US expert says Qaeda doesn't have capability to develop N-arsenal

Rome, Oct 24 : Rejecting CIA Director Michael Hayden's assessment that Al Qaeda was a top nuclear concern, a leading US expert has said that the international terrorist organization only had intention and not the capability to develop a nuclear arsenal.

Hayden had earlier said that al-Qaeda was "the CIA's top nuclear concern."

"The CIA director based his assessment on intentions rather than capabilities," Jenkins, author of a new book Will Terrorists Go Nuclear?, said US expert Brian Jenkins, a senior adviser at the US think-tank "Rand Corporation"

Jenkins compared the threat posed by Al-Qaeda to the situation in Washington-branded "rogue states," Iran and North Korea.

"North Korea has nuclear weapons. Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions are backed up by a large contingent of nuclear scientists and an extensive network of nuclear facilities. The CIA, however, considers al-Qaeda the bigger threat because it assumes that if al-Qaeda had nuclear weapons, it would be most likely to use them," The News quoted Jenkins as saying in an interview with a news agency.

ANI