October 1, 2001
NEW YORK TIMES

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/01/national/01CAPI.html?todaysheadlines

Defense Secretary Warns of Unconventional Attacks

By JAMES DAO

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld warned
today,that he expected the enemies of the United States would eventually
help terrorist groups obtain chemical, biological and possibly even nuclear
weapons technology.

His remarks echoed other administration officials who have stepped up
warnings on the spread of chemical and biological weapons, the threat of
attacks against Americans overseas and the need for stronger antiterrorism
measures at home.

Appearing on television, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the United
States remained under
threat of new attacks within its borders. Andrew H. Card Jr., the White
House chief of staff, said
the administration believed that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network may
already have the
means to use chemical and biological agents as terror weapons. On Friday,
the State Department
issued its latest warning of potential terrorist attacks against Americans
traveling abroad.

The remarks by the three senior officials on separate programs were not
based on any new
intelligence, their subordinates at the Justice Department, the Pentagon and
the White House said
later.

President Bush and members of his cabinet have been urging Americans to
resume flying, but the
State Department has warned Americans traveling abroad.

"The U.S. government remains deeply concerned about the security of
Americans overseas," the
warning said. It said the fears were "based on threatening rhetoric from
extremist groups and the
potential for further terrorist actions against American citizens and
interests."

Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Rumsfeld appeared to be highlighting the risks from
terrorism that have
prompted their departments to propose new strategies for combating
terrorism. Mr. Ashcroft is
pushing Congress to enact quickly a package of bills that would give the
government significantly
more authority to detain suspected terrorists, conduct electronic
surveillance and seize assets of
suspected terrorist organizations.

"We believe there are substantial risks of terrorism still in the United
States of America," he said
on the CNN program "Late Edition." "As we as a nation respond to what has
happened to us,
those risks may in fact go up."

Mr. Rumsfeld said the Pentagon believed that several nations that support
international terrorists
have either developed or are trying to acquire chemical, biological or
nuclear weapons, and that
the dissemination of those weapons seemed a realistic concern.

"It doesn't take a leap of imagination to expect that at some point those
nations will work with
those terrorist networks and assist them in achieving and obtaining those
kinds of capabilities,"
Mr. Rumsfeld said.

Mr. Rumsfeld, speaking on the NBC program "Meet the Press," did not name
those
terrorist-supporting nations. But a Department of Defense report released in
January said that
Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Libya all have active chemical or biological
weapons programs. In
addition, Iraq and Iran are trying to acquire materials for nuclear devices,
the report said. Those
nations all are on the State Department's list of governments thought to
sponsor international
terrorism.

Mr. Rumsfeld is preparing to release the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense
Review, an assessment
of the nation's defense needs mandated by Congress. The document, which will
be sent to
Congress on Monday, focuses heavily on the need to protect the United States
against terrorism
and ballistic missile attacks, and on the proliferation of chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons.

Mr. Rumsfeld said today that the military was in the process of adjusting
its command structure to
deal with terrorism. "There's always been terrorism," he said, "but there's
never really been
worldwide terrorism at a time when the weapons have been as powerful as they
are today, with
chemical and biological and nuclear weapons spreading to countries that
harbor terrorists."

The defense secretary's concerns were repeated by Mr. Card. "I'm not trying
to be an alarmist,"
Mr. Card said on "Fox News Sunday," "but we know that these terrorist
organizations, like Al
Qaeda, run by Osama bin Laden and others, have probably found the means to
use biological or
chemical warfare."

But for all the concerns that terrorists armed with chemical or biological
weapons would have for
the general public, Pentagon officials say they are most immediately worried
about the safety of
American military forces.

Asked today whether the United States was worried that military conflict in
South Asia might
destabilize Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons, Mr. Rumsfeld said yes. And
asked if the United
States would soon turn its attention to nations other than Afghanistan that
support terrorism, like
Iraq, Mr. Rumsfeld replied, "I think we're already turning our attention to
other states."

He added, "If Al Qaeda is in 50 or 60 countries, which we know, then clearly
this is not a
one-country problem."

The administration's warnings about chemical and biological weapons were
also picked up by
Representative Henry J. Hyde, the chairman of the House International
Relations Committee. On
"Meet the Press," Mr. Hyde, Republican of Illinois, said biological weapons
"scare" him more
than nuclear weapons because they can be brought into the country "rather
easily."

But on the same program, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Delaware Democrat
who is chairman
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it was unlikely that
terrorists had the technology
to develop extremely deadly biological weapons. Terrorists might have access
to weapons that
use anthrax or smallpox strains, he said.

"There are those serious things," he said, "but we can deal with them."

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