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By now Barack Obama has almost surely been briefed about an alarming stream of intelligence that began circulating early last year to the top tier of George W Bush's national-security leadership in Washington, 'The New York Times' says in an article based on a new book dealing with the challenges before the President-elect.
The highly restricted reports described how foreign- trained Pakistani scientists, including some suspected of harbouring sympathy for radical Islamic causes, were returning to Pakistan to seek jobs within the country's nuclear infrastructure, presumably trying to burrow in among the 2,000 or so people who have "critical knowledge" of the Pakistani nuclear infrastructure, it says.
One of the most senior officials in Bush administration, who had read all of the intelligence with care, is quoted as saying that he had a worry -- what happens "when they move the weapons."
He explained that the US feared that some groups could try to provoke a confrontation between Pakistan and India in the hope that Pakistani military would transport tactical nuclear weapons closer to the front lines, where they would be more vulnerable to seizure.
"Indeed, when the deadly terror attacks occurred in Mumbai in late November, officials told me they feared that one of the attackers' motives might have been to trigger exactly that series of events," says the author of the book, David E Sarger, the paper's Chief Washington correspondent.
Another worry, the official said, "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 has discovered in their recent briefings, the article said, it is Pakistan's laboratories, one of which still bears A Q Khan's name, that still pose the greatest worries for American intelligence officials.
"When you map WMD and terrorism, all roads intersect in Pakistan," Graham Allison, a Harvard professor and a leading nuclear expert on the commission, told the author of the book titled 'The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and Challenges to American Power'.
The Strategic Plans Division, the branch of Pakistani government charged with keeping country's growing arsenal of nuclear weapons, is located in Chaklala, an enclave for the country's military and intelligence services, the report says. Khalid Kidwai, 58, keeps the country's nuclear keys, it says.
Kidwai told the author, when he went to visit him in his office, that even if the country's leadership were to be incapacitated, Pakistan's protections are so strong that the arsenal could never slip from the hands of the country's National Command Authority.
"Please grant to Pakistan that if we can make nuclear weapons and the delivery systems," Kidwai is quoted as saying, gesturing to the models and a photo of Pakistan's first nuclear test, a decade ago, "we can also make them safe. Our security systems are foolproof."
Kidwai is quoted as saying that he has not received any specific intelligence from the United States about "sleeper" scientists trying to infiltrate Pakistan's facilities.
Kidwai, the article says, estimated that there are roughly 70,000 people who work in the nuclear complex in Pakistan, including 7,000 to 8,000 scientists and the 2,000 or so with "critical knowledge."
But back in Washington, military and nuclear experts told the author that the bottom line is that if a real-life crisis broke out, it is unlikely that anyone would be able to assure an American president, with confidence, that he knew where all of Pakistan's weapons were, or that none were in the hands of Islamic extremists.
Soon after Kidwai took office, he faced the case of the eccentric nuclear scientist Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, who helped build gas centrifuges for the Pakistani nuclear programme, using blueprints A Q Khan had stolen from the Netherlands, the report says.
Mahmood, the author says, then moved on to the country's next huge project: designing the reactor at Khushab that was to produce the fuel Pakistan needed to move to the next level, a plutonium bomb.
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 the worldwide Muslim community, the report says.
In 1999, just as Kidwai was beginning to examine the staff of the nuclear enterprise, Mahmood was forced to take an early retirement. At a loss for what to do, Mahmood set up a non-profit charity, Ummah Tameer-e-Nau, which was ostensibly designed to send relief to fellow Muslims in Afghanistan.
In August 2001, as the September 11 plotters were making their last preparations in the US, Mahmood and one of his colleagues at the charity met with Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, over the course of several days in Afghanistan, the report says.
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Sixty years of hostility
US should stay alert if it fears that the Pak nukes could fall into the wrong hands because these "Chinese" missiles could land on US soil if used properly. Secondly, after keeping its eyes closed for so long on Pak's nuke issues, it is time for the US to keep its wide open.
