Latest Weapon of mass destruction Stories

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Security screeners at 21 U.S. airports failed to find bomb-making materials during recent government tests, NBC Nightly News reported on Thursday. Federal agents carrying materials that could be used to make bombs escaped detection in airport screening during tests conducted between October and January, NBC said, citing government sources. "In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even...

By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush clung to his doctrine of using preemptive force against threats of weapons of mass destruction on Thursday despite his experience in Iraq, and said Iran may be America's biggest security challenge. A new White House national security strategy document said it was the strong U.S. preference to use international diplomacy to address weapons proliferation concerns. "If necessary, however, under long-standing principles of...

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - India's ambassador to Washington on Tuesday dismissed fears that a controversial civilian nuclear energy deal with the United States would help New Delhi expand its atomic weapons production. Speaking ahead of President George W. Bush's first visit to India, Ronen Sen said debate over the troubled accord had been "hijacked" by non-proliferation "theologians" in the United States and advocates of Indian self-reliance in...

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. negotiator on a troubled nuclear deal with India would hold new talks in New Delhi next week only if there is a chance the visit could resolve differences clouding President George W. Bush's planned South Asia trip, U.S. officials said on Thursday, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who was in India last month, has been mulling a return trip for at least a week and two U.S. officials told Reuters the...

CANBERRA -- The threat that militants could develop and use weapons of mass destruction was exaggerated, international experts said on Tuesday as Australia and the United States warned the risk was real and disturbing.Lawrence Freedman, professor of war studies at London's Kings College, and the Australian National University's (ANU) Robert Ayson, both played down the likelihood that militants could use weapons of mass destruction in an attack.Speaking in Canberra at a one-day conference on...

By Louis CharbonneauMUNICH -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Saturday terrorists had made Iraq the "central front" in their fight against the West but denied the U.S. invasion of the country had been a catalyst for terrorism."Iraq is the central front of the current war. And they have announced it. The terrorists have announced it," Rumsfeld told an annual security conference in Munich.Eventually "they will move it elsewhere," he added.Rumsfeld...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats asked President George W. Bush on Friday to publish U.S. intelligence on the nuclear threat posed by North Korea and questioned the president's commitment to dealing with the issue. In a letter to Bush, the lawmakers said the communist state was a greater danger to U.S. security than in 2002 when he described Pyongyang as part of an "axis of evil." Pyongyang has since said it has nuclear weapons. The letter was signed by Senate Majority Leader...

By Will Dunham and Jim WolfWASHINGTON -- The United States will build new long-range weapons in a hedge against potential rivals like China, the major power best-placed to challenge U.S. supremacy, the Pentagon said in a new strategic blueprint on Friday.The Defense Department also plans to boost U.S. special forces to fight terrorism, strengthen homeland defense and step up efforts to thwart transfers of the deadliest weapons, the 92-page document said.The Pentagon released the...

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's latest strategy review proposes a new military unit that would prevent the transfer of weapons of mass destruction from states such as North Korea and Iran to terrorist groups, The Washington Times reported on Friday.The WMD task force would be comprised of several hundred troops, including special operations forces and intelligence personnel, the Times said.The Times said the proposal was included in the Pentagon's 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review, a sweeping...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon's latest strategy review proposes a new military unit that would prevent the transfer of weapons of mass destruction from states such as North Korea and Iran to terrorist groups, The Washington Times reported on Friday.The WMD task force would be comprised of several hundred troops, including special operations forces and intelligence personnel, the Times said.The Times said the proposal was included in the Pentagon's 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review, a...