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Prospect of Biological and Nuclear Terrorism in Central Asia and Russia: Foreign Fighters, the ISIS, Chechens Extremists, Katibat-i-Imam Bukhari Group, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Al Nusra
Prospect of Biological and Nuclear Terrorism in Central Asia and Russia: Foreign Fighters, the ISIS, Chechens Extremists, Katibat-i-Imam Bukhari Group, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Al Nusra
Prospect of Biological and Nuclear Terrorism in Central Asia and Russia: Foreign Fighters, the ISIS, Chechens Extremists, Katibat-i-Imam Bukhari Group, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Al Nusra
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Prospect of Biological and Nuclear Terrorism in Central Asia and Russia: Foreign Fighters, the ISIS, Chechens Extremists, Katibat-i-Imam Bukhari Group, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Al Nusra

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This book discusses the danger of nuclear and biological terrorism and the strategies of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia based extremist and jihadist groups to purchase fissile material in black market or steal it from a military or civilian facility and then use that material to construct an improvised nuclear device.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 1, 2020
ISBN9789389620672
Prospect of Biological and Nuclear Terrorism in Central Asia and Russia: Foreign Fighters, the ISIS, Chechens Extremists, Katibat-i-Imam Bukhari Group, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Al Nusra
Author

Musa Khan Jalalzai

Musa Khan Jalalzai is a journalist and research scholar. He has written extensively on Afghanistan, terrorism, nuclear and biological terrorism, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and intelligence research and analysis. He was an Executive Editor of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan from 2005-2011, and a permanent contributor in Pakistan's daily The Post, Daily Times, and The Nation, Weekly the Nation, (London). However, in 2004, US Library of Congress in its report for South Asia mentioned him as the biggest and prolific writer. He received Masters in English literature, Diploma in Geospatial Intelligence, University of Maryland, Washington DC, certificate in Surveillance Law from the University of Stanford, USA, and a diploma in Counterterrorism from Pennsylvania State University, California, the United States.

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    Prospect of Biological and Nuclear Terrorism in Central Asia and Russia - Musa Khan Jalalzai

    Prospect of Biological and

    Nuclear Terrorism in Central

    Asia and Russia

    Prospect of Biological and

    Nuclear Terrorism in Central

    Asia and Russia

    Foreign Fighters, the ISIS, Chechens Extremists,

    Katibat-i-Imam Bukhari Group, Islamic

    Movement of Uzbekistan and the Al Nusra Front

    Musa Khan Jalalzai

    Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

    New Delhi (India)

    Published by

    Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

    (Publishers, Distributors & Importers)

    2/19, Ansari Road

    Delhi – 110 002

    Phones: 91-11-43596460, 91-11-47340674

    Mobile: 98110 94883

    e-mail: contact@vijpublishing.com

    www.vijbooks.com

    Copyright © 2020, Author

    ISBN: 978-93-89620-65-8 (Hardback)

    ISBN: 978-93-89620-67-2 (ebook)

    All rights reserved.

    No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Application for such permission should be addressed to the publisher.

    Contents

    Summary

    Introduction

    Chapter 1 The Threat of Nuclear Jihad in Central Asia and Russia

    Chapter 2 The Prospect of Bioterrorism: The Threat of Pathogen, Biting Insects and Dirty Bomb

    Chapter 3 Nuclear Jihad in Central Asia and Russia: Foreign Fighters, the ISIS, Chechens Extremists, Katibat-i-Imam Bukhari Group, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Al Nusra Front

    Chapter 4 ISIS in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis of Factors and Implications of ISIS Recruitments and Concept of Jihad-Bil-Nikah

    Dr. Yunis Khushi

    Chapter 5 Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Terrorism in Central Asia and Russia: AlQaeda, the ISIS Affiliated Groups and Security of Sensitive Biological Weapons Facilities

    Edward Lemon Vera Mironova William Tobey

    Chapter 6 The Current State of Bioterrorist Attack Surveillance and Preparedness in the US

