14) Pakistan & Nuclear Proliferation

8/7/2019 14) Pakistan & Nuclear Proliferation

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The Nuclear Bible: Pakistan & Nuclear Proliferation

Date Pakistani Nuclear Event1982 China gives HEU to Pakistan (Smith & Warrick, 2009).1987 Pakistani A.Q. Khan starts international nuclear smuggling operation with alleged sales of nuclear information to

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Sudan, North Korea, Iran, and Libya (World Net Daily, 2005).1989-1991 Pakistani scientists sell nuclear secrets to Iran (Gauhar, 2003).1997 Pakistani nuclear scientists meet with North Korea to exchange nuclear technical assistance in return for long-range

missile technology (Allison, 2004).05/281998 Pakistan tests 1st Nuclear Bomb (Kerr & Nikitin, 2010).2000 Pakistani nuclear scientists Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majid meet with Osama Bin Laden (Blakely, 2009).2001 Just before 9/11, Pakistani nuclear scientists Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majid meet with Osama Bin Laden for

a second time (Blakely, 2009).2001 A Pakistani nuke is smuggled out of Pakistan by Al Qaeda and shipped to America (De Borchgrave, 2001).2004 Pakistan buys (3) Agosta 90Bs Nuclear Submarines giving Pakistan second strike nuclear capability" (Bloom, 2004).02/04/2004 A.Q. Khan admits selling blueprints for nuclear weapons to Libya, North Korea and Iran (World Net Daily, 2005).12/28/2007 Pakistani President Benazir Bhutto Assassinated (MSNBC, 2007).20072009 Terrorists attacked Pakistans nuclear facilities 3 times at 3 different locations (Blakely, 2009).

02/05/2009 Pakistani A.Q. Khan freed from house arrest (Warrick 2009).12/01/2009 Obama declares war on Pakistan, a fully nuclear state (Tarpley, 2009).01/22/2010 Pakistan rejects U.S. and U.N. nuclear disarmament attempts (Nebehay, 2010).01/22/2010 Pakistani based Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group target Pakistans nuclear scientists (Puri, 2010).01/17/2010 Elite U.S. troops deployed to combat hijacked Pakistani nuclear weapons (Lamb, 2010).02/11/2010 U.S. Vice President Biden states that Pakistan is My greatest concern (Press TV, 2010).08/29/2010 Blackwater/Xe hijacks plane in an attempt to fly it into a nuclear reactor in Pakistan (Duff, 2010).02/06/2011 Pakistan supplies a nuke to Al Qaeda to use at the Super Bowl?

Date: December 10, 2001

Source: The Washington Times, Arnaud de BorchgraveTitle/Headline:Al Qaeda's Nuclear Agenda Verified

Abstract:Pakistani intelligence officers were assisting Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization to develop the ability to build a"dirty" nuclear device, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies have concluded. Intelligence officers in Washington and Islamabad,speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they are now convinced that al Qaeda was attempting to put together a "nuclear device in thedirty bomb category. Documents uncovered in Kabul and the interrogation of nuclear scientists who were frequent visitors to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan - ostensibly to perform humanitarian work - have produced conclusive evidence of the fact, the officers said. One

Pakistani general who has seen the evidence described the device as a "dirty nuclear weapon," meaning one in which radioactive

materials are wrapped around conventional explosives. Such a device can contaminate an area of several square blocks withradiation. The general said he also believes bin Laden obtained such materials on Russia's nuclear black market. The InternationalAtomic Energy Agency in Vienna is aware of 175 cases of trafficking in nuclear materials since 1993, including 18 that involved highlyenriched uranium and plutonium pellets the size of a silver dollar. There are 18 million potential delivery vehicles that could be used tosmuggle a nuclear device into the United States. That is the number of cargo containers that arrive in the country annually. Of

them, only 3 percent are inspected, and bills of lading do not have to be produced until the containers reach their destination,

according to current regulations. An unidentified former chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency is believed tobe the man who coordinated bin Laden's nuclear ambitions.One local intelligence source speculated that before September 11, adirty bomb could have been smuggled out of Afghanistan in a truck all the way to Karachi and then shipped out in a cargocontainer. That could be the weapon Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar was referring to when he said, after the U.S. bombing startedOct. 7, that America would soon have to face extinction. Allowing for hyperbole, he may have known what bin Laden was planning next.Another ex-ISI chief, retired Gen. Hameed Gul, predicted after September 11 that one day there would be a single Islamic state that wouldstretch from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and Afghanistan and that would have nuclear weapons, as well as control of the Gulf's oil resources.The general is an ISI legend, and still popular among the agency's present crop of leaders who were his junior officers in the late 1980s.Gen. Gul, a Muslim fundamentalist, is vehemently anti-American. He acts as "strategic adviser" to Pakistan's extremist religious parties,and spent two weeks in Afghanistan just prior to September 11. Gen. Gul is slowly emerging as the spokesman for the combined oppositionof Islamic fundamentalists. In Urdu-language newspapers on Friday, he was quoted as saying: "No one can tell us how to run ournuclear facilities and nuclear programs. This is being done in the interest of Pakistan, not the United States. Taliban will always


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remain in Afghanistan, and Pakistan will always support them. He was presumably referring to the Taliban in its guerrilla mode,following the fall of Kandahar. Gen. Gul's only daughter runs VARAN, the public transportation bus company that enjoys a monopoly inIslamabad and its twin military garrison city of Rawalpindi. Gen. Gul himself lives in "Pindi" in an army compound housing developmentearmarked for retired generals. Officially, the Pakistani government has accepted the explanation of three nuclear scientists abouttheir "innocuous" relationship to the Taliban. Privately, however, some Pakistani officials, working closely with U.S. colleagues,said their activities "cannot be described as innocuous by any stretch of the imagination." On a brief visit to Islamabad early thismonth, George Tenet, director of CIA, conferred with President Pervez Musharraf on what was described as the need for "more and betterintelligence" from ISI. The CIA has reportedly submitted a list of six more nuclear scientists whom it wants to probe for suspectedlinks to al Qaeda. Two of them, Dr. Suleiman Asad and Dr. Muhammad Ali Muktar, are now in Burma doing undisclosed research

with local scientists. Apparently anxious to avoid further U.S. probes into Pakistan's ultrasecret nuclear weapons program, these twoscientists have been advised by the government to remain in Burma until further notice. Dr. Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmud, former directorof the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), and Chief Engineer Dr. Chaudry Abdul Majeed have been questioned by a joint FBI-ISI team. According to PAEC sources, the CIA wishes to conduct a separate interrogation based on documents seized in Kabul. Dr.Mahmud is a close associate of Gen. Gul. They were colleagues when Gen. Gul ran ISI. Dr. Mahmud is one of three scientists whobefriended Taliban leaders. He is an expert in enriched uranium and plutonium, having lectured all over Pakistan with odes to the

Taliban as "the wave of the future for Pakistan." Dr. Mahmud and two of his colleagues were detained in late October as a result ofU.S. questions about Pakistani "relief" organizations active in Taliban-run Afghanistan, including an agricultural project near Kandahar.They admitted to meeting with al Qaeda associates of bin Laden and were officially cleared of passing on nuclear secrets. Dr.

Mahmud says publicly that plutonium production is not a state secret, and advocates increasing plutonium output to help other

Islamic nations build nuclear weapons. After the start of the U.S. bombing campaign, Gen. Musharraf ordered an immediateredeployment of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal to six new secret locations, including separate storage facilities for uranium and plutonium coresand their detonation mechanisms. Army colleagues now say privately that Gen. Musharraf was fearful of assassination by extremistswho were already accusing him of betraying Islam and selling out to the United States. There were also rumors of a coup by hard-

liners in the military. The officer corps is 20 percent fundamentalist, according to a post-September 11 confidential survey by

military intelligence separate from ISI. Pakistan's community of nuclear scientists is held to be "profoundly fundamentalist" andanti-American. They are particularly resentful of U.S. economic and military sanctions against Pakistan as punishment for their

country's nuclear weapons program. The community's guru is Abdul Qadir Khan, the scientist who devised Pakistan's first nuclearweapon. Pakistan now has an estimated 20 such weapons in its arsenal. ISI is still widely distrusted by Western intelligence agencies andby all levels of Pakistani society, from people in the street to top political leaders. An ISI general who is regional director in one of thetribal areas told an important tribal leader known to this reporter that "after Afghanistan, Pakistan is next on America's list of

countries to be conquered, and after Pakistan, Iran will be next. All that war talk about Iraq being next is just a smokescreen."Gen. Gul has been touring FATA (Federally-Administered Tribal Areas) along the border of Afghanistan with much the same messageabout Washington's plans for conquest in the region. ISI is undergoing a traumatic shock in the wake of the Taliban's defeat, according toknowledgeable secular political party leaders. "They have lost thousands of operatives in Afghanistan," said one key politician who askednot to be named. ISI also facilitated the transfer to Afghanistan in the past two months of thousands of young religious school students whohad been proselytized by their clerical teachers to volunteer to fight with the Taliban. Gen. Musharraf had a dangerous precedent inmind: Six years ago, a group of Pakistani army officers was arrested for plotting to kill Army Chief of Staff Gen. Abdul Waheed.He had fired the ISI chief for secretly assisting Muslim rebels in several countries (De Borchgrave, 2001).

