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PAKISTAN

Pakistan’s Nukes

Despite growing concerns around the world, the director of the Pakistani nuclear program insists the weapons are secure.

Anjum Naveed / AP
Show of Force: Pakistan's Shaheen II missile, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, was shown in an Islamabad parade last year
 

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Worries about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal have been further heightened over the past few months as President Pervez Musharraf seems to be increasingly beleaguered and unpopular, and as violent Islamic extremists seem bolder and frighteningly able to project their destabilizing jihad even into Pakistani cities, most recently with the assassination of popular opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last December. As a result, cries of concern about Pakistan's questionable nuclear safety and security have recently come not only from Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, but also from U.S. congressional leaders.

To blunt the criticism and to reassure an anxious international community, Musharraf has ordered senior officials in charge of his country's nuclear assets to go on the offensive and brief visiting dignitaries (such as U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman), the Islamabad-based diplomatic community, and finally on Saturday several dozen journalists. The unequivocal message coming from retired Lt. General Khalid Kidwai, director-general of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD) that develops and manages Pakistan's nuclear capability, is: Don't worry. Pakistan has its nukes, its fissile material and its scientists well under control, thanks to complex nuclear command and control structures and security measures that make the arsenal "foolproof."

Kidwai, who has headed the SPD since its inception in 2000 soon after Musharraf came to power in a military coup, says the ironclad control and safety of the system starts at the top with the National Command Authority. The 10-member NCA is chaired by Musharraf and includes the three military service chiefs, several cabinet officers and a scientist. They, and only they, formulate nuclear policy and centrally control all aspects of the deployment and eventual use of a nuclear weapon. While the committee is said to operate on a consensus basis, clearly strongman Musharraf as chairman has the ultimate say. Still, there are checks up and down the chain of command. "We have well developed physical safety mechanisms and firewalls in the weapons and in the chain of command that will ensure that unauthorized use will never take place, especially by a single individual," Kidwai told the Saturday press briefing at the military's Chaklala Garrison in Rawalpindi.

Kidwai emphasized that the nuclear production sites and weapons' storage areas are tightly secured by specially trained soldiers with body armor, closed circuit television, foot patrols, sentry dogs and special armored vehicles, fencing and locks acquired from the United States. The Americans are also helping Pakistan set up a nuclear-security training academy charged with turning out specially trained security personnel. Kidwai admitted, however, that "the state of alert has gone up" in the nuclear-command structure of late because of the threat of political instability. But he says they have not detected any imminent threats. Militant tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud, whom Musharraf has accused of masterminding and carrying out the Bhutto assassination, reportedly has hinted that he could attack the country's nuclear arsenal next. Kidwai shrugged off the threat. "He can say what he likes," says Kidwai. "We are prepared for it."

The failsafe mechanisms even ensure that no rogue commander, pilot or soldier could launch a live nuclear weapon without coded authorization coming down the chain of command. No nuclear weapon will explode, Kidwai says, unless it is activated at the very last minute by a top secret, 12-digit alphanumeric code. "If a wonky pilot dropped a bomb without the code it would be a dud," he said.

To guard against any rogue activity, Kidwai's SPD even runs its own 10,000-man intelligence service, called the Security Division, that keeps a close eye on the some 10,000 scientists that work in the country's vast nuclear weapons development industry. The autonomous Security Division that runs the Personnel Reliability Program doesn't depend on the military's premier and powerful spy organization, Inter-Services Intelligence. The SPD's security outfit runs a "cradle-to-the-grave" surveillance system that follows a scientist well into retirement. He said in today's "emotional anti-American and anti-Musharraf" atmosphere in Pakistan, scientists are being kept under the microscope. He recounted the case of a scientist who went to a mosque and gave an anti-Musharraf speech, though he didn't say when. The man was summarily fired and remains under strict surveillance. He even claimed that there is strict accountability of all fissile material, whether in the form of gas, metal or waste, "down to the last gram."