    Oliver Grundmann

    Chapter 7 Biothreats and Bacterial Warfare Agents

    Arun Kumar R, Nishanth T, Ravi Teja Y and Sathish Kumar D

    Chapter 8 Bioterrorism: An Emerging Global Health Threat

    Syra S. Madad

    Chapter 9 Biologic, Chemical, and Radiation Terrorism Review

    Mollie Williams and Daniel C. Sizemore

    Chapter 10 Assessing Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Threats to the Food Supply-Chain

    Stephanie Meulenbelt

    Chapter 11 Preventing Nuclear War: A Professional Responsibility for Physicians

    Ira Helfand, MD, Antti Junkari, BM, and Ogebe Onazi, MD

    Postscript

    Notes to Chapters

    Bibliography

    Index

    Summary

    The return of terrorists from Syria Iraq and Libya is a new threat in Europe as these newly recruited jihadists know the constitution of dirty bomb and Nuclear Explosice Devices. Recent developments in Central Asia and the establishment of the ISIS networks in Caucasus region and Central Europe have put jihadisn and radicalization back on Russian and European security agenda. Russia and China have already questioned the threat of the existence of US biological weapons laboratories in Central Asia. The danger of nuclear terrorism is intensifying by the day. Recent military technological deployments in Russia and the United States, and China’s possible nuclear test amid global fight against coronavirus have diverted the attention of nuclear and technology expert to the collateral damage of nuclear war in near future.

    There is different perception that the future wars will wipeout some states and their geographycal and social stratification. Modern technologies are continuing to influence the nature of nuclear war. The worst-case scenario also cannot be ruled out as international concern over nuclear terrorism has grown in 2020, and this has driven a broad spectrum of efforts to strengthen nuclear security globally. Russia is a leading power in developing new military technologies, while President Vladimir Putin once said that modern equipment made up 82 percent of Russia’s nuclear triad: our equipment must be better than the world’s best if we want to come out as the winners.

    Modern military technologies have changed effectiveness of operations in the battlefields. The use of some newly invented weapons in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq added to the pain of civil society in Russia, Europe and the United States. The introduction and use of these technologies is understood as a series of qualitative changes in mobility of bigger armies. Security Forces have become technologically complex. Analysts Maxim Suchkov, Sim Tack (The Future of War, Valdai Discussion Club Report, August 2019) have noted some important aspects of modern future war and its impacts on modern society:

    The evolution of technologies is the first and perhaps main element where public perceptions are concerned. However, with all their importance, technologies are only able to foster change in tandem with other components. Their emergence and subsequent introduction in the armed forces facilitates the development of relevant skills and capabilities, which in turn stimulate the emergence of new procedures to harness their potential. The political antagonisms of the modern world have reached a degree that is indeed alarming. No less destabilizing than the lowered pain threshold that used to guard against the use of force or wars between the states – is the visible imbalance between the advancing technological warfare capabilities and the lack of practical experience in using these technologies. This is one of the reasons why the contours of a large-scale military clash between major or comparable powers5 are still unclear.......Nevertheless, significant changes are taking place on the tacticaloperational level, changes that must not be ignored if we want to form the correct idea of what war will be in the future. It is necessary to adapt these changes to the current varieties of warfare in order to minimize losses and achieve more success in military operations. Drones have fared better than anything else in this sense, being an effective tool for reducing personnel losses, accelerating operations, and raising the level of mission performance if handled by competent operators relying on accurate intelligence.

    Recent warning of the Putin administration against the US low-yield nuclear weapon indicates that Russian forces are capable to destroy US Submarines in a short notice. On 29 April 2020; VoA reported reaction of Russian Foreign Ministry to the State Department paper that asserted that the low-yield weapons reduce the risk of nuclear war by reinforcing extended deterrence and assurance. Moreover, Federation of American Scientists warned (January 2020) that the U.S. Navy had deployed for the first time a submarine armed with a low-yield Trident nuclear warhead. The USS Tennessee deployed from Kings Bay Submarine Base in Georgia in 2019.

