ANOTHER WARNING ABOUT ISLAMIC EXTREMISM, THIS ONE NUCLEAR – AT 8:13 P.M. ET:  We received one warning about the Iranian nuclear program yesterday from the British defense minister.  Now we get a warning about Al Qaeda and nuclear weapons, from London's Telegraph:

Al-Qaida is on the verge of producing radioactive weapons after sourcing nuclear material and recruiting rogue scientists to build "dirty" bombs, according to leaked diplomatic documents.

A leading atomic regulator has privately warned that the world stands on the brink of a "nuclear 9/11".

Security briefings suggest that jihadi groups are also close to producing "workable and efficient" biological and chemical weapons that could kill thousands if unleashed in attacks on the West.

Thousands of classified American cables obtained by the WikiLeaks website and passed to The Daily Telegraph detail the international struggle to stop the spread of weapons-grade nuclear, chemical and biological material around the globe.

And...

...al-Qaida documents found in Afghanistan in 2007 revealed that "greater advances" had been made in bioterrorism than was previously realized. An Indian national security adviser told American security personnel in June 2008 that terrorists had made a "manifest attempt to get fissile material" and "have the technical competence to manufacture an explosive device beyond a mere dirty bomb".

COMMENT:  Why do we have to be warned about Iran by the British defense minister, who himself is fighting a valiant fight against his own government, which would like to cut defense spending to the bone?  Why do we have to learn about Al Qaeda's nuclear progress from a British newspaper?

There is no real sense of urgency in the Obama administration, or among its supporters.  We are sleeping again, as we slept in 1939.

February 1, 2011