When you talk about our adversaries, from what I saw of the report, you ' re mainly talking about North Korea and Iran and their nuclear programs. I didn ' t see as much that Al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations are a real threat in this area.
We have identified Pakistan as being the intersection of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. The concern is not that the terrorists are going to develop the ability to create these weapons—although in the biological area, we think it is within their capabilities to create pathogens and weaponize them. But what will happen is there will be a successful theft or the turning of a corrupt official, and through that means, a terrorist group would gain access to either nuclear or biological material for a weapon.

I noticed from the report, you interviewed the top White House counterterorrism advisor, Juan Zarate, and he said he spent only 15 percent of his time on this issue. And Congress had mandated [as part of its post 9/11 reforms] that a full time WMD advisor be created. But the White House has never done so. Is this an example of the kind of failure you ' ve been talking about?
Yes. And we recommend that the new president structure a position accountable to him to be responsible for U.S. policies [on WMD.]. When we first looked at this, we were thinking the principal problem was one of coordination. I think our commission over the period we studied this shifted and came to the conclusion that there was nobody in the administration of sufficient gravitas to contend with the advocates for economic or geopolitical policies that would compromise our proliferation goals.

Given your expertise and passion about this subject, do you have any interest in helping President-elect Obama in this regard?
I'm currently serving as his senior advisor on the intelligence transition. And I met this morning with a person who is likely to have some significant responsibility in this area.

Can you shed some light on who that would be?
No.

As for yourself, do you have any interest in serving the president in a more formal capacity?
Any American if called upon by the president to carry out what is clearly a major responsibility in the government to protect our people would be inclined to be receptive.

© 2008