Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Director of the Office of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence at the US Department of Energy, stated this at a Congressional hearing on 'Nuclear Terrorism' when asked by Democratic Senator Daniel Akaka if India has rejected offers of nuclear security cooperation.

"I think that the problem of India in this regard is the intelligence community would look at it -- of course, we pay attention to policy -- is to expand this from what could be a very simplistic discussion of a problem in the former Soviet Union and Pakistan to ensure that every country, whether it be India, United States, other country, could be potentially part of this small network of countries where terrorists can obtain material or expertise."

The senior administration official was before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs which held the hearing on Nuclear Terrorism Chaired by independent Senator Joseph Lieberman.

"So the decisions that states make, in a world where there's an increased dependence on nuclear power and proliferation of nuclear weapons, all will exacerbate the tendencies in the future -- the ability of a terrorist group at some point in time to reach that threshold they may have a mushroom cloud," he said.