Nuclear terrorism is the gravest threat the US faces, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said yesterday as he offered a plan to secure atomic arsenals and materials around the world.
"The enemy is different and we must think and act anew," Kerry said in excerpts of remarks prepared for delivery in West Palm Beach, Florida. "We have to do everything we can to stop a nuclear weapon from ever reaching our shore and that mission begins far away."
PHOTO: AP
In the second of three speeches on national security, Kerry is expected to propose a new high-level White House job to oversee efforts to prevent a terrorist attack using nuclear weapons and recommend speeding up a current program to secure nuclear material in the former Soviet Union.
"The greatest threat we face today [is] the possibility of al-Qaeda or other terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear weapon," Kerry said. "Osama bin Laden has called obtaining a weapon of mass destruction a `sacred duty.'"
The 20-year veteran of the Foreign Relations Committee also said he wanted to end nuclear programs in countries like Iran and North Korea.
Kerry has criticized US President George W. Bush for refusing to hold bilateral negotiations with North Korea. He has said he would adopt a two-track policy of continuing the talks that include Russia, Japan, China and South Korea while also holding direct discussions with Pyongyang.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US, Kerry said Americans needed to "take away politics, strip away the labels" and ask honest questions.
"Have we done everything we could to secure these dangerous weapons and materials? Have we taken every step we should to stop North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs? Have we reached out to our allies and forged an urgent global effort to ensure that nuclear weapons and materials are secured?" he asked.
"The honest answer, in each of these areas, is that we have done too little, often too late, and even cut back our efforts," he said.
A Kerry foreign policy adviser said when Bush came to office he curtailed the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, known as Nunn-Lugar after the two senators -- Democrat Sam Nunn and Republican Richard Lugar -- who created it.
In the past decade, the program has spent US$4 billion to help former Soviet states eliminate or secure nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, including the deactivation of more than 6,000 nuclear warheads.
Kerry has supported expanding and accelerating Nunn-Lugar as an important defense against terrorists and rogue states obtaining old Soviet weapons of mass destruction.
The presumptive Democratic nominee, who is locked in a tight battle with Bush five months ahead of the Nov. 2 election, has launched an 11-day mini-campaign devoted to national security as the chaos in Iraq and the June 30 handover to an as-yet-unnamed interim government dominates headlines.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS