Russian Traffickers' Attempts to Sell Nuclear Materials to Muslim Extremist Groups

The FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, has reported that several attempts by Russian traffickers to sell nuclear materials to Muslim extremist groups, including the Islamic State, have been discovered and thwarted. According to the Associated Press, concerns about terrorist groups obtaining dangerous nuclear materials are not new, but the news regarding traffickers' attempts to sell radioactive materials to extremist groups in the Middle East, including the Islamic State, which was highlighted on American television networks early Wednesday, has heightened worries about how real and imminent the danger is. NBC News dedicated the lead story of its morning program on Wednesday, October 7, to this Associated Press report, which noted that local officials in the underdeveloped regions of Eastern Europe have collaborated with the FBI, and during these collaborations, they have thwarted attempts by nuclear material sellers to terrorist groups four times over the past five years. The latest of these attempts occurred in early March of last year, when traffickers were arrested while attempting to sell a large quantity of the deadly substance 'Cesium' to a buyer from the Islamic State group. This substance is a dangerous soft metallic chemical element, and even a small amount can contaminate a large part of a city. Professor Nasrat Vahedi, a retired professor of atomic physics residing in Germany, explained to Radio Farda about this substance and its dangers: 'When uranium is burned in reactors and atoms are split, one of the fragments is cesium, which is radioactive and its radiation is dangerous, especially since it also emits gamma rays. More importantly, cesium has a half-life of about 33 years, meaning if one gram of it is spread on the ground, it will take 33 years to reduce to half a gram. In reality, such an environment will remain contaminated for one to two centuries, and its radiation is such that it harms humans and is particularly cancer-causing.' The Associated Press report cites detectives who add that criminals operating within an organized framework, some of whom have connections with the successor intelligence agency of the KGB in Russia, manage a thriving black market for nuclear materials in the small and underdeveloped Republic of Moldova. According to this report, although several individuals were caught in the March operation, the leader and key members of this gang managed to escape. The police and judicial authorities in Moldova have provided the Associated Press with files that illustrate the increasing dangers of the black market for nuclear materials. Meanwhile, the cooling of relations between Russia and the United States and the cessation of police cooperation have added to the difficulties in combating and confronting nuclear traffickers, who are easily transferring and hiding radioactive materials in large parts of Russia, especially since these materials are accessible in vast areas of the expansive Russian territory and an unknown quantity has made its way to the black market. Michael Landers, a former director of U.S. counter-terrorism operations, emphasized the need for cooperation between the U.S. and Russian governments in this regard during an interview with NBC News on Wednesday. Mr. Landers stated, 'Extremist and terrorist groups are always seeking to obtain nuclear materials and any kind of weapons of mass destruction. This is an issue that Russia must take very seriously, as the consequences of materials being stolen and falling into the hands of a group like ISIS would be catastrophic.' The Associated Press did not detail the FBI's role in the four previous operations but noted that the existing documents, photos, and videos from these operations depict a concerning vulnerability and indicate that there is still a long way to go before complete control over the Balkans in the nuclear trafficking process is achieved.