Preventing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal from falling into extremist hands is a more important security priority for the United States than stabilizing Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a Bush administration report delivered to the team preparing for Barack Obama's presidency, the New York Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 10, 2008).
(Jan. 12) -
A Pakistani soldier guards nuclear-capable missiles at a Karachi military exhibition in November (Rizwan Tabassum/Getty Images).
"Only one of those countries has a hundred nuclear weapons," the report's lead author said. Concerns persist over Islamabad's ability to protect the arsenal, according to the Times.
U.S. intelligence officials have briefed Obama on the possibility that some Pakistani scientists with radical Islamic sympathies have sought to join the ranks of the nation's nuclear elite.
There are "steadfast efforts of different extremist groups to infiltrate the labs and put sleepers and so on in there," said one of the most senior officials in the Bush administration.
The official also expressed concern that militants could try to steal nuclear weapons that were being transferred between facilities. Some U.S. officials were concerned that the recent terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai might have been intended to spur Pakistan to move tactical nuclear weapons to border positions so they could be stolen, the Times reported.
However, the head of Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division, which is responsible for protecting the nation's nuclear stockpile, said nobody should be worried.
"Please grant to Pakistan that if we can make nuclear weapons and the delivery systems, we can also make them safe," said SPD chief Khalid Kidwai. "Our security systems are foolproof" (David Sanger, New York Times, Jan. 11).
Such statements have not persuaded top U.S. intelligence officials.
"Osama bin Laden issued a fatwa in the fall of 2007 to say that the mission was to destroy the government of Pakistan," National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell said in a recent television interview. "Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Would you want militants who are sworn to kill Americans in possession of nuclear weapons? That's what I worry about" (Press Trust of India, Jan. 10).