US: Terrorist Use of WMD "Only a Matter of Time"

Hank Crumpton, the newly-appointed head of counter-terrorism at the U.S. State Department, believes that it is simply a matter of time before international terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda acquire weapons of mass destruction and use them in attacks.

Crumpton, who spent 20 years working for the CIA, warned Monday that the "war on terror" was likely to last for decades.

"And it is not just the nuclear threat that bothers me. I think, if anything, the biological threat is going to grow," he added.

The regime of President Assad in Syria also seriously threatens Western security, he says.

"The regime continues to support terror organizations. And we know that the Baathist leadership fled to Damascus taking with them money and terrorist expertise, and we cannot rule out the fact that some of that expertise related to WMD."

Crumpton was a key figure in covert operations against al-Qaeda pre-September 11.

He tried to persuade the CIA to do more in Afghanistan to hunt down bin Laden before the attacks, but two key proposals to tackle al-Qaeda were turned down.