Summit To Address Loose Nukes, ISIS Threat
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Topping our World Lead today, a nightmare scenario for military and intelligence officials. ISIS in possession of a nuclear weapon. Now, the idea may seem farfetched to you, but it is taken very seriously by top officials in the U.S. government. After all, the terrorist group has already used chemical weapons and expressed a desire to get nuclear ones. It's a fear President Obama has discussed openly.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If we discovered that ISIL had gotten possession of a nuclear weapon and we had to run an operation to get it out of their hands, then yes, you can anticipate that not only would Chairman Dempsey recommend me sending U.S. ground troops to get that weapon out of their hands, but I would order it.</s>TAPPER: Let's get right to CNN global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott. Elise, this is sure to be addressed from President Obama hosts several world leaders at a Nuclear Security Summit in Washington tomorrow.</s>ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jake. Keeping nuclear material out of terrorists' hands was already topping the agenda. With new evidence ISIS has its eye on nuclear facilities and sciences, the need to secure the world's nuclear material has become even more urgent.</s>LABOTT (voice-over): Raiding the home of a suspected planner of last November's Paris attacks, Belgian authorities found surveillance video of a top Belgian nuclear scientist. That suspect, part of the same ISIS cell accused of last week's attacks in Belgium. The shocking discovery turned the heads of counterterrorism experts, who fear Belgium with several previous nuclear breaches could be at risks for terrorists to obtain radiological materials for a so-called dirty bomb.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A small dirty bomb would not just cause panic and cause people to flee the city, it would contaminate tens of square blocks for years.</s>LABOTT: Those fears now top the agenda at this week's Nuclear Summit. President Obama first convened the gathering of world leaders six years ago, issuing a call to action.</s>PRESIDENT OBAMA: It is increasingly clear that the danger of nuclear terrorism is one of the greatest threats to global security.</s>LABOTT: Since that warning, 12 countries have eliminated nuclear material, but tons of unsecured weapons grade material remains in 25 countries. And ISIS barely on the radar at the time of the first summit, is now a global network, already using chemical weapons on the battlefield. A recent Harvard University report warned that despite modest improvements in nuclear security, the capability of groups, especially ISIS has, quote, "grown dramatically," suggesting overall the risk of nuclear terrorism may have increased.</s>MATTHEW BUNN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY'S BELLER CENTER: We don't know what the terrorist threat is going to look like two years, five years, ten years from now. To me that's even stronger reason to lock down all the ingredients of a potential nuclear recipe.</s>LABOTT: Now, White House officials and experts stress there is no firm evidence ISIS is trying to build a nuclear device. The mechanics of assembling a crude dirty bomb are relatively simple and ISIS does have the global network to recruit the experts needed. Unless nations redouble efforts to secure nuclear and radiological materials, Jake, officials fear such a scenario could be inevitable.</s>TAPPER: That's terrifying. Elise Labott, thank you so much. Next in the National Lead, what happened under a D.C. dinner table that ultimately ended up hurting the careers of two of the most powerful men in the world, we have brand new revelations from the David Petraeus scandal.