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 05/08/2009 6:37:09 AM

    THREE STOOGES IN STALEMATE -iIN DC

    a total waste of public resources in recession and our time in watching these stooges on the screens of our electrical appliances -

    ZARDARI -KARZAI AND ?-
    this whole PAK administration is a school of incompetent corrupt nincompoops and total american SHOESTRING puppets and disgust me as i am proud to be a BRITISH pakistani but detest the people who are in the admin body -they all need to be condemned -or meET the fate meted to french aristocracy in a certain revolution .
    no one amongst them gives a damn about common people or pakistan -
    WATER -SHORT AND WE FIGHT THE TERROR NOT THE WATER EMBARGO by a country which has denied PAK existence since 60 years and predicted THEN pak will last 6 weeks -
    10 MILLION KASHMIRIS UNDER 1 MILLION INDIAN ARMY AND they FIGHT 10000 TALIBAN IN FATA -
    afghan indian and americans ARE INFILTRATING paki borders and engaged in massacres of innocent CITIZENS AND they CLAIM THEY ARE OUR FRIENDS -
    the taliban terrorists in pakistan have american training and arms and this is a war on terror by the total losers -lolz

    BARRY -he forgot that without KASHMIR SOLUTION YOU ARE INCREASING TERROR BECAUSE YOU ARE SELLING 10 MILLION PEOPLE TO indian TERRORISTS -
    he claims he is not fighting islam but terror -its a very tall claim when he is following the exact policy of the self proclaimed CRUSADER -BUSH -THE TEXAN COWBOY .
    he also thinks killing innocent civilians with drones and bombs is not terror -and he has refuted every moral statement he made while being elected about war and morality in his erstwhile sermons which are now victim of a convenient amnesia and that seems to be affecting him long term too-
    HE also is spending 165 billion on war alone and the banks need 65 billion for bailout -so we know who got him elected as the largest corporates in america are the arms industry that supply afghanistan and drug cartels and the congo and african conflict zones -hallelujah .
    he also has not been informed by the compromised and pressurised mrs clinton who should be giving more time to mexican cartels and columbian cocaine and tamil tigers that pakistani taliban are being armed by CIA TO FIGHT AN AMERICAN WAR IN PAKISTAN -LOLZ

    karzai is a stooge who even looks like a staged muppet on a shoestring -he deserves no serious consideration -

    it seems there is only one country and one institution in pak that seems to be sacrosanct -CHINA AND THE ARMY WITH ISI -they still beat the *** out of the rest -god is indeed great

  • Posted By: Partab007 @ 03/28/2009 2:26:44 PM

    Similar to the risk of Hindutva influenced Indian Generals smuggling off material to Hindutva groups?

  • Posted By: Partab007 @ 03/28/2009 2:24:20 PM

    You're right. They just bomb civilians from the air, bomb civilian infrastructure and crowded civilian locations, lay a seige upon the indeginious people of the land, destroy houses, orchards, maintain an occupation, and kill civilians, men women and children, with their guns. I am sure if the Palestinians had all the weapons like Israel, they too would have used them and avoided using suicide bombing.

    If we compare the two, the Israelis and the Palestinians, the former has easily the most blood on its hand. Sharon alone has killed more civilians than all palestinian terrorist organisations put together. Overwhelmingly, Israel is on the wrong.

    As for Muslim condemnation of terrorism, it is factually false to assert that "a vast remaining percentage" allegedly "fails" to speak against violence etc. The problem is you just do not wish to hear the condemnations and will seek any excuse to give it a deaf ear since your hidden wish/desire is for Muslims not to condemn violent acts. Numerous Muslim scholars, writers, intellectuals etc have openly and vocally condemned terrorism and these comments can easily be found online. Have you ever heard of scholars such as Hakim Murad, Hamza Yusuf, just to mention two prominent scholars?

    But your argument also backfires, a large percentage of Israelis fail to speak against the terrorism and mass killings conducted by their government. Worse, the vast majority also showed its support for such barbaric acts and policies in the recent elections by voting for the rightwing and racist parties. So, the vast majority refused to speak against Israeli attrocities and terrorism in Gaza and, in fact, showed their support for it.

    The world has reasonable justification to be concerned about the Israelis.

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