Al Qaeda wants to go nuclear

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on the nuclear terrorist threat:

... if they have the weapon, they will use it."

"The more nuclear weapons that exist, the more threat we are facing. And the more countries that have nuclear weapons, the more danger we are facing."

"We can't afford one single lapse in the system of security of nuclear material or nuclear weapons," he said.

Perfect security is, of course, impossible. There's also the matter of nuclear powers, and would-be nuclear powers, that wouldn't mind sharing or selling their technology.

El Baradei isn't an alarmist – not that I can recall, anyway – so I think we should heed this warning and put maximal effort into preempting proliferation. Iffy threats like Global Warming can stay on the back burner indefinitely.