The Nuclear Network

By Douglas Farah


There were several reports, led by the Washington Post, on the rogue international smuggling network that managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon.

No one knows where those blueprints were sold, or to whom. My sources in the intelligence community have suspected for several years that the network of senior Russian officials operating the criminal enterprise that Viktor Bout was a part of, had gotten ahold of at least two copies of the plans.

Given Bout's extensive contact lists with radical and criminal groups, and those of the Russian organized crime that are creeping in to many new places, including the Caribbean and Mexico, it is hard to overstate how dangerous this is.

"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," David Albright wrote in a draft report about the blueprint's discovery.

The important lesson here is that we know that the network of A.Q. Khan provided Libya and North Korea with design information for a nuclear bomb. My full blog is here.

June 16, 2008 05:34 PM Link

The Strategic Threat of Nuclear Terrorism

By Michael Jacobson


This afternoon, the Washington Institute hosted Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, the chief of Intelligence at the Department of Energy, as part of our 2008 Speaker Series, featuring senior US government counterterrorism officials. The speaker series is available here.

Mr. Mowatt-Larssen spent more than 2 decades in the CIA before assuming the DOE post, working on WMD-related issues, among many other assignments. At the Institute, he spoke about the threat of nuclear terrorism, focusing not only on al Qaeda, but also explaining how WMD-terrorism presents a broader, strategic threat.

Mr. Mowatt-Larssen offered his thoughts on how the US and its allies can most effectively confront this potentially grave threat. His full remarks are available here:

June 16, 2008 02:05 PM Link