Date: December 12, 2001Source: URASIANETTitle/Headline: Pakistani Nuke Scientists To Face Charges For Al Qaeda Contacts

Abstract:Two detained Pakistani scientists will soon face charges for alleged cooperation with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaedanetwork, a source close to the investigation tells EurasiaNet. The scientists reportedly admitted to Pakistani authorities that they

held discussions with bin Laden in August about nuclear and biological weapons. Sources tell EurasiaNet that the two scientists

suspected of violating the Official Secret Acts are Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majid, both retired nuclear specialists.They have been in custody for almost two months, and subjected to extensive interrogation by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)and the CIA. If convicted, the pair face up to a seven-year prison sentence. Mahmood has reportedly suffered breakdowns on severaloccasions, a source told EurasiaNet. The source revealed that "initially the main suspected collaborator, Bashiruddin Mahmood

denied any such cooperation and made his investigators believe that there was nothing wrong in his cooperation with Osama's men

and Taliban officials." Pakistani officials insist that no potentially sensitive information was compromised, as neither of the two Pakistaniscientists had any direct role in the production or processing of nuclear weapons in Pakistan. Some sources said "academic information"

was exchanged among Mahmood and Majid and several al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden, during several meetings in Kabulroughly one month before the September 11 terrorist attacks. American and Pakistani officials say there is little hard evidence to

substantiate claims that Al Qaeda possesses nuclear or chemical weapons. However, American officials stress bin Laden's network

was working to develop capacity to carry out attacks involving weapons of mass destruction, and that given more time, the terroristgroup might have succeeded. Even now, some International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts do not rule out the possibility that alQaeda may possess a few crude biological weapons. Mahmood was first questioned by Pakistani intelligence agencies for alleged links

with Taliban militia and Osama bin Laden in the third week of October. He was released on October 26 after being "cleared" by

security agencies, but was again picked again on October 28 and has remained in detention since then at an unknown location.Mahmood initially gained notoriety in Pakistan after writing several newspaper articles that protested Islamabad's consideration of signingthe nuclear Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1998.US officials reportedly suspect that, in addition to Mahmood and Majid, otherPakistani nuclear experts and military officers had contacts with al Qaeda. Pakistani officials dispute claims of broader collaborationwith bin Laden's terrorist organization, labeling such reports as disinformation. On December 12, Pakistani officials also rejected media


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reports that claimed the two Pakistani scientist had sought refuge in Myanmar to avoid the probe into their al Qaeda contacts .

"This is absolutely false, fabricated news," Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, a spokesman for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, told apress briefing. Qureshi said no scientists other than Mahmood and Majid were currently in custody in connection with the investigation intopossible al Qaeda links. The spokesman did not exclude the possibility that other scientists might face questioning in the future(URASIANET, 2001).

Date: December 29, 2003Source: The Sunday Times, Humayun GauharTitle/Headline:Pakistan Scientists Sold Nuclear Secrets To Iran

Abstract:In the late 1980s, rogue scientists from Pakistans nuclear weapons program used German go- betweens to sell theirsecrets to Iran, a high-level government source in Islamabad claimed last week. The scientists, motivated entirely by money, were alsohelped by two Sri Lankan businessmen based in Dubai when they passed on details of Pakistani nuclear technology. The disclosurefollows reports that four scientists have been questioned over suspected links with Iran and lends credence to claims in Washingtonthat Pakistan poses some of the biggest international security problems of the year ahead. Pakistan has long been suspected ofresponsibility for the proliferation of nuclear know-how, not only to Iran but also to North Korea. The illegal sale of nuclear secrets cameto light when Musharraf visited Tehran after the Iranian governments decision to allow inspectors from the International Atomic EnergyAgency to see its facilities. It is only Musharrafs personal credibility with the US and the world that has prevented a horriblebacklash, said one source in the Pakistani government. The embarrassment was compounded when a former army chief suggested thatPakistan sell its nuclear technology to Iran for a sum in the region of $20 billion. The Pakistani scientists who were subsequentlyquestioned included two men regarded as being close to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the so-called father of Pakistans nuclear bomb. A reportfrom 2003 by the Brookings Institution, the independent policy analysts, warned that Pakistan had taken more risks than other

nations in the war on terror, yet remained insecure about its relations with Washington.Insecurity can lead nations to monumentalirrationality, the report said. Pakistanis have been made to feel their nation is being bullied into working against its own interests

(Gauhar, 2003).

Date: August 21, 2004Source: Howard BloomTitle/Headline: Dodging the Nuclear 9/11

Abstract:Osama bin Laden may soon have his hands on three Agosta 90B next-generation stealth submarinescapable of carryingsixteen sea-to-land cruise missiles each.Those missiles can deliver atomic warheads.And Osama, I suspect, will have access to theforty nuclear warheads constructed by Pakistan.Washington and New York, two primary targets for Al Qaeda, are near bodies ofwater from which these nuclear-tipped missiles can be launched. So are many other major American cities. In 1994, DCN, thegovernment-owned company that builds France's naval vessels, agreed to help the Pakistanis build and learn to operate a rather amazingshipyard. It was a next-generation facility building next-tech, Agosta 90B stealth submarines. Each Agosta 90B is able to carry sixteenHarpoon Stand-Off Land Attack cruise missiles. According to the Pakistani Navy Captain Iftikhar Riaz Qureshi, who commanded both ofthese subs in their test phases, Pakistan purchased its Agosta 90Bs to provide itself with "second strike nuclear capability." Qureshi'swords imply that from day one, Pakistan's intention has been to tip these missiles with atomic warheads. And guess what? SincePakistan tested its first nuclear bomb in 1998, every nuclear device it's made has been a missile warhead. According to Defence Journal,Pakistan's subs have a range of close to twelve thousand miles and they can travel to the Hudson River or the Chesapeake Bay, unleashtheir missiles on New York and Washington, then still be able to take refuge in mid-ocean, lay low and threaten other world capitals witha similar fate. The United States operates a network of hydrophones scattered all over the Atlantic and Pacific seabed. We are listening forsubs like these. But we may not be able to hear them. The Pakistani subs use a methanol-and-liquid-oxygen engine bedded on a suspensionsystem that quiets its purr to a whisper. We may not be able to detect their silent running beneath the sounds of zebrafish fanning their tails.Many a Pakistani would love to see the nuclear destruction of America's key cities. Pakistan has one of the most violentlyfundamentalist and anti-American populations of any of the world's 57 Islamic states. And that's saying something. From 1979 to1995, Pakistan was the headquarters for a group of "Afghan freedom fighters" who were not Afghans at all. They were an

international army paid for by the US, Saudi Arabia, and China, armed by the CIA, and trained, in part, by China's PeoplesLiberation Army. We trained an army of 50,000 men from 30 nations to bring down the Soviet Union's most advanced tanks, jets, andhelicopters. Why? Our mutual goal was to embarrass a common enemy--the Russians. Chief among the recruits to our proxy Jihad wereOsama bin Laden and the founding members of Al Qaeda. Pakistan is the nation whose citizens rioted in the streets in 1989 over thetitle of a novel they didn't like--The Satanic Verses. It was Pakistan's street activists who forced the Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a Fatwa

offering five million dollars to the Moslem who killed Salman Rushdie. The Pakistanis were more extreme than the most extremistIslamic leader of his day. And that was fifteen years ago! Since then anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism has grown. Pakistan is alsothe nation that educated a generation of Afghan refugees who later went home to take over their country in the name of Islamic purity andjustice. We know those refugees as the Taleban. Today, Osama bin Laden is one of Pakistan's two biggest pop-culture heroes. Theother is "The Father of the Islamic Bomb", Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. Khan and Osama have reportedly met in Afghanistan. Khan

is the weapons expert. Osama is the weapons user. Many a Pakistani militant fundamentalist cell identifies itself as an Osama ally.One of the strongest among these Osama-loyalists is arguably Pakistan's most popular leader, Fazlur Rahman Khalil, the man whotold 60 Minutes that: "God has ordered us to build nuclear weapons." On the other hand, the base of Pakistan's military dictator, PervezMusharraf, is a slender reed. According to Syed Adeeb, head of Information Times, a militant Pakistani press outlet based in the NationalPress Building in Washington DC, "an Urdu-language letter written by Pakistan Army officers on a Pakistan Army letterhead and sent tomany members of the Pakistan Parliament" calls, "'Pervez Musharraf and his cliquea band of thieves and lootersimposed on thisnation'" by the United States. Adeeb himself calls Musharraf, "a self-appointed 'President,' military dictator, army tyrant, human rightsabuser, traitor and highly paid mercenary of war criminal George W. Bush". Musharraf has been the target of at least five assassination
http://howardbloom.net/Wakeup_or_Shutdown2.htm#Agostahttp://howardbloom.net/Wakeup_or_Shutdown2.htm#Agosta


