Investors Business Daily  |  December 5, 2013

IBD Editorials

Nuclear Terrorist Threat Looms On Our Southern Border

Are Mexican cartels in cahoots with Hezbollah? (Credit: AP/Eduardo Verdugo; Courtesy: salon.com)

National Security: The theft of a truck carrying dangerous radioactive material combined with terrorist group activity in the hemisphere shows that the need for a secure border involves more than illegal immigration.

Mexican authorities said Wednesday they found the stolen truck and likely recovered all of the radioactive cobalt taken by a group of thieves who were probably after the truck, unaware it carried a deadly cargo.

Cobalt-60, which is used in radiation therapy to treat cancer, was being transported from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage center. But what if the thieves were terrorists who knew what the truck was carrying and targeted it to gain material for a so-called "dirty bomb"?

At a nuclear security summit in South Korea last year, Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), identified cobalt-60 as one of the materials that could be used with conventional explosives to make such a weapon.

"A dirty bomb detonated in a major city could cause mass panic, as well as serious economic and environmental consequences," Amano said, according to a copy of his speech. Detonation of such a bomb in a big city, he warned, "could cause mass panic, as well as serious economic and environmental consequences."

Bombs made with cobalt-60 "pose a threat mainly because even a fraction of a gram emits a huge number of high-energy gamma rays; such material is harmful whether outside or inside the body," according to a 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service.

The U.S. government has sensors at border crossings and seaports to prevent radioactive materials from entering the country. But nuclear terrorists are not likely to check themselves through customs or show up at border checkpoints. They'd more than likely cross through porous openings in our border with Mexico, or maybe through one of the sophisticated tunnels that have been dug under the border.

We know state sponsors of terror have nuclear material and that terrorist groups have plans for such material. We know OTMs — other than Mexicans — have been coming across our border with the flood of illegal immigrants. We also know that cross-border tunnels capable of smuggling more than drugs, guns and people have been uncovered.

Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., recently sent a letter to the Homeland Security Department asking that a task force investigate growing ties between Hezbollah and the drug cartels as well as growing evidence of a Hezbollah presence in Mexico. If the cartels can smuggle drugs and people into America, Hezbollah and al-Qaida have to know they can smuggle in trained terrorists or the makings of a dirty bomb.

In 2010, the Los Zetas paramilitary drug cartel tried to blow up the Falcon Dam near Zapata, Texas. The Zetas' motive was to destroy a rival cartel's smuggling route. Imagine if it had been Hezbollah, Iran's terrorist proxy, and the objective was an even bigger target in America.

The U.S. Border Patrol in recent years has captured thousands of people classified as Other Than Mexican. These include individuals from Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan, and countries classified as state sponsors of terror.

Terrorism expert Steve Emerson, author of "American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us," said not long ago that, compared to al-Qaida, "Hezbollah has got a greater network, much more developed around the world," including "throughout the United States," and that "potentially Hezbollah can wreak a lot more damage if they chose to attack the United States within the continental borders."

Authorities recently discovered a massive drug tunnel from Tijuana to San Diego that stretched the length of nearly six football fields and had lighting, ventilation and an electric rail system used to convey marijuana and cocaine into the U.S. Unless we are vigilant, someday it could be a dirty bomb.

Original article here.