticized the federal government’s inability to act decisively and quickly, explaining that bureaucracy hinders the country’s ability to move at the speed of the modern world or sustain its defense system.

“We have been the most fortunate generation in history…We are still today the richest, freest, and safest people in the history of the world. That will only remain true if we have the courage, the discipline, and the foresight to insist on the kind of changes we need in order to maintain safety as the highest single value of the American people, a base on which you can then build prosperity and freedom,” said Gingrich.

Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) says it is more likely that a biological weapon of mass destruction will be used in an attack than a nuclear weapon. He says there has been an “explosion in the biological area of capabilities.” (0:20)

 

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Former U.S. Senator Jim Talent (R-Mo.) terrorists will recruit life scientists to create biological weapons. He says it is easier to adapt, weaponize, and stockpile biological weapons than nuclear arms. (0:39)

 

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By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

Weapons of mass destruction may not be a phrase the public hears as frequently anymore, but they are still a major issue according to former Senators Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and Jim Talent (R-Mo.). The politicians participated in a discussion Monday at the Heritage Foundation where they reported that the U.S. is uneasily vulnerable to a biological terrorist attack.

“It is more likely that that weapon of mass destruction will be a biological weapon rather than a nuclear weapon. I mentioned that there has been an explosion in the biological area of capabilities…The thing that has kept us from a biological weapon thus far has been the unreliable defense of ignorance,” said Graham.

The findings come from the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. Graham and Talent were the chairman and co-chairman of the Commission while in Congress.

Talent added that the U.S. is “running” to prevent any attacks but our opposition is “running faster.” He said terrorists will recruit life scientists to utilize bio weapons. However, he added that a biological attack is easier to prepare for than a nuclear attack.

Graham and Talent believe Vice President Joe Biden should be put in charge of combating the use of WMD and assuring that all precautions are made.

Graham predicted that by 2013 a WMD will be used somewhere in the world.

In the event that there is a large-scale attack Talent said, “People will want security, no matter what, to prevent a repeat of it.”

Commission predicts WMD use by 2013

The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism announced that WMD will likely be used somewhere in the world by 2013, and the weapon is expected to be biological.

“The terrorists are organizationally sophisticated enough to get either the nuclear or the bio weapon, but the bio weapon would be even easier for them to get…if they isolate a pathogen, and are able to weaponize it, there’s no reason they wont be able to make more than one weapon and attack more than once,” said Commission co-chair Jim Talent.

However, Talent said there are steps that can be taken to mitigate the risks of both nuclear and biological attacks. In regard to nuclear proliferation, Talent recommends focusing on Pakistan.

“We decided that some time ago as a group, and the events of the last weekend just shows one of the reasons why it’s important. Pakistan is the epicenter of a lot of these dangers, and not just of terrorism but also the potential use by nation states of nuclear weapons because there’s a budding arms race between Pakistan and India in that area,” explained Talent.

The commission outlined other steps, such as halting the use of highly enriched uranium in research reactors, putting a moratorium on manufacturing weapons usable fuels for reactors, and the controversial step of eliminating financial incentives for promoting nuclear energy.

To prevent a biological attack the commission suggested improving protection for the high containment labs where pathogens are created and fostering a community of security among biological scientists, similar to the one shared by physicists in the nuclear age.

“We have recommended that there be some standardization and a single point of accountability for the high containment laboratories in the United States. There has been a proliferation of those labs since 9/11,” said Commission Chairman Bob Graham.

At the House Foreign Affairs Committee International Relations Budget Full committee hearing on the “International Relations Budget for FY2009,” In response to Representative Robert Wexler, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that at no time did she intend to, nor believe that she did, put forth false information. Wexler asks her if she had intelligence information that was contrary to the intelligence information that was reported about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. He says that there were contrary reports, and Rice says that she chose to use the collective wisdom of the intelligence community, and that it showed in the Key Judgments in 2002 that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his biological weapons program, reconstituted his chemical weapons program, and might do so with his nuclear weapons program if he got foreign assistance. She says she will be the first to say that it was not right. (1:27)

 

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