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attempts. The latest took place the very day Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003. Yet only he stands between Osama andthe Islamic submarines. Only Musharraf stands between Osama and the cruise missiles Pakistan's subs can carry. And only

Musharraf stands between Osama and the 40 or more nuclear warheads Pakistan has built since it exploded the first Islamic atomicbomb. Which means that only Pervez Musharraf stands between Osama and what bin Laden, in a January 2004 speech broadcast on AlJazeera, called, "a surprising blowone thatdue to its magnitudewill change the international balances of powers." Here's what I

strongly suspect is Osama's dream endgame: Nuke a few key cities in the United States. Blind and devastate the Great Satan.Thenwatch while France, Germany, Italy, and England capitulate. Capitulate to what? To Osama's dream, his passion, his vision of

truth and freedom--to a global Islamic caliphate. I want a world of peace. So do you. But until our understanding of ourselves goes agood deal farther, we have to face the fact that we live in a world of violence. If we pledge to remain non-violent, those who've declared

themselves our enemies and who love "death more than you love life" will chuckle at our weaknessand use it to cheer their comrades onto new atrocities. They will fight the battle of the faithful and the good--the fight for what Osama calls "justice, manners, and purity"-

the battle for the truth of God's messenger. They will assert the truth expressed by an al-Qaeda-allied author, Seif Al-Din Al-

Ansari, that we live on an expendable "speck of dust called Planet Earth." They will use our reticence to make the mother of allwars. And it will not be environmentally friendly (Bloom, 2004).

Date: October, 2004Source: The Atlantic, Graham AllisonTitle/Headline:Tick, Tick, Tick: Pakistan Is A Nuclear Time BombPerhaps The Greatest Threat To American Security Today

Abstract: Not since the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 have I been as frightened by a single news story as I was by the revelationlate last year that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program, had been selling nuclear technologyand services on the black market. The story began to break last summer, after U.S. and British intelligence operatives intercepted ashipment of parts for centrifuges (which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs as well as fuel) on its way from Dubai to Libya. Thecentrifuges turned out to have been designed by Khan, and before long investigators had uncovered what the head of the

International Atomic Energy Agency has called a "Wal-Mart of private-sector proliferation"a decades-old illicit market innuclear materials, designs, technologies, and consulting services, all run out of Pakistan. The Pakistani government's response to thescandal was not reassuring. Khan made a four-minute televised speech on February 4 asserting that "there was never any kind ofauthorization for these activities by the government." He took full responsibility for his actions and asked for a pardon, which wasimmediately granted by President Pervez Musharraf, who essentially buried the affair. Today Pakistan's official position remains that nomember of Musharraf's government had any concrete knowledge of the illicit transferan assertion that U.S. intelligence officials

in Pakistan and elsewhere dismiss as absurd. Meanwhile, Pakistani investigators have reportedly questioned a grand total of eleven

people from among the country's 6,000 nuclear scientists and 45,000 nuclear workers, and have refused to allow either the United

States or the IAEA access to Khan for questioning. Pakistan's nuclear complex poses two main threats. The firsthighlighted byKhan's black-market networkis that nuclear weapons, know-how, or materials will find their way into the hands of terrorists. Forinstance, we have learned that in August of 2001, even as the final planning for 9/11 was under way, Osama bin Laden received two

former officials of Pakistan's atomic-energy programSultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majidat a secret compound

near Kabul. Over the course of three days of intense conversation bin Laden and his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri,

grilled Mahmood and Majid about how to make weapons of mass destruction. After Mahmood and Majid were arrested, on

October 23, 2001, Mahmood told Pakistani interrogation teams, working in concert with the CIA, that Osama bin Laden had

expressed a keen interest in nuclear weapons and had sought the scientists' help in recruiting other Pakistani nuclear experts who

could provide expertise in the mechanics of bomb-making. CIA Director George Tenet found the report of Mahmood and Majid'smeeting with bin Laden so disturbing that he flew directly to Islamabad to confront President Musharraf. This was not the first time thatPakistani agents had rendered nuclear assistance to dangerous actors: In 1997 Pakistani nuclear scientists made secret trips to NorthKorea, providing technical support for that country's nuclear-weapons program in exchange for Pyongyang's help in developing

long-range missiles. According to American intelligence, another Pakistani nuclear scientist negotiated with Libyan agents over the

price of nuclear-bomb designs.Pakistan's nuclear program has long been a leaky vessel; the Carnegie Endowment forInternational Peace has deemed the country "the world's No. 1 nuclear proliferator." Clearly, there is a significant danger that theblack market will put Pakistani nukes (or nuclear material and technical knowledge) in terrorist handsif it hasn't already. But there is a

second, equally significant danger: that a coup might topple Musharraf and leave all or some of Pakistan's nuclear weapons underthe control of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or some other militant Islamic group (or, indeed, under the control of more than one). Part ofthe problem is that in order to keep its focal enemy, India, from destroying its arsenal in a pre -emptive strike, Pakistan has hidden itsnuclear weapons throughout the country; some of them may be in regions that are effectively under fundamentalist Muslim control.

Moreover, Pakistan's official alliance with the United States in the war on terror has only increased the danger posed by Al Qaeda

sympathizers within its nuclear establishment. Although Musharraf has pledged his "unstinting cooperation in the fight againstterrorism," not all the thousands of officers in Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies have signed on. After all, until 9/11

some of them were working closely with members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Nor, for that matter, does Pakistan's generalpopulation support Musharraf's alliance with the United States. A poll this past March asked Pakistani citizens which leaders ininternational affairs they viewed favorably. Only seven percent said George W. Bushand 65 percent said Osama bin Laden. Theuneasy contradiction between Musharraf's pro-American foreign policy and the widespread anti-Americanism within Pakistan has forcedPakistani policymakers to walk a razor's edge. Musharraf faces the clear and present threat of assassination: twice in the past year he hasnarrowly escaped attempts on his life. When I spoke to him not long after the second of those attempts, he said he thought he had used upmany of his nine lives. It may not take a bullet to wrest control over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal from Musharraf. In local electionsheld in October of 2002 a coalition of fundamentalist parties won command of the government in the North West Frontier

Province. The group, known as Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), offered a simple platform: pro-Taliban, anti-American, and

against all Pakistani involvement in the war on terror. MMA is now the third largest party in Pakistan's parliament; from its newposition of strength it has spoken vigorously about the need to regain the honor Pakistan has lost through its subservience to the United


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States and its struggle with India, with which it has been engaged in a harrowing game of nuclear brinkmanship. The region the MMAcontrols happens to be the very one where Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are currently believed to be hiding. Under

these conditions the emergence of a nuclear-equipped splinter group from within the Pakistani establishment looks disturbingly

plausible. The actions required to neutralize the threat of Pakistani proliferation are ambitious; a measure of realism is necessary.

But realism need not mean defeatism. The challenge now is to achieve similar success in blocking the seemingly inexorable path toa nuclear 9/11 (Allison, 2004).

Date: August 17, 2005Source: World Net DailyTitle/Headline:How Pakistan's Dr. X Sold Al-Qaida Islamic Bomb

Abstract:Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the "father of the Islamic bomb" and the "godfather of nuclear proliferation," providednuclear expertise, nuclear materials, and designs for atomic weapons to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to assist in the

realization of the "American Hiroshima." The American Hiroshima plan represents al-Qaida's plan for the nuclear destruction of theUnited States. It calls for the detonation of seven tactical nuclear devices in seven U.S. cities at the same time. Each device, according tothe plan, must be equipped to produce an explosive yield of 10 kilotons to equal the 1945 blast in Hiroshima that killed 242,437 Japanesecivilians. News about Dr. Khan's involvement with al-Qaida and the American Hiroshima plan first emerged with the capture ofseveral al-Qaida operatives in Afghanistan in October 2001, during the first phase of Operation Enduring Freedom, and, later,

with the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, bin Laden's military operations chief, in Karachi, Pakistan, March 2, 2003. FromKhalid Mohammad's laptop, CIA officials uncovered details of al-Qaida's plan to create a series of "nuclear hell storms"throughout the United States. After days of interrogation coupled with severe sleep deprivation, Khalid Mohammad told U.S. intelligenceofficials that the chain of command for the "American Hiroshima" answered directly to bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and a mysterious scientistwhom he, at first, referred to as "Dr. X," but later identified as Dr. Khan. Tim Burger and Tim McGirk in the May 12, 2003, edition ofTime managed to confirm that at least one meeting between Dr. Khan and bin Laden occurred within a safe house in Kabul.

