Political Quotes

“Senator Levin's amendment will shift funds from extra, untested interceptor missiles to programs that will detect and stop the most urgent threat facing our country: the risk posed by terrorists with weapons of mass destruction. Not only is that the most urgent threat, it is also a much more likely threat than the possibility that a rogue state, such as North Korea, will lob a missile at the United States and risk being annihalated by us. Who will send a missile with a return address and face sure destruction? Not a nation-state. Terrorist groups, with no return address, from no state against which the United States could retaliate, are not deterred by our massive nuclear arsenal. Many experts believe that terrorists would be capable of creating a nuclear weapon if they took possession of fissile material. Even the simpler gun-type design, the type of bomb exploded at Hiroshima, could kill up to a million people if detonated in a large city. Two years ago, I asked the heads of our nuclear laboratories to show us how terrorists could build an atomic weapon with parts available on the open market--other than the fissile material. A month later, they returned to the Senate and showed us the weapon they had made, minus the fissile material. I cannot go into details, but all of us knew instantly that this was within the capabilities of a sophisticated terrorist group. You don't have to be a great power to cause great damage--if you have the fissile material.”