Posted on 03/25/2012 4:58:10 PM PDT by James C. Bennett
Even as Pakistan continues its efforts to get the sort of nuclear waiver that India got, New Delhi today raised serious doubts about Islamabad’s capability to keep its nuclear material safe and secure, saying there was the possibility of not just these material falling into terrorist hands but also of their misuse from within the establishment.
Sources said New Delhi had “very little confidence” that Pakistan’s nuclear programme was safe.
“It (the possibility of misuse of Pakistan’s nuclear programme) is a big worry for us. We have very little confidence in Pakistan’s ability to keep its programme safe and secure. The real trouble is that you cannot rule out the insider threat. Such threats come from people with legitimate access to nuclear resources but who could use it for illegitimate purposes,” official sources said.
The remarks come in the run-up to the second Nuclear Security Summit early next week here for which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reached Seoul on a four-day visit, the second half of which would be devoted to the nuclear summit. There is even the possibility of the Prime Minister meeting his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in a bilateral meeting. Gilani is among the more than 55 heads of states who would be attending the summit, which would discuss measures to ensure that nuclear materials are kept safe from rogue elements.
In an interview to a South Korean daily, Singh, asked if corruption was discouraging investment said: “Outside observers often tend to take a narrow view of our economic policies. India is far more open economy today than it was earlier.”
Pakistan Constantly Moves Nukes in Unprotected Vans
EXCERPT:
Pakistan works hard to protect its nuclear arsenal, but not from terrorists—from the US. In a huge Atlantic article provocatively titled “The Ally from Hell,” Jeffrey Goldberg and Marc Ambinder reveal that Pakistan is so afraid of a US move to steal or disable its arsenal—particularly in the wake of Osama bin Laden raid—that it constantly shuttles nuclear weapons between sites to obscure their location. And often, they’re transported in unmarked, unarmored vans with only modest security through crowded city streets.
Though Pakistan says all its nuclear weapons are "de-mated," meaning the warhead and delivery systems are stored separately, Western experts are now convinced Pakistan is building mated tactical nukes—and transporting them in those vans. Nor is Pakistan wrong to be paranoid—the US does indeed have a detailed plan for how it would neutralize Pakistan’s arsenal if it had to, sources say. China has secretly told the US it would “raise no objections” if it did so—a measure of how frightening the world finds Pakistan’s lightly-secured nukes. But it would be costly. “You'd be talking about an invasion of Pakistan,” Goldberg tells NPR
India, like Israel considers their sworn enemy having nuclear weapons and existential threat and will act to keep from being destroyed regardless of any bleatings from any American administration.
invasion of Pakiland to destroy their nukes is a good plan. lock and load!
Taliban threat: Nuclear site in DG Khan cordoned off
LAHORE:
It could be the first-ever security threat to a nuclear facility in Pakistan, and the Army and security forces are taking no risks.
Following ‘serious’ security threats from the homegrown Taliban, the Army and Punjab police have deployed heavy forces at one of Pakistan’s largest nuclear facilities in Dera Ghazi Khan (DG Khan), credible sources told The Express Tribune.
Besides the deployment inside and around the nuclear installation, three divisions in South Punjab have also been asked to launch a crackdown against banned outfits, sources added.
“DG Khan houses one of the largest nuclear facilities in the country, and has faced the first-ever serious security threat from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),” said a high ranking military officer currently serving at the installation.
According to an official who works at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, a key military and civilian fuel cycle site is located 40 kilometres from DG Khan. The site comprises uranium milling and mining operations, and a uranium hexaflouride conversion plant.
‘Serious’ threat
Sources in the military and Punjab Police, on condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the nature of threat at the nuclear installation is ‘serious,’ with an 80% chance of occurrence.
The Inter-Services Intelligence reportedly intercepted a telephone call from the TTP, wherein they were said to have been finalising their strategy for attacks on nuclear installations in DG Khan, sources said.
Three to four vehicles carrying suicide bombers are about to enter DG Khan and can strike the nuclear facilities at any time, the caller concluded according to sources. Sources said that, according to precedents, threats intercepted via phone calls often materialised in the next 72 hours. Direct threats via phone or letters often do not materialise, the source added.
Foiling the attack
DG Khan District Police Officer Chaudhry Saleem confirmed the threat, while talking to The Express Tribune, and said that DG Khan Police has received instructions from the military officer in charge at the nuclear installation to beef up security around the facility as much as possible.
The TTP started to send threats to the installation after the attacks on Kamra air base, Saleem said, adding that the police has established six new pickets around the nuclear installations and deployed heavy forces over the last 24 hours.
Sources said that a heavy contingent of military from the Multan cantonment has also reached the site and beefed up the inner cordon of the security. Military has also been deployed near the border with Balochistan.
Revenge for Qaisrani
Well-placed sources in law enforcement agencies said that when the TTP attacked Kamra air base, they announced that they would take revenge for killing of their South Punjab head Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani by also attacking nuclear installations in DG Khan.
Sources said the DG Khan Police killed Qaisrani in an encounter in the first week of August, along with eight of his companions, almost clearing his network in the area.The police were able to trace Qaisrani after they interrogated Adnan Khosa, who attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore along with Qaisrani, sources said, adding that Khosa is currently imprisoned in DG Khan.
Qaisrani’s elimination caused a major loss to the TTP in South Punjab, and the militant outfit vowed to take revenge.
Earlier attacks
According to local politicians, the DG Khan nuclear site and adjacent areas had previously been a target of ground attacks by Baloch insurgents, but not the TTP.
TTP’s threat, therefore, is alarming for the region, they added. Officials in the counter-terrorism department, however, said there are around a dozen pockets in South Punjab, particularly near the border areas of DG Khan, where TTP is increasing its clout.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/432295/taliban-threat-nuclear-site-in-dg-khan-cordoned-off/
We had a bit of difficulty pacifying Iraq, a country of 31M people, where the common citizenry was disarmed by a paranoid dictatorship.
Invasion of a country with a population of 190M, with a high rate of private firearm ownership (legal and illegal), particularly in the tribal regions where private (illicit) gun manufacturing shops abound, would be a WHOLE different story.
An operation where we go in, grab their nukes, and smash their military in the process is one thing. Occupation would be unworkable, and we better hope we got ALL the nukes, because then they would be pissed.
taking ALL of their nukes is the only way. Or sooner or later, those nukes will fall in the hand of jihadis..
Thanks AdmSmith.
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