The Real Dr. Strangelove: Dr. A.Q. Khan spearheaded Pakistan's effort to build nuclear weapons to stabilize the nuclear threat fromIndia. Five atomic bombs, developed by Khan, were successfully detonated beneath the scorched hills of the Baluchistan desert in 1998.Khan, who went on to work on the successful firings of the nuclear-capable Ghaudi I and II missiles, remains a revered figure inAfghanistan and Pakistan, where his birthday is celebrated in mosques. After gaining a place for Pakistan within the elite nuclear club ofnations along with the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, France, India and Israel, Khan proceeded to sell his centrifuge

technology for the enrichment of uranium and his designs for atomic weapons to such countries as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria,

and Sudan, and such rogue nations as North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Abundant evidence exists that the list of Khan's customers

should be expanded to include Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria, Kuwait, Myanmar, and Abu Dubai. More information was

squeezed out of Khalid Mohammad in subsequent months, including accounts of continuous visits by bin Laden and company to the A.Q.Khan Research Laboratories in Pakistan, where they gained the assistance of such renowned nuclear physicists, including Dr.

Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, chairman of Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission.

Dr. Mahmood's Confession: Mahmood was taken into custody by Pakistani Inter Service Intelligence and CIA agents Oct. 23, 2001.After months of questioning, Mahmood at last admitted that he had met with bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and other al-Qaida officials onseveral occasions, including the fateful morning of Sept. 11, 2001, to discuss the means of speeding up the process of manufacturingnukes from the highly enriched uranium that al-Qaida had obtained from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and other sources.Mahmood insisted that he had provided answers to technical questions concerning tactical nuclear weapons but declined to provide binLaden actual hands-on help for the creation of such devices. Upon voicing this denial, Mahmood was subjected to six lie-detector tests. Hefailed them all.

The Nuclear Nest: Throughout 2002, CIA and ISI officials obtained more and more information concerning the involvement of scientistsfrom the A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories in the plans for the American Hiroshima. After being threatened with seven years in prison

under Pakistan's Official Secrets Act, Dr. Chaudry Abdul Majid, PAEC's chief engineer, admitted that he met with bin Laden andother al-Qaida officials on a regular basis to provide technical assistance for the construction and care of its nuclear weapons. Dr.Mirza Yusuf Baig, another PAEC engineer, made a similar confession. Yet a host of other leading scientists and technicians from Khan'sfacility have managed to elude arrest and interrogation by quietly slipping out of the country. Dr. Mohammad Ali Mukhtar and Dr.

Suleiman Assad, nuclear engineers and close colleagues of Khan and Mahmood, escaped to Myanmar, where they are currentlyengaged in building a 10-megawatt nuclear reactor for the Third World country. Others have made off for unknown destinations. Thelist of such "absconders" includes the names of Muhammad Zubair, Murad Qasim, Tariq Mahmood, Saeed Akhther, Imtaz Baig, WaheedNasir, Munawar Ismail, Shaheen Fareed, and Khalid Mahmood.

The Missing Nukes: Still, the interrogations of the Pakistani scientists, coupled with findings from Dr. Mahmood's office for "charitableaffairs" in Kabul, verified for the CIA that al-Qaida had produced several nuclear weapons from highly enriched uranium andplutonium pellets the size of silver dollars at Khan's facilities.At least one of these weapons was transported to Karachi where it


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was shipped to the United States in a cargo container. The story of the deployed nuke was reported by Arnaud de Borchgrave of theWashington Times Dec. 10, 2001. It was carried by United Press International but received little play in the national press and garneredscant attention from such major news outlets as ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN. The whereabouts of the weapon remains a mystery. There aremore than 18 million potential delivery vehicles that could be used to bring the nuke into the U.S. This figure represents the number ofcargo containers that arrive into the country every year. Of these containers, only 3 percent are inspected. Moreover, the bills of lading donot have to be produced until the containers reach their place of destination. News about other tactical nuclear weapons developed byKhan's facilities for bin Laden came with the arrest of Sharif al Masri in Pakistan in November 2004. Al Masri, an al-Qaida operative withclose ties to Ayman al-Zawahiri, informed CIA interrogators that a number of nukes had been deployed to Mexico where arrangements hadbeen made with a Latino street gang for their safe transport into the U.S. This story, which appeared in the Nov. 17 issue of the Nation, also

failed to capture widespread press attention.

Khan's 'Mea Culpa': On Feb. 4, 2004, Khan, after being confronted with telltale evidence obtained by inspectors from the InternationalAtomic Energy Agency, issued a public statement in which he confessed that he had sold blueprints for nuclear weapons to Libya, NorthKorea and Iran. He expressed "the deepest sense of sorrow and anguish" that he had placed Pakistan's national security in jeopardy. "I havemuch to answer for," he said. Pakistan's federal cabinet and President Pervez Musharraf responded to Khan's confession bygranting the esteemed scientist a full pardon for his acts of nuclear proliferation. Musharraf said that Khan and the scientists whoworked with him were motivated by "money." The pardon, according to many observers, represented an attempt by the Musharrafgovernment to appease Islamic extremists and senior Pakistani military officials who believe that Musharraf had become a traitor

to the Muslim people by providing military support and assistance to the Bush administration. Khan remains a free and honoredcitizen of Pakistan, where neither U.S. military officials nor CIA agents can obtain the right to approach or question him. This situation hasprompted Robert Gallucci, former U.N. weapons inspector and dean of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, to observe:

"The most dangerous country for the U.S. now is Pakistan. ... We haven't been this vulnerable since the British burned

Washington in 1814."

Coda: The story of Dr. A.Q. Khan's relationship with al-Qaida comes with a coda. Acclaimed French journalist Bernard-Henri Levyamassed considerable evidence that ISI officials executed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl after Pearl obtained insideinformation on the close relationship between Khan and bin Laden, the trafficking of nuclear materials from Khan's facility near

Islamabad to al-Qaida cells in Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, and the plans for the American

Hiroshima (WorldNetDaily, 2005).

Date: December 28, 2007Source: MSNBC NewsTitle/Headline:Bhuttos Assassination Rocks Pakistan: Attack Jeopardizes Elections, Path To Democracy In Nuclear-Armed Nation

Abstract: The death of Bhutto, one of Pakistan's most famous and enduring politicians, sparked violence that killed at least nine peopleand plunged efforts to restore democracy to this nuclear-armed U.S. ally into turmoil (MSNBC, 2007).

Date: February 27, 2008

Source: Sky News, Haydon WallaceTitle/Headline:White House Fears Of Nuclear Terrorist Threat

Abstract:There are real fears in White House circles that Al Qaeda could get hold of a nuclear bomb from Pakistan. Former USAmbassador to the UN, John Bolton, a confidante of the Administration declared: "I think there is a very real threat that if

Musharraf falls or is assassinated, that a radical Islamic government will take control. Then you would have a very grave threat of

Pakistan's nuclear arsenal being used for international terrorist purposes." The report went on to state that Osama bin Laden hasalways said he hopes to detonate a nuclear device in Western cities. Pakistan has enough material for 70 nuclear weapons, an unstablemilitary regime, strong Islamic fundamentalism in military and government circles and groups like Al Qaeda on its territory ( Wallace,2008).

Date: November 2, 2008Source: CNNTitle/Headline:Fareed Zakaria GPS: Interviews With Michael Bloomberg, Madeline Albright

Abstract:Madeline Albright stated on GPS with Fareed Zakaria, that, And then, there are other issues. Obviously, Pakistan, which Ithink has everything that gives you an international migraine (CNN, 2008).

Date: December 3, 2008Source: Thaindian NewsTitle/Headline:Next Terrorist Attack Against US Will Originate From Pakistan

Abstract: A top U.S. Congressional panel described Pakistan as the intersection of nuclear weapons and terrorism, the next terror

attack on America is likely to originate in its allys tribal areas. While observing that Pakistan is a U.S. ally, the commission on weapon ofmass destruction (WMD) and terrorism said the next terrorist attack against the United States is likely to originate from within theFederally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan. The U.S. says the tribal areas in northwest Pakistan, where the government exertslittle control, are a haven for militants from both Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. It warned that there is a threat of nuclear


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terrorism, both because more countries are developing nuclear weapons and because some existing nuclear powers are expanding theirarsenals. Terrorist organizations are intent on acquiring nuclear weapons, said the report. It cited testimony before the commissionfrom former Senator Sam Nunn, who said that the risk of a nuclear weapon being used today is growing, not receding. Thecommission was created in line with a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission on the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks on theUS. But terrorists are likely to use a weapon of mass destruction somewhere in the world in the next five years, former Senator BobGraham, chairman of the commission stated to CNN (Thaindian, 2008).

