[Squantos]

We give these things to foreign countries ? Whats the basis or purpose of a PAL....what does it really do ?

[Squantos]

Sorry to bother....

[Saberwielder]

A PAL basically disables a nuclear device if a wrong code is entered more than a few times and will not enable the trigger until the right code is entered.

Most NATO countries and former Soviet bloc nations have/had nuclear weapons that have security devices preventing unauthorized use. We put PALs on American nukes stored in NATO countries. But Pakistan's nukes don't have any, according to most reports.

Around the time of the attempts on Musharraf's life late in 2003, reports came out that the US has installed PALs on Pakistan's warheads. Strictly speaking this is illegal under American law because we cannot give such devices to non-NPT signatories. But given the sensitivity of this issue, it wouldn't be surprising if we did put them on Pakistani nukes, even if it was skirting legality under American law.

See this interesting report