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About Frank Salvato Frank Salvato is the Executive Director and Director of Terrorism Research for BasicsProject.org a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and education initiative. His writing has been recognized by the US House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. His organization, BasicsProject.org, partnered in producing the original national symposium series addressing the root causes of radical Islamist terrorism. He is a member of the International Analyst Network. He also serves as the managing editor for The New Media Journal. Mr. Salvato has appeared on The O'Reilly Factor on FOX News Channel, and is a regular guest on talk radio including on The Captain's America Radio Show, nationally syndicated by the Phoenix Broadcasting Network and on NetTalkWorld Global Talk Radio catering to the US Armed Forces around the world. Mr. Salvato is also heard weekly on The Roth Show with Dr. Laurie Roth syndicated nationally on the USA Radio Network. His opinion-editorials have been published by The American Enterprise Institute, The Washington Times & Human Events and are syndicated nationally. He is occasionally quoted in The Federalist. Mr. Salvato is available for public speaking engagements.

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Frank Salvato, Managing Editor

Denying Reality Brings Us Closer to Nuclear Midnight
April 16, 2010

There has been quite a bit of talk about nuclear terrorism as of late, thanks to the pseudo-summit hosted by President Obama regarding nuclear non-proliferation and the policing of weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons elements. I say pseudo-summit because although there was an "agreement” reached by each of the 47 countries in attendance, it was not binding and should not be misconstrued as any type of treaty. Still, shining the spotlight on unsecured nuclear material currently accessible by the black market is an important thing to do and in that respect I tip my hat to President Obama for his effort.

During the summit, President Obama stated:

"The single biggest threat to US security would be the possibility of a terrorist organization obtaining a nuclear weapon. This is something that could change the security landscape around the world for years to come."

Indeed, the thought of a terrorist produced nuclear event in an American city – or any major world city, for that matter – is nothing short of bone-chilling. Truth be told, a nuclear event in Manhattan would present a trophy for al Qaeda, Hezbollah or any number of militant radical Islamist terror groups , that would last generations. It is for this reason that Mr. Obama initiated the summit in the first place; to assure that terrorist organizations never attain nuclear capability.

This being the case, isn’t it odd that the Obama Administration continues to insist that "dialogue” is the only effective way to confront Iran on their nuclear ambitions? That the policy of extending the "unclenched fist” toward a nation such as Syria is the most promising avenue to prevent them from advancing nuclear materials to terrorist organizations? That sending financial aid to corrupt terrorist entities like Hamas in the Gaza, is the only true way to dissuade violent Palestinian extremists from attaining nuclear capability?

While participating in summits on how to best thwart nuclear proliferation may produce great sound-bytes for the media and good press for political campaigns, and while it may even produce well-intentioned, yet non-binding, agreements that commit each participant to championing non-proliferation, without honestly identifying offending nation states and non-state actors, this "commitment,” this non-binding agreement reached at the end of the summit means nothing.

Iran has never kept its word, either to the world community or to its own people. It is a brutally totalitarian regime that is committed to expanding the radically fundamentalist doctrine of Sharia Law globally. They oppress political descent to the point of murdering people in the streets. They silence the press. They torture and execute pro-democracy advocates, homosexuals, Christians, women’s rights advocates and any other demographic that the mullahs consider a threat to their reign.

And as the Obama Administration continues to insist that dialogue and sanctions will prove to be the demise for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the mullah’s quest for nuclear capability, and thus recognition as a nuclear power, we should not forget that the terrorist group Hezbollah is born of the Iranian Islamic Revolution; born of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. This is important because Hezbollah, the radical Islamist group responsible for more American deaths by terrorism before September 11th, 2001, than any other terrorist organization, has gained a powerful hold in southern Lebanon, a territory greatly influenced by the heavy hand of the Syrian government.

The Syrian government, complicit, if not wholly responsible for the assassination of Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri, has been found to have advanced Scud missiles to Hezbollah in the south of Lebanon. Additionally, Hezbollah has threatened to use these missiles against Israel. Even further, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly threatened to strike at American interests around the world and in the United States itself.

If this weren’t enough, as the Obama Administration continues to marginalize Israel’s relationship with the United States on the one hand, they are greeting the leaders of Hamas – a State Department recognized terrorist organization – with open arms. The Obama Administration, along with the United Nations, continues to turn a blind eye to the truth that aid monies sent to the Gaza are routinely diverted for use by the jihadis within the ranks of Hamas for paramilitary and terrorist operations, and to enrich the elite amongst them (all political correctness aside, if all of the aid money sent to Gaza was actually used for the welfare of Gaza citizens they would be some of the wealthiest people in the Middle East). It would appear – and stunningly so – that for the Obama Administration, the only prerequisite for Hamas being deemed a "partner in peace” where the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is concerned, is that they try to refrain from launching too many rockets into Israeli urban centers. Let’s not mention that the Hamas charter calls for the elimination of the Jewish State.

The facts, as they present today, a sobering. We know that Iran has possession of highly-enriched uranium. We know that Hezbollah takes orders from the Iranian regime. We know that Syria and Iran have a very close relationship, with government officials making multiple and reciprocated trips to each other’s countries. We know that Iran is trying to facilitate an enjoined effort between Hamas and Hezbollah to affect Israel’s demise. And we know that none of the aforementioned can be trusted to adhere to international treaties, UN sanctions, or to even keep its word, both to the world community or to its own people.

Every law enforcement and intelligence director at the federal level in the United States has declared that it is not a matter of if a high-profile terrorist attack will again take place on American soil, but when and of what variety. Some have gone so far as to implicate the southern border of the United States as an embarkation point for terrorists and their weapons of choice.

Given that it has been established that Hezbollah, Hamas and al Qaeda have engaged South American drug cartels for product dissemination and money laundering purposes, it doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that there is a good probability the next terrorist event on US soil will involve a dirty bomb, a radical Islamist operative who has entered across the southern border of the United States and a major American city...or two...or three...or eight.

In light of this logic – as raw, honest and politically incorrect as it is – it would be intelligent – and perhaps even more importantly, honest – for the Obama Administration to jettison the ideological blinders about radical Islamist terrorism and the Nation States that support and abet them, and finally accept the truth that should Iran become a nuclear capable nation, so, too, would terrorist organizations become nuclear capable. And no pseudo-summit, non-binding agreement can change that.

It’s three minutes to midnight...do you know where your protection against terrorist inflicted nuclear Armageddon is?