Date: January 11, 2009Source: New York Times, David E. SangerHeadline:Obamas Worst Pakistan Nightmare

Abstract: To get to the headquarters of the Strategic Plans Division, the branch of the Pakistani government charged with keeping thecountry's growing arsenal of nuclear weapons away from insurgents trying to overrun the country, you must drive down a rutted,debris-strewn road at the edge of the Islamabad airport, dodging stray dogs and piles of uncollected garbage. Just past a small traffic circle,a tan stone gateway is manned by a lone, bored-looking guard loosely holding a rusting rifle. He oversees a security structure intended toprotect Pakistan's nuclear arsenal from outsiders Islamic militants, Qaeda scientists, Indian saboteurs and those American commandoteams that Pakistanis imagine, with good reason, are waiting just over the horizon in Afghanistan, ready to seize their nuclear treasure if a

national meltdown seems imminent. "When you map WMD and terrorism, all roads intersect in Pakistan," Graham Allison, aHarvard professor and a leading nuclear expert on the commission, told me. "The nuclear security of the arsenal is now a lot better

than it was. But the unknown variable here is the future of Pakistan itself, because it's not hard to envision a situation in which the

state's authority falls apart and you're not sure who's in control of the weapons, the nuclear labs, the materials." Nov. 6, which iswhen J. Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence, showed up in Chicago to give the president-elect his first full presidentialdaily brief. For obvious reasons, neither Obama nor McConnell will talk about the contents of those highly classified briefings. Butinterviews over the past year with senior intelligence officials and with nuclear experts in Washington and South Asia and at theInternational Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna provide strong indications of what Obama has probably heard. By now Obama has almostsurely been briefed about an alarming stream of intelligence that began circulating early last year to the top tier of President George W.Bush's national-security leadership in Washington. The highly restricted reports described how foreign-trained Pakistani scientists,including some suspected of harboring sympathy for radical Islamic causes, were returning to Pakistan to seek jobs within thecountry's nuclear infrastructurepresumably trying to burrow in among the 2,000 or so people who have what Kidwai calls "criticalknowledge" of the Pakistani nuclear infrastructure. "I have two worries," one of the most senior officials in the Bush administration,who had read all of the intelligence with care, told me one day last spring. One is what happens "when they move the weapons,""And the second," the official said, choosing his words carefully, "is what I believe are steadfast efforts of different extremist

groups to infiltrate the labs and put sleepers and so on in there." As Obama's team of nuclear experts have discovered in their recentbriefings, it is Pakistan's laboratories one of which still bears A. Q. Khan's name that still pose the greatest worries for Americanintelligence officials. It is relatively easy to teach Kidwai's security personnel how to lock down warheads and store them separately fromtrigger devices and missiles training that the United States has conducted, largely in secret, at a cost of almost $100 million. It is a lotharder for the Americans to keep track of nuclear material being produced inside laboratories, where it is easier for the Pakistanis tounderreport how much nuclear material has been produced, how much is in storage or how much might be "stuck in the pipes"

during the laborious enrichment process. And it is nearly impossible to stop engineers from walking out the door with the

knowledge of how to produce fuel, which Khan provided to Iran, and bomb designs. An autodidact intellectual with grand aspirations,Mahmood was fascinated by the links between science and the Koran. He wrote a peculiar treatise arguing that when morals degrade,disaster cannot be far behind. Over time, his colleagues began to wonder if Mahmood was mentally sound. They were half amused and halfhorrified by his fascination with the role sunspots played in triggering the French and Russian Revolutions, World War II and assortedanticolonial uprisings. "This guy was our ultimate nightmare," an American intelligence official told me in late 2001, when The NewYork Times first reported on Mahmood. "He had access to the entire Pakistani program. He knew what he was doing. And he was

completely out of his mind." While Khan appeared to be in the nuclear-proliferation business chiefly for the money, Mahmood made it

clear to friends that his interest was religious: Pakistan's bomb, he told associates, was "the property of a whole Ummah," referring to theworldwide Muslim community. He wanted to share it with those who might speed "the end of days" and lead the way for Islam torise as the dominant religious force in the world. There is little doubt that Mahmood talked to the two Qaeda leaders about nuclearweapons, or that Al Qaeda desperately wanted the bomb. George Tenet, the CIA chief, wrote later that intelligence reports of the meetingwere "frustratingly vague." They included an account that there was talk of how to design a simple firing mechanism, and that asenior Qaeda leader displayed a canister that may have contained some nuclear material (though almost certainly not bomb-grade). Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a longtime CIA nuclear expert, was given perhaps the most daunting job at the agency in the aftermath of9/11: to make sure that Al Qaeda did not have a weapon of mass destruction at its disposal. "The worst nightmare we had at that timewas that A. Q. Khan and Osama bin Laden were somehow working together," Mowatt-Larssen In Pakistan, the problem is made worse bythe fact that the universities where the nuclear program draws its young talent are now more radicalized than at any time inmemory, and the nuclear program itself has greatly expanded. Kidwai estimated that there are roughly 70,000 people who work in thenuclear complex in Pakistan, including 7,000 to 8,000 scientists and the 2,000 or so with "critical knowledge." If even 1 percent ofthose employees are willing to spread Pakistan's nuclear knowledge to outsiders with a cause, Kidwai and the United States have a


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problem. Just as Kidwai fears, every few months someone in Washington either at the Pentagon, or the Energy Department, or on thecampus of the National Defense University runs a simulation of how the United States should respond if a terrorist group infiltrates thePakistani nuclear program or manages to take over one or two of its weapons. "Most of them don't end well.""Only one of thosecountries has a hundred nuclear weapons," a primary author of the report said to me. For Al Qaeda and the other Islamists, he wenton to say, "this is the home game." He paused, before offering up the next thought: For anyone trying to keep a nuclear weapon fromgoing off in the United States, it's our home game, too (Sanger, 2009).

Date: February 7, 2009Source: The Washington Post, Joby Warrick

Title/Headline: Pakistani Nuclear Scientist A.Q. Khan Is Freed From House Arrest

Abstract: The Pakistani scientist at the center of one of history's worst nuclear scandals walked out of his Islamabad villa todeclare his vindication after five years of house arrest. "The judgment, by the grace of God, is good," a smiling Abdul Qadeer Khan tolda throng of reporters and TV crews. Moments earlier, a Pakistani court had ordered the release of the metallurgist who had famouslyadmitted selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Through years of legal limbo, Khan, 72, had never been charged, andnow he never will be. "The so-called A.Q. Khan affair is a closed chapter," a Pakistani government spokesman said. Worst of all, therecent discovery of nuclear weapons blueprints on computers found in Switzerland and Dubai has prompted questions aboutwhether the damage inflicted by the network was truly contained -- or even understood. It is possible, U.S. officials concede, thatKhan and his allies shared nuclear secrets with still-unknown countries and, perhaps, terrorist groups, as well. Khan himself remains a heroin his homeland, immune from further prosecution and free now to travel abroad as he wishes. That discovery was the culmination of morethan a decade of secret investigation by the CIA and other agencies of the business dealings of Khan, one ofPakistan's best-knownscientists and the father of the country's nuclear weapons program. At the State Department, spokesman Gordon K. Duguid said yesterdaythat Khan remains a "serious proliferation risk," and the White House asked for assurances from Pakistan that the scientist willnever be allowed to resume his former work. Jeffrey G. Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the

New America Foundation, said Khan's ability to essentially walk away from nuclear-smuggling charges "makes a mockery of our efforts tostop the spread" of nuclear weapons. While the investigation has yielded few arrests, it has provided disturbing insight into thesophistication of 21st-century smuggling networks and their ability to move the most sensitive weapons technology across

international borders, weapons experts said. David Albright, the former nuclear inspector, said it is likely that other smugglers willeventually seek to take Khan's place, and some may already have done so. If fact, he said, it would be unwise even to count Khan out . "Helikely still has or can access sensitive nuclear technology. He certainly knows how to organize nuclear smuggling internationally,"

Albright said. "Khan remains a serious proliferation risk (Warrick, 2009).

Date: April 24, 2009Source: Radio Free Europe Radio LibertyTitle/Headline:Rising Tide Of Militancy Feeds Fears About Pakistan's Nukes

Abstract:Advisers to U.S. President Barack Obama's administration say their worst security nightmare is the possibility thatPakistan -- a nuclear-armed country -- might fall under the control of Al-Qaeda militants. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza

Gilani insists that no group will be allowed to challenge the authority of the government. Pakistani officials also insist that the country'snuclear arsenal is secure. But U.S. officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week highlighted concerns about the securitysituation in Pakistan. Clinton described advances by Islamic militants in Pakistan as a "mortal threat" to the security and safety ofthe world. George Perkovich, director of the Nonproliferation Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says he hasnever been more concerned about the possibility of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Islamist extremists. "I would saythat I thought [the threat] was exaggerated -- that there were 10 or 12 other [threats] in Pakistan that were more probable and

were also very grave -- [but] it's gotten much worse in the last few years, and you have a sense of parts of Pakistan now becoming

ungovernable by the Pakistani state," Perkovich says. "Today I'm feeling like we really, really have to focus on the nuclear dangerin a way that I wouldn't have said was the case until recently. It's not an exaggeration to say that there is a risk."

