NCJ Number
101525
Date Published
1986
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The article discusses nuclear proliferation and the threat of the use of nuclear warfare for terrorist purposes by the Islamic nations.
Abstract
Several fundamentalist Islamic nations have made great efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has re-initiated its nuclear program and has approached firms in Switzerland and Belgium about the purchase of plutonium reprocessing technology. Libya, also, has tried to acquire nuclear weapons, and its Tajura Nuclear Research Center possesses highly enriched weapons-grade uranium. Substantial evidence exists that Pakistan possesses a nuclear capability. The industrialized democracies of the West have gravely injured international security interests by exporting nuclear technologies with military applications to countries for whom terrorism is a State policy. There is a need for a sound and successful nonproliferation policy if democratic nations seek to check terrorism and prevent terrorists from gaining access to these weapons of mass destruction.