World at Risk: Preventing WMD Proliferation and Terrorism

Location: The Heritage Foundation's Allison Auditorium

Congress established the bipartisan Commission for the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism to address the grave threat that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction poses to the United States.  Last December, the Commission published its report, World at Risk, which recognized that the U.S. government has yet to adapt fully to the current circumstance of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and identified specific actions.  The Director of National Intelligence publicly agreed with the Report's threat assessment, saying "we [the intelligence community] assess biological as the more likely and it's better than an even chance in the next five years that an attack by one of those weapons systems will be conducted in some place on the globe…"  The Commission agrees and believes that the U.S. government needs to move more aggressively to reduce the threat of bioterrorism.

World at Risk identifies 13 recommendations for Congress and the Administration.  In an unprecedented act, Congress authorized an additional year of work by the Commission to assist both the Congress and the Administration in turning these recommendations into actions.  Join us as Senators Bob Graham and Jim Talent, Chairman and Vice-Chairman, respectively, of the Commission for the Prevention of Weapons Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism discuss the Commission's findings and next steps.