Pakistan’s Nukes

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."