U.S. unprepared to defend against nuke, bio attacks

As terrifying as the Christmas Day plot was, as close as the underwear bomber got to bringing down that jet, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and the damage he might have wrought are nothing compared with what Al Qaeda has in store.

Two reports make clear that America's mortal enemy remains viciously focused on nuclear or biological attacks and that Washington is falling far short in its duty to protect the public.

First comes Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, former chief of the CIA's Weapons of Mass Destruction Department, now at Harvard. He dissects Al Qaeda's "decade-long effort to steal or construct an improvised nuclear device," fueled by "their perception of the benefits of producing the image of a mushroom cloud rising over a U.S. city, just as the 9/11 attacks have altered the course of history."

And, contrary to those who use the foiled Christmas plot as evidence of the terrorists' diminished capabilities ("The Decline of Al Qaeda," read one headline), he concludes that Al Qaeda's quiet these past eight years is not good news. Not at all.

Instead, Mowatt-Larssen paints a picture of an organization that is likely lying back on purpose.

He writes: "Events have shown that the Al Qaeda leadership does not choose weapons based on how easy they are to acquire and use, be they conventional or unconventional weapons. They choose them based on the best means of destroying the specific targets that they have in mind."

We haven't even gotten to the truly disturbing part yet. This is it: While Al Qaeda is determinedly plotting, the U.S. government's counterterrorism gears are barely spinning.

That is the conclusion of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, headed up by former Sens. Bob Graham and Jim Talent.