    The W76-2 warhead, which is facing criticism at home and abroad, is estimated to have about a third of the explosive power of the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima. Any attack involving a U.S. submarine-launched ballistic missile, regardless of its weapon specifications, would be perceived as a nuclear aggression, Russian Foreign Ministry warned. However, on 16 April 2020, Associated Press reported Chinese Foregn Ministry reponce to the allegations of U.S. State Department report about country’s secret nuclear test which is in violation of its international obligations.China has always performed its international obligations and commitments in a responsible manner, firmly upheld multilateralism, and actively carried out international cooperation," Foreiign Minister Spokeswoman said.

    The Trump administration is in deep trouble since the test of Russia’s anti-satellite missiles, and its defeat in Afghanistan. NATO and the United States issued warning of Russian hybrid war against NATO and Europe, while they have destabilised Middle East and Central Asia and used nuclear and biological weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Europeans are well aware of their security and friendship with Russia. For the first time, Europe has extended hand of cooperation to Russia due to the hegemonic attitude of the Trump administration. In this big strategic game, Russians and Americans have the same reason for modernizing their nuclear forces. In yesteryears, President Vladimir Putin developed modern weapons and restored the real Russian place in international community. Since Russia seized Crimea in 2014, the Russians have begun to build up basing sites for their advanced systems, including the Iskanders, but nuclear experts warned that if Russia deploys nuclear weapons there, it will spark complex problems. Analyst Scott Ritter (RT News, 28 April, 2020) highlighted the START and complication of US and Russia’s inventions of moder technologies and weapons, which will exacerbate the process of nuclear war preparations:

    Both the US and Russia are engaged in the early stages of developing new strategic nuclear weapons to replace older systems. These weapons, which will cost trillions of dollars to develop and deploy, are with few exceptions still many years away from entering into service. A five-year extension of New START would provide both nations time to reach an agreement which responsibly addresses the need for strategic nuclear force modernization while continuing the past practice of seeking additional cuts in their respective nuclear arsenals...China’s intransigence runs counter to the official US position, most recently articulated in a State Department report sent to Congress regarding Russian compliance with the New START Treaty. While the report finds that Russia is complying with its treaty obligations, the treaty does not cover enough Russian strategic systems, including several that have been previously announced by President Putin, and leaves China to operate with no restrictions in terms of the size and scope of its strategic nuclear arsenal.

    Perhapse, China is also preparing to build new missiles technology, and expand anti-satellite capabilities and nuclear material production increase. The question is how China can use nuclear weapons as the country maintains the policy of peaceful coexistence? In 2019, its Defence White Paper noted the country sticked to the policy of no first use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, but recent hostile nuclear environment has forced the country to deploy a nuclear triad of strategic land, sea, and air-launched nuclear systems to defend its territorial integrity and national security.Despite the progress made by international conventions, biological and chemical weapons still are precarious threat in Europe and Central Asia. There are 183 states parties to the BWC, and 193 states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention. The rapid spread of coronavirus in Europe and Russia has created awareness in the region that biological war is not in the interests of the region.

    According to Russia’s new military doctrine the possibility of limited uses of nuclear weapons at the tactical and operational levels and of chemical and biological weapons is possible. As the United States and NATO have established biological weapons laboratories in Central Asia and Afghanistan and used these weapons against the civilian population of Afghanistan, Russian military leadership has taken these developments seriously. However, weaponization of Coronavirus by some states to further their political interests might prompt adverse effects. Russia is training its chemical and biological army on modern streak. New CBRN defense vehicles and equipment can be used in the fight against coronavirus. Its forces have also undertaken more CBRN training to the future war effectively. The danger from these weapons is so consternating, and the dirty bomb material and its fatalities diverted attention of terrorist groups to biological weapons. Smuggling of nuclear weapons is a serious challenge in Europe and Central Asia, while smuggling of these weapons in Africa and Europe has threatened security of the region. In 2019, more than 189 incidents of nuclear and biological weapons smuggling were reported by 36 States, indicating that illegal activities continue to occur. International efforts to reduce the loss of material control have failed due to the smugglers changing startegies. Georgia and Moldova are the two states where smuggling of dirty bomb materials and nuclear agents is in progress. However, there are reports that the ISIS wants to go nuclear. In March 2016, after the ISIS-linked bombings in Brussels, reports consirmed a member of the ISIS tried to access to radioactive materials.

