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Securing the Bomb 2007
Slide Show
Al Qaeda Nuclear Bomb Sketch
Source: CNN |
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This image from a seized al Qaeda document shows a crude sketch of a nuclear bomb design. Al Qaeda has tried repeatedly to get the nuclear materials and expertise needed to make a bomb; Osama bin Laden has called getting such weapons a "religious duty." Shortly after 9/11, the CIA judged that al Qaeda might be able to make a crude nuclear bomb if it got hold of enough plutonium or HEU — and documents seized in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban revealed a more extensive al Qaeda nuclear effort than previously understood. With al Qaeda's central command regrouping in the tribal areas of Pakistan, there is a greater risk that the group might be able to pull off a complex and difficult operation like a nuclear bomb project.
For more detail on al Qaeda's nuclear efforts, the earlier nuclear ambitions of the Japanese terror cult Aum Shinrikyo, and the nuclear activities of extreme Chechen factions, see "The Demand for Black-Market Nuclear Material".
The Securing the Bomb section of the NTI website is produced by the Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) for NTI, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. MTA welcomes comments and suggestions at atom@harvard.edu. Copyright 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.