Krauthammer: Mexico radioactive theft shows need for a secure border

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Krauthammer: Mexico Radioactive Threat

Krauthammer: Mexico radioactive theft shows “a secure southern border is not just to reduce illegal immigration.”

Charles Krauthammer told viewers Wednesday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that the theft of a truck carrying dangerous radioactive material in central Mexico “highlights the fact that one of the reasons we should have a secure southern border is not just to reduce illegal immigration.”

Mexican authorities said the truck carrying cobalt-60 -- used in radiation therapy to treat cancer -- was stolen Monday in a town near Mexico City. Late Wednesday, Mexico’s nuclear safety director reported the truck – and the empty container that once held the cobalt-60 -- had been found in an agricultural town in Central Mexico. The missing radioactive material was found nearby shortly thereafter in a mostly unpopulated area.

While Mexican authorities said there were no signs indicating the theft of the radioactive material was intentional or intended for an act of terrorism, Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor said it draws attention to a greater risk.

"There is always a threat, particularly with Hezbollah elements in the Americas, which we know is true," Krauthammer said. "Hezbollah has carried out attacks as far away as Argentina and it has bases, or at least it has contacts in places like Venezuela."

“Then the alert that we heard earlier in the show that all the ports of entry in the United States are alerted with radiation detecting equipment are useless," he continued. "I can't imagine they're going to go through customs, or TSA in Tijuana. So, we have to have a border that we can control, particularly in a world where all you need is a small amount of really bad stuff that can hurt a large number of people.”