    Introduction

    The international community demonstrated criminal negligence while the US army used Mother of Bombs-full of biological and chemical material against the civilians of a poor and ruined state in Jalalabad Province of Afghanistan. This was a shameless war crime of the CIA and Pentagon that killed innocent women and children and infected thousands by incurable diseases. No state reacted or felt the pain of the tortured civilian population. All member states of the European Union, Britain, Saudi Arabis, Pakistan, Iran, Canada, and Australia are equally responsible partners and co-conspirators for this crime against humanity. The US army used biological weapons in Afghanistan and bombed the country 59,000 times by using its military bases in Pakistan. On 04 October 2018, Defence Ministry of Russia warned that the American army was running a clandestine biological weapons lab in Georgia.

    Maj. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military’s radiation, chemical and biological protection troops, alleged at a briefing that the lab in Georgia was part of a network of US labs near the borders of Russia and China. Pentagon opened Lugar Centre in 2013, where different types of insects have been developing. However, Maj. Gen. Igor Kirillov warned that the spread of viral diseases in southern Russia could have been linked to the activities of the Lugar Center. He pointed to the spread of the African swine fever (ASF) from Georgia since 2007 that caused massive losses for the Russian farm sector. On 04 January 2018, Express Tribune published a statement of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, in his reply to the US accusation:

    You have asked what we did. A dictator surrendered on a single phone call, our country witnessed the worse bloodbath, you carried out 57,800 attacks on Afghanistan from our bases, your forces were supplied arms and explosives through our soil, thousands of our civilians and soldiers became victims of the war initiated by you. We considered your enemy as our own, we filled the Guantanamo Bay, and we served you with such an enthusiasm that we left our country with load shedding and gas shortage. We tried to please you on the cost of our economy; we provided tens of thousands of visas as a result of which the networks of Black Water spread across our country.

    Now, Pakistan is dancing to the CIA and Pentagon tangos once more by supporting, recruiting, and serving the sexual needs of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) to turn Central Asia, Afghanistan and Russia into a new battlefield of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Scholar and Lecturer Department of Social Sciences, Lahore Garrison University Pakistan, Dr. Yunis Khushi in his research paper (A Critical Analysis of Factors and Implications of ISIS Recruitments and Concept of Jihad-Bil-Nikah-26 June 2017) noted important aspects of the ISIS training bases, and activities of women brigade of the Daesh-including Jihad-Bil-Nikah:

    The recruitments for ISIS have been going on in Pakistan for the past more than 3 years, but the Foreign and the Interior Ministries of Pakistan have been constantly denying the presence and activities of ISIS in Pakistan. Law Enforcement agencies have very recently arrested many people from Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Sialkot who were associated with ISIS networks. Men have been recruited as jihadis or mujahids and women as jihadi wives to provide sexual needs of fighters who are fighting in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Many women, impressed and convinced through brainwashing with the concept of Jihad-Bil-Nikah, got divorce from their Pakistani husbands and went to marry a Mujahid of ISIS for a certain period, came back gave birth to the child of Mujahid, and remarried their former husband. Some decide to continue that marriage for rest of their lives. All of this is being done to obtain worldly wealth and later eternal life in Heaven because ISIS is paying something around RS. 50,000 to 60,000 per month to every warrior, which is a hefty amount for an unemployed youth suffering in unemployment, poverty and inflation here in Pakistan, which is ruled by the corrupt ruling elite for the past 68 years and masses only got poverty for being true Muslims and patriot Pakistanis. Most secret and law-enforcement agencies have behaved like a silent bystander to the activities of ISIS in the country. Is this an unofficial channel of providing soldiers to provide the Saudi demands for fighters to fight on behalf of Saudi armies in Yemen and Syria? A sort of high-level game is going on, on the political, foreign policy and law-enforcement levels regarding the presence of ISIS in Pakistan. The politicians, Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry, and Law Enforcement Agencies are singing different tunes regarding the presence, recruitments and migration of jihadis or mujahids and jihadi wives from Pakistan to Syria to join the ISIS.

