A non-profit group called “The Nuclear Threat Initiative” is launching what it calls a “public education” campaign in Iowa. Retired U-S Air Force General Eugene Habigur — a “Nuclear Threat Initiative” board member — says not enough is being done to keep nuclear, biological and chemical weapons out of the hands of terrorists. Habigur says terrorism is just like the wars on poverty, crime and drugs — there is no end state on the horizon. He says the war on terrorism is going to be a “long, hard fight.” Habigur says there’s a need to secure the stockpiles of nuclear weapons and materials.Habigur says the U-S has a “very aggressive program” for locking down nuclear stockpiles, but he says that’s not the case in the rest of the world.Habigur says in the former Soviet Union, for example, only 40 percent of their of nuclear materials have been locked down. Habigur says public health systems around the world need to be upgraded to respond to a biological attack. The Nuclear Threat Initiative was created by C-N-N founder Ted Turner and former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn in 2000 and Habigur says the group is launching this public education campaign in Iowa so that Iowans will ask the presidential candidates about the nuclear threat.
