Pentagon fine-tunes strategy to prepare for WMD threats.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: Weapons of mass destruction - Brief Article - Interview

The Defense Department is working on a multi-tiered strategy to boost the nation's ability to counter the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, or WMD. U.S. capabilities to deter and prevent attacks must be improved sooner rather than later, before the United States experiences another 9-11, said Dale Klein, assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear, biological and chemical defense programs.

"Unfortunately, I think we've moved into an era where [the question is] not "Is it going to happen,' but 'when?'... We just need to be prepared to handle it and minimize it," he told National Defense.

For that reason, he added, "Our intelligence-gathering capabilities need to be enhanced, we need to have the technologies and people trained to respond."

Referring to the recent string of suicide bombings in Israel, Klein said it would be "easy" for attacks of that nature to occur inside the United States. "If someone has a desire to kill themselves and others, it is extremely difficult to prevent that from happening," he said.

Klein's responsibilities include the safety and reliability of nuclear weapons, the biological defense programs, the nuclear treaties, chemical demilitarization and counter-proliferation. "The portfolio is very challenging," he said.

Before coming to the Pentagon last November, Klein had spent 25 years as a mechanical engineering professor and vice chancellor at the University of Texas at Austin. He served on numerous high-level Department of Energy committees, including the Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee. Klein was appointed by then-governor George W. Bush to the Texas Radiation Advisory Board.

Asked about growing concerns in the United States on the possibility of a low-level nuclear attack, Klein noted that the emergence of non-state sponsored terrorism has changed the dynamics of nuclear defense. During the Cold War, there was fear of all-out nuclear annihilation. Today, "what we're looking at, on the nuclear side, is more of a terrorist threat."

Key to preventing terrorist groups from acquiring nuclear devices is to deny them access to the required materials, said Klein. "We are looking at assisting the former Soviet Union in safeguarding their materials. ... We also have export controls that monitor sensitive or dual-use equipment," he said.

"The former Soviet Union had a different method of accounting than the United States. And the United States had a very strong materials accountability program...