    There are several reasons for the relative increase of violent extremism and Takfiri Jihadism after the collapse of Soviet Union. In 2017, more than 8,000 Mujahideen from Central Asia joined the ISIS terrorist network. Violent extremism and Terrorism posed a threat to the security and integrity of nuclear, chemical, and biological facilities in Russia and Central Asia. Numerous separatist conflicts contribute to national instability. Illicit nuclear materials have been interdicted on numerous occasions in Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. For the last two decades, U.S. leaders have focused on the possibility of nuclear terrorism as a serious threat to the United States. In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, those fears grew even more acute. With the establishment of the ISIS by US army, the threat of chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) terrorism exacerbated in Central Asia and Russia.

    Recent events in Tajikistan and Russia have raised the prospect of extremist and jihadist groups using biological, radiological and chemical attacks against military installations and critical national infrastructure in both states. Russia is vulnerable to such attacks by these terrorist groups. The greatest threat to the national security of Russia stems from nuclear smuggling and terror groups operating in Central Asia. Before the rise of ISIS, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) was the main Central Asian extremist organization in the field. Its base of operations is in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Central Asian fighters linked to ISIS headquarters in Syria also participated in acts of terrorism in other countries. The ISIS has previously restrained from getting involved in attacks in Central Asia as the group’s leadership emphasised that attacking this region was not the highest priority. In July 2018, five Tajik men killed four foreign cyclists in a car-ramming attack, accompanied by an on-foot gun and knife assault in the Khatlon province of Tajikistan.

    The investigation into the 3 April 2017 terrorist attack on the St Petersburg metro has focused on a man of Central Asian origin with possible ties to Syrian rebel groups. The attack raises concerns about the threat posed both by Daesh and extremists within Russia’s sizeable Central Asian community. Investigators identified Akhbarzhon Dzhalilov as the prime suspect in the 3 April attack on the St Petersburg metro that left 14 people dead and 49 injured. Dzhalilov is an ethnic Uzbek from the southern Kyrgyzstani city of Osh who obtained Russian citizenship in 2011. The rise of ISIS in Afghanistan poses serious security concerns for Russia, according to a September 2016 statement by Zamir Kabulov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s director of the Second Asian Department in Afghanistan. Kabulov claimed that about 2,500 ISIS combatants are in Afghanistan and the organization is preparing to expand from Afghanistan into other Central Asian countries and Russia, giving Moscow reasons to worry. Nuclear terrorism in Central Asia and Russia has risen important questions about the US and NATO policy towards Russia that without using biological and nuclear weapons against the country, its dream of supreme power will vanish.

    The current instability in the Middle East, particularly the conflict in Syria and the ongoing Sunni insurgency in Iraq, has energized the Salafi-jihadi groups and has emboldened their supporters to orchestrate large-scale casualty attacks. The likelihood of a successful bioterrorist attack is not very large, given the technical difficulties and constraints. However, even if the number of casualties is likely to be limited, the impact of a bioterrorist attack can still be high. Countering bioterrorism, from a responsive and policy-making point of view, usually focuses on measures to mitigate human casualties. With the presence of Jihadist Groups and the ISIS in Central Asia, the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out, the fact is that the ISIS found these weapons in Syria and Iraq. If they used these weapons, reaction of the Central Asia States and Russian would be violent, and they might attack the US and NATO installations inside Afghanistan. Radiological sources remain in Central Asia and, if stolen, could be used in unconventional attacks by terrorists. They have been less well addressed by cooperative threat-reduction efforts because they serve ongoing and important industrial and medical purposes.

    The prospect of nuclear terrorism in Central Asia and might possibly in Russia, is crystal clear as the ISIS groups, and US army are making things worse. There are possibilities that terrorists can acquire nuclear material or a complete warhead to use it in Central Asia, or possibly in Russia. The risk of a complete nuclear device falling into the hands of terrorists will cause consternation in the region. Over the past several years, the prospect of a terrorist group armed with a nuclear weapon has frequently been cited as a genuine and overriding threat to the security of Central Asia and Russia.

