Fears of contamination from the plant's reactors in northeast Japan that were rocked by explosions and ravaged by fires after Friday's 9.0-magnitude quake and massive tsunami have spread as far as Hawaii and the US West Coast.

But Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said enemies of the United States -- "non-state actors and rogue regimes" -- are intent on bringing about "an even greater disaster here" than what happened in Japan, where more than 5,600 people are confirmed dead and nearly 10,000 are listed as missing.

"The crisis in Japan is a dramatic demonstration of the real-world threat resulting from nuclear material over which we have lost control," Ros-Lehtinen told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"The prospect of sudden and widespread nuclear contamination in far-away Japan should remind us that we face an even greater threat from our self-proclaimed enemies, who are even now planning to unleash it in the centers of our cities," she said.

"A radiological bomb that uses conventional explosives to disperse radioactive materials is a far more achievable goal for Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations than a nuclear device."

Ros-Lehtinen chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, whose hearing addressed the global revival of nuclear energy and the associated risks of atomic weapons proliferation.

earlier related report
Gadhafi's mercenaries trigger terror alarm
Algiers, Algeria (UPI) Mar 17, 2011 -Moammar Gadhafi's recruitment of African mercenaries and Tuareg tribesmen to save his regime is raising concerns that these fighters could destabilize the region when the fighting in Libya comes to an end.

This is because Western and regional intelligence officials are worried that the hundreds of men fighting rebel forces in Libya will end up either signing up with al-Qaida's North African affiliate or swelling the ranks of simmering Tuareg rebellions across the Sahara region.

To monitor the unfolding situation in Libya, where Gadhafi's forces seem to be winning, the U.S. State Department has established the Algerian-American Bilateral Contact Group for Cooperation on Counterterrorism in Algiers.

It was inaugurated March 4 at the U.S. Embassy by Ambassador Daniel Benjamin and Kamel Rezag Bara, adviser on terrorism to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

That consolidated growing cooperation between U.S. and Algerian counter-terrorism establishments that has been improving in recent months amid the expanding operations of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

The jihadist organization, one of al-Qaida's most active groups, is led by seasoned Algerian militants, some of whom have been in action since the 1980s.

Gadhafi crushed Libya's jihadists but other groups linked to al-Qaida continue to operate, primarily AQIM.

The proliferation of weapons in Libya, many looted from military armories by rebels in the east, means they will spread across the region and possibly revive Libya's jihadists.

"The conflict in Libya could provide them more room to operate than they have enjoyed for many years," the global intelligence consultancy Stratfor observed.

"This operational freedom for the jihadists might have an impact not only in Libya but also in the broader region," particularly if they can get their hands on surface-to-air missiles, military-grade explosives and heavy machine guns.

Under the mercurial Gadhafi, Libya was a key supporter of international terrorism throughout the 1970s and '80s. It also carried out its own operations.

A Libyan intelligence agent was convicted in 2001 for the December 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Scotland that killed 270 people.

Weapons used by terrorist groups such as the Abu Nidal Organization were traced to Libya.

In those days, "Libya served as the arsenal of terrorism," and that could happened again, Stratfor warned.

"The weapons that have been looted … will almost certainly proceed from Libya via a number of divergent channels.

"Because of this, controlling these weapons may pose an even more difficult challenge than the arms intentionally proliferated by the Gadhafi regime."

Gadhafi, despite his international rehabilitation after he abandoned a clandestine nuclear program in 2003, has once again found himself shunned by the international community as he struggles to save his regime.

That has raised fears that he may publicly revert to his old ways.

The Libyan regime, which Gadhafi has led since as an army captain he led a coup that toppled the Senussi monarchy in September 1969, has backed Tuareg rebel groups in Niger and Mail for much of the last four decades.

This has antagonized Algeria, the heavyweight military power in North Africa and which has long been at odds with Gadhafi.

The nomadic Tuaregs, who roam across the deserts of Algeria and Libya as well as Mali and Niger, see Gadhafi as their champion.

Indeed, over the years, Gadhafi's influence across Africa has been far greater than in the Arab world, where he has long been shunned by the region's leaders as a dangerous demagogue.

He has used Libya's oil wealth to bankroll rebellions and wars, such as the genocidal conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

In the 1970s he recruited thousands of Africans into the al-Failaka al-Islamiya, his so-called Islamic Legion, an experimental Muslim army he used to further his territorial ambitions in countries like Chad.

That force has been swelled lately by up to 4,000 Tuareg and other Africans, lured by the promise of $1,000 a day and weapons galore.

"These young people are going en masse to Libya," lamented Abdou Sallam Ag Assalat, a political leader in impoverished Mali's Kidal region.

"The regional authorities are trying to dissuade them, particularly former rebels but it's not easy because for them there are the dollars and weapons to be recovered … One day they'll be back with those same weapons to destabilize the Sahel."

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