Locked Up Tight?:Most experts say they have no doubt that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is now under tight control by Pakistan'sStrategic Plan Division -- the security structure headed by 58-year-old General Khalid Kidwai and intended to keep the weapons

from falling into the hands of Islamic militants, Al-Qaeda scientists, or Indian saboteurs. Jeff Lightfoot, assistant director of theAtlantic Council's program on international security, says he is not so worried about militants obtaining Pakistan's nuclear weapons underthe army's current system of safeguards. Lightfoot tells RFE/RL that he sees the recent extremist advances as a danger primarily to Pakistan

itself -- and by extension, the wider region with Afghanistan and India. He describes "the greatest threat" as a "gradual bleeding ofPakistani authority" that would leave large parts of the country outside central government control. Lightfoot calls the military the"glue of the country" but questions its ability to demonstrate that it can control and defend Pakistan's borders and ensure sovereignty,something he labels "an ideology problem." "In terms of the nuclear weapons and them falling into the hands of terrorists, the armymay not necessarily be able to control all of Pakistan," Lightfoot adds, "but I don't think that necessarily translates into a breakdown oftheir nuclear-weapons command-and-control system."

Key Figure: Perkovich says current safeguards should ensure that any possible collapse of the civilian government in Islamabad would notaffect the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons -- at least, he says, as long as General Kidwai remains in control. "The civil governmentis not relevant to the control of nuclear weapons in Pakistan; it is entirely an army issue," Perkovich says. "We do have a strong sensethat [Pakistan's nuclear weapons] are controlled by elements in the army that have been selected and are reliable. As long as that control bythis current military leadership remains strong, then I think one can have pretty good confidence that these weapons won't be used crazily."
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But Perkovich says his concern centers around what could happen if pro-Islamist elements within Pakistan's military and security forcesturned against Kidwai. "The risk on the nuclear side is that the country falls apart or has a civil war that the bad guys win," Perkovich says. "The fear comes if there is a coup within the military so that, somehow, the people now in charge within themilitary get dispossessed of their nuclear weapons by other people in the military who would be less responsible." To that "firstfear," however, Perkovich adds another alarming scenario: "The second fear is [if] there is basically just a takeover by the Taliban andsomehow the military crumbles and flees."

Guessing Game:The size of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is classified information in Islamabad. Pakistan has not signed the NuclearNon-Proliferation Treaty and has been careful not to disclose the exact number or locations of its nuclear weapons. Estimates by

experts and researchers range from around 50 nuclear weapons to as many as 150. Former President General Pervez Musharraf declared in2007 that the weapons were in a "disassembled state" -- most likely meaning that the warheads were kept separately from the ballisticmissiles capable of delivering them to targets as far away as New Delhi, India. General Kidwai has said that the nuclear warheads could beassembled very quickly with land- and air-delivery systems. Seth Jones, a political scientist who is currently in Pakistan doingresearch for the RAND Corporation, tells RFE/RL that Pakistan has "dozens" of nuclear weapons dispersed in or near majorcities throughout the country. He says that his recent visits to nuclear facilities in Pakistan suggest the country's weapons are still in adisassembled state. "I've visited a number of the nuclear facilities [in Pakistan] and I'm fairly confident that security procedures are actuallypretty good," Jones says. "The ones I've visited have included sites that hold fissile material and also that hold ballistic-missile technology -- where one could put nuclear weapons on and [that] would give Pakistan a range to target countries like India if there was an exchange."He likens those facilities to "what one might see in China or, frankly, in the United States."

Dangerous Precedent: With his firsthand views of security for Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, Jones says he is most concerned about how adestabilized government in Pakistan might promote the spread of nuclear-weapons technology out of the country or to Al-Qaeda militants."In most of these scenarios, still, the likelihood that nuclear weapons are going to be used or come in the hands of militants or

terrorists is highly unlikely," Jones says. But he is quick to add that "where one might get concerned...is elements of the A.Q. Khan

network that were involved in building Pakistan's atomic capability -- a range of scientists that have proliferated nuclear material to NorthKorea, Iran, and several other places." In that respect, he cites a lesson that was learned under previous leadership in Islamabad, before theinternational community was fretting publicly about any "existential threat" to the Pakistani state posed by extremists. "We know in thepast that there have been talks between members of the A.Q. Khan network and militants, including Al-Qaeda several years ago,"Jones says. "So is it possible that some technology at some point falls into the hands of terrorists? I think that's a more likelyscenario than actual nuclear weapons coming out of [the Pakistan army's] control (Synovitz, 2009).

Date: May 12, 2009Source: The Moderate Voice, Swaraaj ChauhanTitle/Headline:Why USA Overlooks Pakistans Nuclear Plans?

Abstract: In the annals of diplomacy, and now the war-on-terror, the USAs continued overlooking of Pakistans dangerous role inproliferating nuclear arms within the country, and among rogue states, would remain a great mystery. A recent MSNBC reportdetails more alarming news. Without any public U.S. reproach, Pakistan is building two of the developing worlds largest plu tonium

production reactors, which experts say could lead to improvements in the quantity and quality of the countrys nuclear arsenal, nowestimated at 60 to 80 weapons. On the dusty plain 110 miles southwest of Islamabad, not far from an area controlled by theTaliban, two large new structures are rising, structures that in light of Pakistans internal troubles must be considered ominous for

the stability of South Asia and, for that matter, the world. Pakistan is really the only country rapidly building up its nuclearforces, says a U.S. intelligence official. Moreover, he and other U.S. officials say, there long have been concerns about those who run thefacility where the reactors are being built near the town of Khushab. They note that a month before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,Khushabs former director met with Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and offered a nuclear weapons tutorial aroundan Afghanistan campfire. Then there are the billions in U.S. economic and military aid that have permitted Pakistans military todivert resources to nuclear and other weapons projects. Now some important questions? Why did USA kept silent for years whenAbdul Qadeer Khan, described as Father of Pakistan Nuclear bomb, pedalled nuclear technology to rogue states (with open

support from Pakistan government). In 2004 Qadeer Khan admitted to hawking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Is theUSA silent because taking on Pakistan on this issue would endanger its delicate relationship with China, which has supplied the nucleartechnology to Pakistan? Are there business interests within the USA that gain from proliferation of nuclear arms? What are theimplications of all this with the Taliban gaining ground? Latest reports suggest that there is a looming refugee crisis in Pakistan. Thousandsof families have begun fleeing from an army offensive against Taliban militants in the Shamuzai area of Pakistans Swat Valley yesterday.

More than half a million refugees have been registered, reports The Independent. Hundreds of thousands of people are pouring out of Swatand the surrounding neighbourhoods as the military and the government of President Asif Ali Zardari under intense pressure fromWashington move to drive the Taliban out from what, until two years ago, was a largely peaceful region. Aid officials say that at thispoint, the overwhelming majority of the displaced 428,789 of the 510,496 registered by the authorities since 2 May are stayingwith relatives or friends or else in rented rooms. Meanwhile in Afghanistan there are no indications that Obama administration wouldleave the suicidal path which the Bush administration had been following. Obama administration seems to be opting for cosmetic changes(Chauhan, 2009).


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power to strike the mujahideen and Muslims." "There was a setback in work there for reasons that there is no room to state now, but as oflate, efforts have been united and there is unity around a single leader." Abu al-Yazid, also known as Abu Saeed al-Masri, said al Qaedawill continue "with large scale operations against the enemy" -- by which he meant the United States. "We have demanded and we

demand that all branches of al Qaeda carry out such operations," he said, referring to attacks against U.S.-led forces in Iraq andAfghanistan. The militant leader said al Qaeda would be willing to accept a truce of about 10 years' duration with the United States ifWashington agreed to withdraw its troops from Muslim countries and stopped backing Israel and the pro-Western governments of Muslimnations. Asked about the whereabouts of al Qaeda's top leaders, he said: "Praise God, sheikh Osama (bin Laden) and sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri are safe from the reach of the enemies, but we would not say where they are; moreover, we do not know where they are, but we'rein continuous contact with them (Ersan, 2009).

Date: July 3, 2009Source: Thaindian News, Arun KumarTitle/Headline:Loose Nukes Greatest Danger In Pakistan

Abstract: The threat of insiders in the nuclear establishment working with outsiders seeking a bomb is nowhere greater than in Pakistan,according to a former officer of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Pakistani authorities have a dismal track record in thwartinginsider threats, writes Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, who served as a CIA officer for 23 years, in the July/August issue of Arms Control Today,published by the Arms Control Association. For example, the network run by the father of the Pakistani bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan,channeled sensitive nuclear technologies to Iran, Libya, and North Korea for years under the noses of the establishment before it was takendown in 2003, to the best of our knowledge, he noted. The Umma-Tameer-e-Nau (UTN), founded by Pakistani nuclear scientists withclose ties to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, was headed by Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, who had been in charge of Pakistans

Khushab reactor. Mahmood discussed Al Qaedas nuclear aspirations with Osama bin Laden, Mowatt-Larssen wrote. He also

cites Mahmood as saying, bin Laden asked him how he could construct a bomb if the group already had the material.It is stunningto consider that two of the founding fathers of Pakistans weapons programme embarked independently on clandestine efforts to organize

networks to sell their countrys most precious secrets for profit, he says. There are troubling indications that these insider threats are notanomalies, writes Mowatt-Larssen, a senior fellow at Harvard Universitys Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs, who untilJanuary 2009 headed the US Department of Energys intelligence and counterintelligence office. In the Khan and UTN cases, the roguesenior officers and their cohorts in the nuclear establishment were not caught by Pakistans security establishment. It would be

foolhardy to assume that such lapses could not happen again, he says. The Pakistani military, intelligence, and nuclear

establishments are not immune to rising levels of extremism in the country, Mowatt-Larssen says suggesting, there is a lethal

proximity between terrorists, extremists, and nuclear weapons insiders.Thus The greatest threat of a loose nuke scenario stemsfrom insiders in the nuclear establishment working with outsiders, people seeking a bomb or material to make a bomb. Nowhere in

the world is this threat greater than in Pakistan. As Pakistan moves forward to face an uncertain future, the government faces an

ongoing challenge to its authority and myriad threats against which it must defend, the US expert says. With the passage of time,

the odds steadily increase that Pakistan will face a serious test of its nuclear security, he says suggesting, for its part, the UnitedStates must be fully prepared to respond to this eventuality.Increasing the level of transparency and predictability between India andPakistan is (also) absolutely vital, Mowatt-Larssen says. Neither party can afford to make a miscalculation in the heat of the moment thatmight escalate into a nuclear confrontation(Kumar, 2009).

