Wednesday, February 9 2005
CHECHEN NUKE?: Let's hope Moscow is right about this one:

"Officials in Moscow scoff at claims Chechen gunmen have a nuclear device to launch a terror attack. Russia’s foreign ministry rubbished the theory on Tuesday dismissing allegations by Boris Berezovsky, Russian billionaire in self-imposed London exile, that rebels in the Caucasus have such weaponry."

For those of you who missed it, Steve Coll touched on a related subject in Washington Post on Sunday:

At a conference on the future of al Qaeda sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory last month, I posed a dark question to 60 or so nuclear weapons scientists and specialists on terrorism and radical Islam: How many of them believed that the probability of a nuclear fission bomb attack on U.S. soil during the next several decades was negligible -- say, less than 5 percent?

At issue was the Big One -- a Hiroshima-or-larger explosion that could claim hundreds of thousands of American lives, as opposed to an easier-to-mount but less lethal radiological attack. Amid somber silence, three or four meek, iconoclastic hands went up.

The reality of the world we now live in is grim and deadly serious. Those who don't think so, or who believe the threat of nuclear terrorism is being exaggerated by the Bush administration to manipulate the public are worse than naive - they're flat out dangerous.

FAITHFUL BUT UNSTABLE: "These are despicable lies. These are falsehoods," Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley said yesterday. He was referring to rumors circulated by a spokesman for the Maryland Insurance Administration that O'Malley had cheated on his wife, but the Mayor could just as easily have been referencing his insane comment yesterday comparing President Bush's budget to the attacks of September 11:

"Back on September 11, terrorists attacked our metropolitan cores, two of America's great cities. They did that because they knew that was where they could do the most damage and weaken us the most," O'Malley said. "Years later, we are given a budget proposal by our commander in chief, the president of the United States. And with a budget ax, he is attacking America's cities. He is attacking our metropolitan core."

Those present appeared to be a bit stunned by the comparison. Afterward, one reporter asked O'Malley to explain his "inflammatory rhetoric." D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), who also serves as president of the National League of Cities, said he disagreed with "the harsh language that was used," though he declined to criticize O'Malley directly. Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) said O'Malley's remarks "went way too far."

Jim Geraghty points out this is the second time in less than a year that O'Malley's mouth has gotten him into trouble on the subject. Not the kind of behavior that inspires confidence, especially coming from someone who wants to the be the chief executive of the state of Maryland. - T. Bevan 1:40 pm Link | Email | Send to a Friend