Iran Nuclear Terrorism Threat Looming

Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte recently announced that Iran may acquire a nuclear weapon by 2010. At the same time, he described Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden as the most serious national security threat to the United States. It was also mentioned that Iran is the primary sponsor of terrorism in the world. What Negroponte overlooked in his remarks was the direct connection between these points, said the author of "King of Bombs," Sheldon Filger.

In his chilling novel about nuclear terrorism, Mr. Filger describes a future post-9/11 attack on the United States by Al-Qaeda involving a nuclear weapon. In the scenario presented in "King of Bombs," radical factions in the Iranian government provide crucial assistance to Al-Qaeda. Responding to Negroponte's comments, Filger said the words of the National Director of Intelligence give credence to the scenario advanced in his book.

"The Iranian president is already on record as calling for the destruction of America," Mr. Filger said. "If Iran's uranium enrichment project succeeds in generating a few dozen pounds of fissile material, why would they wait several more years to create a miniturized warhead that can fit on a a missile, when they can covertly transfer the material to a group such as Al-Qaeda, which can then fabricate a crude but devastating nuclear bomb, and smuggle it into the United States throught its porous port security."

"King of Bombs" demonstrates how Iran and Al-Qaeda could cooperate in achieving a common goal, the destruction of a major American city through nuclear terrorism. "Given Iran's known links to international terrorism, and the high priority they have placed on creating the infrastructure required to produce highly enriched uranium on an industrial scale, we ignore the real danger that Iran will provide Al-Qaeda with highly enriched uranium at our peril," warned the author of "King of Bombs."