Date: August 11, 2009Source: The Sunday Times, Rhys BlakelyTitle/Headline:Terrorists 'Have Attacked Pakistan Nuclear Sites Three Times'

Abstract:Terrorists have attacked three of Pakistans military nuclear facilities in the past two years and there is a serious dangerthat they will gain access to the countrys atomic arsenal, according to a journal published by the US Military Academy at West Point.The report, written by Professor Shaun Gregory, a security specialist at Bradford University, comes amid mounting fears that theTaleban and al-Qaeda will breach Pakistans military nuclear sites most of which are in or near insurgent strongholds in the

north and west of the country. The most serious attack was a strike by two suicide bombers on the Wah Cantonment Ordnance

Complex, thought to be one of Pakistans main nuclear weapons assembly plants, about 18 miles northwest of Islamabad, in

August 2008. The incident, which claimed 70 lives, was widely reported but little mention was made of the nuclear risk. Other

attacks included the suicide bombing of a nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha, in central Punjab, in November 2007 and asuicide attack on Pakistans nuclear airbase at Kamra, near Wah, on December 10, 2007. In the Counter Terrorism Center Sentinel,Professor Gregory writes that the attacks illustrate a clear set of weaknesses and vulnerabilities in Pakistans nuclear security regime.

The strikes occurred as Pakistan sought to ramp up its nuclear capability and as US special forces formulated contingency plansin the event of the country falling to insurgents. In June of 2009, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, an al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan,suggested that the group would show no hesitation in using nuclear weapons. God willing... the mujahideen would take them and use themagainst the Americans, he told al-Jazeera television. Pakistans security regime is modeled on the American system and includes theseparation of warheads from detonators, which are stored in underground bunkers staffed by highly vetted personnel. Many

details of the countrys nuclear program including the location of many warheads and their exact number remain unknown.However, most of the countrys nuclear weapons sites were built in the north and west of the country in the 1970s and 1980s, mainly todistance them from India a ploy which now means many are located in insurgent areas. There are also concerns that vetting programsmay not identify Islamist sympathizers, whose influence extends far up Pakistans military hierarchy. Professor Gregory writes: There isalready the well-known case of two senior Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission scientists, Sultan Bashirrudin Mahmood and

Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, who travelled to Afghanistan in 2000 and again shortly before 9/11 for meetings with Osama bin Laden

himself, the content of which has never been disclosed (Blakely, 2009).


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Date: September 16, 2009Source: Indian ExpressTitle/Headline:Al-Qaeda Seeking Nuclear Secrets From Pakistan: Holbrooke

Abstract:Al-Qaeda is trying to seek nuclear secrets from Pakistan and it remains as dangerous as ever, Special US Representativefor Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said on Wednesday. "Al-Qaeda is still there in the region, ever dangerous andpublicly asking people to attack the US and publicly asking nuclear engineers to give them nuclear secrets from Pakistan,"Holbrooke said at a reception hosted by the Congressional Caucus on Afghanistan at the Capitol Hill. Holbrooke ? The point man of theObama Administration for Afghanistan and Pakistan - said the US is not in Afghanistan to support the elections, but it is there for its

own national interest and security. "We are not in Afghanistan for the election (Indian Express, 2009).

Date: November 13, 2009Source: The Washington Post, R. Jeffrey Smith, Joby WarrickTitle/Headline:A Nuclear Power's Act Of Proliferation

Abstract: A.Q. Kahn asserted that China gave Pakistan enough enriched uranium in '82 to make nuclear 2 bombs. Worst of all, therecent discovery of nuclear weapons blueprints on computers found in Switzerland and Dubai has prompted questions about whether thedamage inflicted by the network was truly contained -- or even understood. It is possible, U.S. officials concede, that Khan and his alliesshared nuclear secrets with still-unknown countries and, perhaps, terrorist groups, as well. In 1982, a Pakistani military C-130 leftthe western Chinese city of Urumqi with a highly unusual cargo: enough weapons-grade uranium for two atomic bombs, according to

accounts written by the father ofPakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and provided to The WashingtonPost. The uranium transfer in five stainless-steel boxes was part of a broad-ranging, secret nuclear deal approved years earlier by MaoZedong and Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto that culminated in an exceptional, deliberate act of proliferation by a nuclear power,according to the accounts by Khan. According to Khan, the uranium cargo came with a blueprint for a simple weapon that China hadalready tested, supplying a virtual do-it-yourself kit that significantly speeded Pakistan's bomb effort. The transfer also started a chain ofproliferation: U.S. officials worry that Khan later shared related Chinese design information with Iran; in 2003, Libya confirmedobtaining it from Khan's clandestine network. U.S. officials say they have known about the transfer for decades and once privately

confronted the Chinese -- who denied it -- but have never raised the issue in public or sought to impose direct sanctions on China

for it. "Upon my personal request, the Chinese Minister had gifted us 50 kg [kilograms] of weapon-grade enriched uranium, enough fortwo weapons," Khan wrote in a previously undisclosed 11-page narrative of the Pakistani bomb program that he prepared after hisJanuary 2004 detention for unauthorized nuclear commerce. "The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us kg50enriched uranium," he said in a separate account sent to his wife several months earlier. Pakistan has never allowed the U.S.government to question Khan or other top Pakistani officials directly, prompting Congress to demand in legislation approved inSeptember that future aid be withheld until Obama certifies that Pakistan has provided "relevant information from or direct access toPakistani nationals" involved in past nuclear commerce. "The speed of our work and our achievements surprised our worst enemiesand adversaries and the West stood helplessly by to see a Third World nation, unable even to produce bicycle chains or sewingneedles, mastering the most advanced nuclear technology in the shortest possible span of time," Khan boasts in the 11-page narrativehe wrote for Pakistani intelligence officials about his dealings with foreigners while head of a key nuclear research laboratory. According

to one of the documents, a five-page summary by Khan of his government's dealmaking with China, the terms of the nuclearexchange were set in a mid-1976 conversation between Mao and Bhutto. Two years earlier, neighboring India had tested its first

nuclear bomb, provoking Khan -- a metallurgist working at a Dutch centrifuge manufacturer -- to offer his services to Bhutto.

Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, the nation's military ruler, "was worried," Khan said, and so he and a Pakistani general who helped overseethe nation's nuclear laboratories were dispatched to Beijing with a request in mid-1982 to borrow enough bomb-grade uranium for a fewweapons. After winning Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's approval, Khan, the general and two others flew aboard a Pakistani C-130 to Urumqi. Khan says they enjoyed barbecued lamb while waiting for theChinese military to pack the small uranium bricks into lead-lined boxes, 10 single-kilogram ingots to a box, for the flight to Islamabad, Pakistan's capital(Smith & Warrick, 2009).