    If terrorist groups such as ISIS or Lashkar-e-Taiba determine to go nuclear, what will be the security preparations in Central Asia to intercept these groups? These and other Pakistan based groups can attempt to manufacture the fissile material needed to fuel a nuclear weapon—either highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and then use it. Moreover, there are possibilities that Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia based extremist and jihadist groups can purchase fissile material in black market or steal it from a military or civilian facility and then use that material to construct an improvised nuclear device. The US tensions with Russia receded and nuclear strategy came to seem like a relic of a bygone era. Yet today, with Russia rising again as a military power, the grim logic of nuclear statecraft is returning. In his nuclear risk analysis, Simon Saradzhyan (Russia Matters, Simon Saradzhyan, (August 06, 2019) argued that there isa possibility of nuclear war between Russia and the United States:

    Is the risk of a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia now higher than at the height of the Cold War? Yes, it is, according to an article former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz and former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn have penned for Foreign Affairs. Not since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis has the risk of a U.S.-Russian confrontation involving the use of nuclear weapons been as high as it is today, the co-chairs of the Nuclear Threat Initiative warn in their commentary published on Aug. 6, 2019. To back their claim, the two American statesmen describe an imaginary scenario in which Russian air defense systems shot down a NATO aircraft that has accidentally veered into Russian airspace during a wargame in Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave in 2020.

    On 25 March 2016, Daily Telegraph reported militants plan to attack the Brussels nuclear plant: In the wake of claims the Brussels attackers had planned to set off a radioactive ‘dirty bomb’, Yukiya Amano, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency said: Terrorism is spreading and the possibility of using nuclear material cannot be excluded. The material can be found in small quantities in universities, hospitals and other facilities. Dirty bombs will be enough to (drive) any big city in the world into panic. And the psychological, economic and political implications would be enormous, said Mr Amano. One security expert suggested that the terrorists could have been plotting to kidnap the nuclear researcher they had been filming with a view to coercing the scientist into helping them make a ‘dirty bomb’. The Newspaper reported.

    If we look at the expertise of these groups, and their multifaceted military training, on their return to the region, they might possibly target biological and chemical laboratories and nuclear installations in Central Asia and Russia. There are states they will provide weapons and training to make the region a hell. Newsweek’s Daily Beast blog provided another version of an overspill, already apparently happening in 2010. They quoted a Taliban sub-commander in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz: … jihadist allies from Central Asia have started heading home … encouraged by relentless American drone attacks against the fighters’ back bases in Pakistan’s tribal areas … they’re expanding their range across the unguarded northern Afghan border into Tajikistan to create new Taliban sanctuaries there, assist Islamist rebels in the region, and potentially imperil the Americans’ northern supply lines … [beginning] in late winter 2009.… In Kunduz they joined up with fighters from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

    Nuclear trafficking in South Asia was a key concern while the nuclear black marketing networks of Pakistani generals and some mafia scientists were uncovered in Libya to Syria, Malaysia and Afghanistan. Recent media reports identified Moldovan criminal groups that attempted to smuggle radioactive materials to Daesh (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS) in 2015. Cases of nuclear smuggling in Central Asia were made recent cases. Muhammad Wajeeh, a Research Associate at Department of Development Studies, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad Pakistan in his research paper (Nuclear Terrorism: A Potential Threat to World’s Peace and Security-JSSA Vol II, No. 2) has reviewed a consternating threat of nuclear terrorism in South and Central Asia:

    ISIS is believed to have about 90 pounds of low-grade uranium (which was seized from Mosul University in Iraq are the invasion of the city in 2014) that can be used in the Dirty Bomb’s to create serious panic among the public. In 2015 and 2016, ISIS became the leading high-profile jihadist group in Iraq and Syria. Moreover, ISIS carried out attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015, killing 130 civilians and injuring more than 100 people. The ISIS carried out a series of three coordinated suicide. Bombings in Belgium: one at Maalbeek Metro Station, Brussels and two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, killing about 32 civilians and injuring 300 people. During the attacks, a G4S guard working on the Belgian nuclear research center was also murdered and it le the world believing that the ISIS has a potential plot to attack the nuclear facility either to steal the radioactive material for dirty bomb or to release the radioactive material and waste into the atmosphere. These attacks also raised the issue of nuclear security over a discovery made by the Belgian authorities that the ISIS has kept an eye on the local nuclear scientists and their families. Moreover, two Belgian nuclear power plant workers at Deol having knowledge of the nuclear sites joined ISIS and could provide assistance to exploit them for terrorist purposes. On March 30, al‐Furat, the media wing of ISIS, threatened attacks on Germany and Britain on the eve of Washington Nuclear Security Summit 2016.

