U.S. Secretly Aids Pakistan in Guarding Nuclear Arms
By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 — Over the past six years, the Bush administration has spent just under $100 million on a highly classified program to help Gen. Pervez Musharraf secure Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, according to current and former senior administration officials.
But with the future of that country’s leadership in doubt, debate is intensifying about whether Washington has done enough to help protect the warheads, and whether Pakistan’s reluctance to reveal critical details about its arsenal has undercut the effectiveness of the security effort.
The aid, buried in secret portions of the federal budget, paid for the training of Pakistani personnel in the United States and the construction of a nuclear security training center in Pakistan, a facility that American officials say is nowhere near completion, even though it was supposed to be in operation this year.
A raft of equipment — from helicopters to night-vision goggles to nuclear detection equipment — was given to Pakistan to help secure its nuclear material, its warheads, and the laboratories that were the site of the worst known case of nuclear proliferation in the atomic age.
While American officials say they take at face value Pakistani assurances that security is vastly improved, in many cases the Pakistani government has been reluctant to show American officials how or where the gear is actually used, because the Pakistanis do not want to reveal the locations of their weapons, or the amount or type of new bomb-grade fuel the country is now producing.
(Continued here.)
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 — Over the past six years, the Bush administration has spent just under $100 million on a highly classified program to help Gen. Pervez Musharraf secure Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, according to current and former senior administration officials.
But with the future of that country’s leadership in doubt, debate is intensifying about whether Washington has done enough to help protect the warheads, and whether Pakistan’s reluctance to reveal critical details about its arsenal has undercut the effectiveness of the security effort.
The aid, buried in secret portions of the federal budget, paid for the training of Pakistani personnel in the United States and the construction of a nuclear security training center in Pakistan, a facility that American officials say is nowhere near completion, even though it was supposed to be in operation this year.
A raft of equipment — from helicopters to night-vision goggles to nuclear detection equipment — was given to Pakistan to help secure its nuclear material, its warheads, and the laboratories that were the site of the worst known case of nuclear proliferation in the atomic age.
While American officials say they take at face value Pakistani assurances that security is vastly improved, in many cases the Pakistani government has been reluctant to show American officials how or where the gear is actually used, because the Pakistanis do not want to reveal the locations of their weapons, or the amount or type of new bomb-grade fuel the country is now producing.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
REQUIRED READING FREDERICK W. KAGAN and MICHAEL O’HANLON Op-Ed with these little tidbits.
--- “if we were not so committed in Iraq and Afghanistan,” is impacting what we can do … this is Kagan’s words … the same Kagan that could be called the Father of the Surge.
---- “unless we had precise information about the location of all of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and materials, we could not rely on bombing or using Special Forces to destroy them.”
---- “Pakistan’s intelligence services contain enough sympathizers and supporters of the Afghan Taliban, and enough nationalists bent on seizing the disputed province of Kashmir from India, that there are grounds for real worries.”
---- They advocate that nuclear material be removed ... and where you ask ... “shipping the material to someplace like New Mexico” … oh that will go over well with all the Yucca Mountain are residents … they won’t be the only ones with nuclear material.
--- And they conclude with this statement “We must be militarily and diplomatically prepared to keep ourselves safe in such a world.” … so are we ? Sure doesn't sound like it.
Addressing the NYT article, I thought it was common knowledge that the US has been working with the Pakistan government to improve security at thier sites ( but they have refused to let our people know where the sites are … hence Kagan & O’Hanlon’s comment.)
Isn’t one of the major difference between US and Pakistan nuclear procedure is that the US can launch an attack within a half-hour … while, Pakistan does not have its nuclear weapons assembled. Pakistan did this so that no one could sieze an assembled weapon ( as in a military coup) and as a safeguard that an attack would not be made on India without approval.
Regarding the Kagan piece … where is the effort for diplomacy? Why aren’t Russia and India involved?
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