(Newser)
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Al-Qaeda is actively pursuing the nuclear materials and rogue scientists necessary to make dirty bombs or worse, according to a series of documents released by WikiLeaks and published in the Daily Telegraph. In 2009, NATO security chiefs warned that al-Qaeda was working on “dirty radioactive IEDs,” and a year earlier Indian officials warned America that al-Qaeda has “the technical competence to manufacture an explosive device beyond a mere dirty bomb.”
That year the International Atomic Energy Agency also warned of the danger of a “nuclear 9/11” if more wasn’t done to protect uranium and plutonium supplies. That’s not all there is to worry about either; other security briefings indicate that the terrorists are close to creating “workable and efficient” biological and chemical weapons. Pakistan’s stores of deadly pathogens like anthrax and foot-and-mouth disease are believed to be especially ripe for theft by extremists.
