Friendly countries, such as Pakistan and Russia, are just as likely sources of nuclear material for terrorists as Saddam; protecting their stockpiles should be an equally high priority, yet the administration and Congress alike have been reluctant to expand the existing $1 billion-a-year programme devoted to this task.
Among scores of disclosures that are likely to cause uproar, the cables detail: Grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, with officials warning that as the country faces economic collapse, government employees could smuggle out enough nuclear material for terrorists to build a bomb.
It never occurred to me that anything I would be carrying was material for terrorists," he said.
The men had been charged in Tuscola County with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target, but the county prosecutor asked a judge in Caro to dismiss the state charges.
But in a number of high-profile cases, prosecutors have discovered that proving material support for terrorist organizations is a challenge, legal experts say.
But the fact is that radioactive material suitable for terrorist attacks is so widely available that there is little hope of controlling it all.
In January, Judge Audrey B. Collins of Federal District Court in Los Angeles struck down a clause of the act that barred providing material support for terrorist groups, saying it was too vague and broad.
This is the same logic that underlies laws against material support for terrorist organizations.
The government cannot simply target people it suspects of, say, financing terrorism or providing material support for terrorist actions.
Open Soviet Arms Depots Tempting Terrorists Huge depots of conventional weapons remain in much of the former Soviet borderlands, many of them inadequately secured, providing a reservoir of lethal materials for terrorists and armed groups.