    In yesteryears, President Vladimir Putin seemed to be after nuclear weapons for another reason—to show that Russia was still a great power to be reckoned with. As President Putin elaborated in an interview with Oliver Stone, whether America’s motives are truly just centered on corporate welfare or not, the position the U.S. was putting him in requires him to respond to the heightened threat. Soon thereafter he claimed in his annual address to the Duma an entirely new generation of heavy MIRV (Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle) missiles, one of which could kill every major city in Texas; nuclear-powered cruise missiles with essentially unlimited range for evading U.S. defenses; virtually undetectable nuclear torpedoes for destroying American coastal cities and major ports; and hypersonic delivery vehicles which completely skew the balance of Mutually Assured Destruction by reducing the amount of time that policymakers have to decide whether to go to nuclear war from 15 or 30 minutes to perhaps less than five.

    Modern diplomacy (29 March 2020) in its short comment noted the frustration of the US army and Pentagon vis-a-vis emerging security threats and modern technologies: The technological superiority of the United States armed forces is being challenged by new and evolving threats constantly being developed by potential adversaries. To counteract these challenges, the country’s Department of Defense (DoD) is expected to spend an estimated $481 billion between 2018 and 2024 to identify and develop new technologies for advanced weapon systems, giving rise to numerous revenue opportunities in this space. Before this, in February 2018, BBC reported Moscow’s condemnation of US military proposals to develop new, smaller atomic bombs mainly to deter any Russian use of nuclear weapons. Russia’s Foreign Minister called the move confrontational and expressed deep disappointment. The proposals emerged from concerns that Russia might see current US nuclear weapons as too big to be used. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the US of warmongering in its statement, issued less than 24 hours after the US proposals were published.

    The recent coronavirus attacks authenticate my postulation of the intensification of bioterrorism in Europe and Asia in 2020. The blame game between Washington and China further prompted misunderstanding about the hegemonic role of the US army that it wants to mitigate the future role of nuclear weapons and missile technology in peace and war. Chinese Ambassador was summoned in Washington when Foreign Ministry in Beijing tweeted that the deadly coronavirus was seeded in Wuhan by the US military. US President Donald Trump also called Covid-19 a Chinese and foreign virus, earning condemnations not only from Beijing but also from much of the mainstream media. However, China categorically stated that the coronovirus attack was a hybrid war against its economy and industry. Moreover, initially, Iranian officials also declared that the coronavirus was a biological weapon created in US military laboratories. Some states in Europe demonstrated weakness in fighting the Coronavirus war against their population.

    Italy and France have been irritated in overcoming the death rate from the disease, while the British Prime Minister become frustrated in changing his controversial approach to the pandemic spread across the country. On 22 March 2020, the Guardian newspaper reported frustration of Downing Street about the shameless statement of controversial adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dominic Mckenzie Cummings, who argued in a private meeting that the government’s strategy towards the coronavirus was herd immunity, protect the economy and if some pensioners die. The allegations, which were widely circulated online criticised that the government response to the Coronavirus was initially too weak, frustrated and controversial based on the notion that rather than limiting its spread, enough people could be allowed to contract it to give population-wide herd immunity. Dominic Mckenzie Cummings was born 25 November 1971 is a British political strategist who has been serving as Chief Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson since July 2019.

    Since 9/11, the threat of nuclear and biological terrorism has been at the forefront of the international security agenda. Bioterror experts have stressed the need for prevention of terrorist groups operating in Europe and the UK from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction and from perpetrating atrocious acts of biological terrorism. Recent events in Europe

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