DC Bureau - Investigative Journalism, Environmental News, and National Security Stories That Matter

Los Angeles — Out here, security officials call it the 3 a.m. nightmare. It is the dream that wakes these folks up sweating in the middle of the night. In the last few months, the nightmares have been coming closer together. Among the government's growing army of private security contractors, there is a new gut-wrenching fear. For the last several months, preparations have moved from dealing with a relatively scary but ineffective "dirty bomb" to a real, full-fledged nuclear weapon attack that could contaminate a city for 25,000 years and kill a million people.

It is not coincidental that the government's contractors are located in Los Angeles. Southern California's sprawling ports at San Pedro, Wilmington and Long Beach; a vast immigrant population; and easy access to Mexico make L.A. a likely al-Qaeda target. What really worry security experts, however, are al-Qaeda's and Osama bin Laden's penchants for repeating failed attacks.

Four years ago, a U.S. customs agent single-handedly intercepted an al-Qaeda operative entering from Canada with a mission to blow up Los Angeles International Airport. The Capitol, the White House and LAX have one thing in common with the destroyed World Trade Center Towers — planned attacks failed.

Fear permeates L.A. A visit on the lot of any major film studio or defense contractor reveals security more stringent then at the CIA or Pentagon. Every car is checked for bombs. Identification is checked and rechecked.

The thought that al-Qaeda may already have a nuclear device and is simply looking for an opportunity to deliver it is hanging over the professional security community and those in the government responsible for protecting us. The fear comes from a discovery that U.S. intelligence basically ignored A.Q. Khan and Pakistani intelligence's nuclear proliferation activities prior to 9/11.

Authoritative sources this reporter met with say they have no confidence that Pakistan's nuclear scientists kept this technology from al-Qaeda. They have been specifically told by government planners to prepare for attacks under the assumption that al-Qaeda has at least one complete nuclear device and is able to smuggle it into a target area.

The reason new concern and fear is permeating these communities is a sense that the CIA did not focus on the transfer of Pakistani weapons technology until after 9/11. There is growing concern that the system of companies that A. Q. Khan and his cohorts used to make hundreds of millions may have actually been part of an al-Qaeda fund raising effort.

Transactions traced to several Taiwanese banks caused government investigators to conclude that al-Qaeda operatives are connected to several front companies that have been assisting Khan and Pakistani intelligence in the sale of nuclear technology. "The worst kept secret in Pakistan is that the United States continues to pretend that Pakistani intelligence is on the American side. It is not. Al-Qaeda has well-placed supporters throughout the Pakistani intelligence structure," a Defense Intelligence Agency official told this reporter.

Every day, trucks, helicopters, and in-place radiation sensors in New York, Los Angeles and Washington try to sniff out a nuke. The idea that our government is not demanding Pakistan and Saudi Arabia turn over the details of their nuclear black market networks is unacceptable.

Those who say the Bush administration has done a great job of protecting us from terrorism because nothing has happened in the United States since 9/11 remind this reporter of those at NASA who ignored their engineers and launched Columbia with safety waivers. NASA management proceeded as normal because nothing had gone wrong before. When Columbia and her crew were lost, management tried to cover up the mismanagement.

This reporter asked the security folks how they went about preparing for nuclear terrorism. One fellow who has been doing this for a long time said without smiling, "You find it before it goes off. There is no other solution."