AFF/TERRORISM/GENERAL

GLOBAL TERRORISM IS RISING AND BECOME MORE ACUTE

John Mceachran April 16, 2001 The Herald (Glasgow) SECTION: Pg. 2 HEADLINE: Professor's nuclear warning //VT2002acsln

Many terror groups had the potential to fund the construction and delivery of their own nuclear or chemical weapons of mass destruction. "It would be wrong to elevate this threat out of proportion as conventional weapons are still much more widely used, but we cannot ignore it."

He [Paul Wilkinson ] claimed US statistics on terror groups were unreliable because the American State Department focused on the kinds of international terrorism which would affect their own interests, whereas the vast majority of activity was domestic.

He said more than half of the world's countries suffered some form of domestic or international terrorism every year with more than 40 affected by serious activity at any one time.

The trend was towards larger incidents, killing more people in each attack, and this "makes it easier for terrorists to cross the threshold into using weapons of mass destruction".

The professor also said terror groups were turning to organised crime to finance their activities, leading to the recent spate of Mafia killings in Sicily, and warned London was increasingly becoming a base for them to organise and fund activities.