It is not Pakistan it is China which is playing havock with the world.China has done most of the nuclear proliferation.Given know how to Pakistan,North Korea
China is fully responsible Pakistani nuclear arms. There is no doubt communist China is aided Pakistan in puting up design of Nuclear Bomb and practical building up. We need to bring this issue to UN and black list China as proliferating country. As it is US does not want a showdown with China. China is big threat and a rogue nation. You cannot trust China and the communist thugs are ready to go extra miles for a world dominaence..
In the light of this article Indian Defence Planners should ponder deep andhard and chalk out a detailed response which will hurt Pakistan in case they allow the terrorists to detonate a dirty bomb through future terrorist operations. Is our Government aware of this problem ???
If Obama fears Paki nukes, he should promptly knock them out with the technology the US has. The US can do better than knocking out Iraq's non-existent nukes !
Well, finally American administration has realized the dangers eventhough it took them sooo long and eventhough they have a in it. Why not the USA place some of its officials to safeguard the Pakistan's nuclear plants?
Let me ask one thing! What does it mean by "wrong hands|? Those wrong hands who have used to slaughter two cities in Japan? Those who have repeatedly threatened to use again? Or those who have slaughtered 2 million Koreans? Or Those who have slaughtered 2 more million in Vietnam? Or those who have slaughtered 2 million in Iraq? Who are we talking about? I am confused. I have not seen any Muslim country participating in any genocide in the history unless it is a false history. They were slaughtered by Chengiz Khan 1000 years ago in millions. Today their children are slaughtered in GAZA under nuclear umbrella. And also to those fools who are supported a joint attack of USA/Israel/India should know very well that America has already lost war on terror. The same Muslims who demolished Roman Empire, Persian Empire, Spanish Empire, Soveit Union and now America are some of the facts of the history. We are surrounded by Muslims. They are very peaceful people.
If ther is history It is false history!? Good Joke!All that does not adhere to your belief are false! Mr..have read history anywhere?
If ther is history It is false history!? Good Joke!All that does not adhere to your belief are false! Mr..have read history anywhere?
Its the hen coming home to roost. China gave the blue prints to Pakistan and USA closed it eyes and gave more money to Pkai's. Their short sightedness was that none of it would impact them. Once the terrorist have the bomb they will use on both of them. The chinese has finally done the most stupidist thing on earth. Now all of humanity has bear the burden of it.
This is a golden oppotunity for US and India to take out the Nuclear arsenal and the facilities from Pakistan once and for all. While they have a reason and are already there in the theatre of war, they will regret it in years to come if they do not do so now. US should put an embargo on all Nuclear associated material reaching Pakistan. Countries dealing in this technology assisting Pakistan should be isolated from world community and pressurised to halt all trading in this field. UN should try to bring it under control by sending international inspectors. Basically everything should be dismantled. Pakistan is not a responsible state but a failed and unstable state. It is a dangerous state to the entire world community.
Pak nukes falling in the hands of fanatic Islamic terror groups is real and an extremely likely danger, especially so because of malicious and criminial collusion between the notorious Pak security establishment and these groups created and supported by them. One Himalyan blunder done by the world community in the past was its ignominous acceptance of Tibet's invasion and occupation by China, the catastrophic consequences of which are going to be seen by the world in coming years not too far, and the second blunder of equal scale is its deliberate silence to the WMD programme of a rogue state like Pakistan, and it certainly does not bode well for any of us in South Asia and for people elsewhere in the world.
It is surprising that that the US adminiatration took so much time to understand the dangerous potential of the Pakistani N-Bomb. Both China and the US were responsible for the nuclear build up in Pakistan. They should understand the destruction and devastation of the South Asia would also destroy the entire humankind on the face of the Earth. It is naturally urgent for the World Polity to act prudently. They should understand both theocratic pakistan and the Communist China are dangerous to the humankind.
India, Israel and U.S. should jointly launch an assualt on PAK's nuclear facilities and see that it is completely destroyed, without giving a minute chance to the PAK to take off with the nuclear. This is the only way to bring the PAKis into terms. Otherwise, they will for ever continue to irritate the entire world with this nuclear threat game. The only solution is to finish them once and for all, wipe them out of the world!
If Paksitan does like it, it will be an End Story for Paksitan...