Date: January 17, 2010Source: The Sunday Times, Christina LambTitle/Headline:Elite US Troops Ready To Combat Pakistani Nuclear Hijacks

Abstract: The US army is training a crack unit to seal off and snatch back Pakistani nuclear weapons in the event that militants,

possibly from inside the countrys security apparatus, get their hands on a nuclear device or materials that could make one. Thespecialized unit would be charged with recovering the nuclear materials and securing them. The move follows growing anti-Americanism in Pakistans military, a series of attacks on sensitive installations over the past two years, several of which housed nuclearfacilities, and rising tension that has seen a series of official complaints by US authorities to Islamabad in the past fortn ight. What youhave in Pakistan is nuclear weapons mixed with the highest density of extremists in the world, so we have a right to be concerned, saidRolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former CIA officer who used to run the US energy departments intelligence unit. There have been attacks onarmy bases which stored nuclear weapons and there have been breaches and infiltrations by terrorists into military facilities.
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Professor Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan security research unit at Bradford University, has tracked a number of

attempted security breaches since 2007. The terrorists are at the gates, he warned. The Al -Qaeda leadership has made no secret

of its desire to get its hands on weapons for a nuclear 9/11. I have no doubt they are hell -bent on acquiring this, said Mowatt-

Larssen. These guys are thinking of nuclear at the highest level and are approaching it in increasingly professional ways. Nuclear expertsand US officials say the biggest fear is of an inside job amid growing anti-American feeling in Pakistan. Last year 3,021 Pakistanis werekilled in terrorist attacks, more than in Afghanistan, yet polls suggest Pakistanis consider the United States to be a greater threat than theTaliban. You have 8,000-12,000 [people] in Pakistan with some type of role in nuclear missiles whether as part of an assembly team orsecurity, said Gregory. Its a very large number and there is a real possibility that among those people are sympathisers of terrorist orjihadist groups who may facilitate some kind of attack. Pakistan is thought to possess about 80 nuclear warheads. Although the weapons

are well guarded, the fear is that materials or processes to enrich uranium could fall into the wrong hands. All it needs is someone inPakistan within the nuclear establishment and in a position of key accessto become radicalized, said MowattLarssen. This is not justtheoretical. It did happen Pakistan has had inside problems before (Lamb, 2010).

Date: January 18, 2010Source: World Net DailyTitle/Headline:Al-Qaida Seeking Tools For Nuclear 9/11: Intel Agents 'Certain' Terrorists Will Try For Pakistan's Bombs

Abstract: Agents for Britain's MI6 Secret Intelligence Service say they are "certain" al-Qaida is poised to try and grab some of the

80 nuclear weapons that Pakistan possesses, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The al-Qaida leadership Osama binLaden and Ayman a-Zawahri are believed to have spent the winter months in Pakistan's Tribal Areas finalizing their plans for an attack. Itwill spearhead al-Qaida's global network and its capability to carry out a wide range of terrorist onslaughts. The MI6 analysis is based onwhat the agency calls "al-Qaida's zone of terrorism." It includes the Afghan Taliban, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in East

Turkistan and al-Shabaab in Somalia. In the Sahara region al-Qaida has reformed Islamic Magreb (AQIM) which has grown outof Algerian resistance movement. But nothing poses more of a threat than al-Qaida's plan to steal Pakistans nuclear weapons. MI6agents in Pakistan say there is mounting evidence "the leadership is thinking of a nuclear 9/11 and are approaching it in increasinglyprofessional ways." Nuclear experts have told the Secret Intelligence Service that the biggest fear is of "an inside job." One analyst said,

"There are up to 12,000 people in Pakistan with some kind of role which brings them into nuclear facilities, whether as part of ateam of scientists or working in security." Professor Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan security research center at BradfordUniversity in England, has tracked a number of attempted security breaches in the past four years at Pakistan's nuclear facilities. Pastattacks have included a suicide bomber striking Kamra where Pakistan Air Force F-16 jet aircraft are stationed with nuclear bombs.Another attack was against a nuclear weapons complex in Punjab where a nuclear warhead assembly plant is based (World Net Daily,2010).

Date: January 20, 2010Source: Dow JonesTitle/Headline:Al Qaeda Seeking To Provoke New India-Pakistan WarGates

Abstract: Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated that Al Qaeda is seeking to destabilize the entire South Asia region and could

trigger a new war between Pakistan and India, and that under Al Qaeda's "syndicate" in Afghanistan and Pakistan are trying "to

destabilize not just Afghanistan, not just Pakistan, but potentially the whole region by provoking a conflict perhaps between Indiaand Pakistan through some provocative act"(Dow Jones, 2010).

Date: January 21, 2010Source: Bloomberg, Viola GiengerTitle/Headline: Gates In Pakistan To Discuss New Strikes On Taliban

Abstract: Secretary Gates stated that that Islamists working under the umbrella of Al Qaeda want to destabilize the entire South

Asian region by provoking a conflict between India and Pakistan. That law requires a cutoff of aid if Pakistan fails to provide civiliancontrol of its military, cooperate with the U.S. on counter-terrorism, protect its nuclear arsenal and enforce international nuclear non-proliferation rules. Those conditions triggered accusations from opposition politicians and Pakistans military of interference in thecountrys internal affairs. Such conditions on U.S. aid evoke bitter memories in Pakistan of the 1990s, when the so-called Pressleramendment forced a halt to most U.S. aid because of evidence that Pakistan was developing nuclear weapons. The cutoff in U.S. militaryaid hampered American efforts to influence Pakistans powerful armed forces, and led many Pakistani leaders to call the U.S. an unreliableally. Al Qaeda leaders are believed to have holed up in ungoverned tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border since the U.S.toppled the groups Taliban protectors in the wake of the September 11th attacks. Obama last year ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops toAfghanistan to battle the Taliban insurgency. The U.S. is trying to balance its rapidly expanding ties with India, the worlds largestdemocracy and the fastest- growing economy after China, even as the Obama administration strengthens links with Pakistan (Geinger,2010).
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Date: January 22, 2010Source: Reuters, Stephanie NebehayTitle/Headline:Pakistan Rules Out Nuclear Fissile Talks

Abstract: Pakistan informed world powers that it cannot accept the start of global negotiations to halt production of nuclear bomb-making fissile material in the near future, diplomats told Reuters. The move represents a potential setback for efforts by both theObama administration and United Nations to forge ahead with what is widely seen as the next step in multilateral nuclear disarmament.Zamir Akram, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, disclosed Islamabad's position during a diplomatic lunch hosted by Chineseambassador Wang Qun. "We are not in a position to accept the beginning of negotiations on a cut-off treaty in the foreseeable future,"

Akram was quoted as saying. The U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament (CD) is trying to launch negotiations to halt production offissile material (highly-enriched uranium and plutonium) and clinch what is known in the jargon as a fissile material "cut-off" treaty orFMCT. Pakistan is resisting U.S. pressure to dismantle militant groups, including Afghan Taliban based on its soil, because it sees them aspotential allies in its rivalry with India."Clearly they have very strong concerns," a diplomat said, referring to the fissile issue. "This is avery fundamental and sensitive issue back in Pakistan." Pakistan blocked adoption of the conference's agenda for 2010, calling for theinclusion of additional items, after holding up negotiations last year because of national security concerns about the focus of the talks. U.S.Defense Secretary Robert Gates sought to build bridges with the next generation of military leaders in Islamabad on Friday and end a "trustdeficit" he said has hampered cooperation against Islamist militancy (Nebehay, 2010).

Date: January 22, 2010Source: The Diplomat, Luv PuriTitle/Headline: India And Pakistan Are Nuclear States Time To Accept It

Abstract:In May 1998, surprise nuclear tests by India and Pakistan transformed regional strategic calculations and added a

dangerous new dimension to tensions between the two. According to Taylor Branch, writing in The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling Historywith the President, Indian officials who spoke with Bill Clinton were fully aware ofthe potential devastation a clash between the twonations could lead to, calculating that a doomsday nuclear volley would kill 300 to 500 million Indians while annihilating all 120

million Pakistanis (although the Pakistani side insisted its rugged mountain terrain would shield more survivors than the exposedplains of India).But regardless of the accuracy of these numbers, and although the two countries military strategies differ, (Indias isbased on conventional superiority, while Pakistan tends to emphasize nuclear deterrence to cancel out this advantage) one thing is clear-the threat of nuclear terrorism looms large over both. In December 1998, Osama Bin Laden told Time magazine that acquiring weaponsfor the defence of Muslims is a religious duty. If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so. And ifI seek to acquire these weapons, I am carrying out a duty, he is reported as saying. Even if the statement was merely rhetoric, itdemonstrates intent. However, a number of reports suggest that Bin Ladens statement was more than just talk. In August 2001, twoPakistani scientists, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudary Abdul Majeed, met Bin Laden and Mullah Omar in

Afghanistan. The two scientists were detained on October 23, 2001, for questioning. Majid was a retired nuclear fuel expert from

the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, while Mahmood worked on the secret Pakistani gas centrifuge programthat ultimately produced the highly enriched uranium used in Pakistans nuclear weapons. But even without acquiring access toweapons, there are other means of groups such as al-Qaeda engaging in nuclear terrorism. Radioactive dispersal devices, for example, are

particularly suited to non-state actors as they are portable and can be used to meet one of the common aims of terrorism, which is to causesignificant economic damage. Combined with an explosive device, RDDs can be used to create dirty bombs, which can cause bothimmediate casualties from their explosions and long-term health and psychological damages from radiation. Many analysts see Pakistan,and specifically Punjab province, as the most likely source of materials for extremists to undertake such attacks, and the precision

of the recent terrorist attacks in Punjab on several Pakistani military facilities suggest there has been some inside help for

militants. On October 10, for example, terrorists dressed as Pakistani soldiers entered the Pakistani Armys headquarters at

Rawalpindi and killed six soldiers, including a brigadier. Subsequent investigations pointed to Illyas Kashmiri, who once served in theArmy, as a potential suspect. Back in 2003, meanwhile, there was a suicide assassination attem