‘Pakistan acted to protect N-arsenal when US invaded Afghanistan’



By Our Correspondent


WASHINGTON, March 5: Pakistan had moved its nuclear arsenal to at least six secret locations when the United States launched an attack on Afghanistan after 9/11, says a report prepared for the US Congress.

The report also quotes US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telling a congressional hearing that the United States had made a contingency plan to prevent religious extremists from seizing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

“We have noted this problem, and we are prepared to try to deal with it,” said Ms Rice when asked what would happen to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons if there was a radical Islamic coup in Islamabad.

The report by the Congressional Research Service notes that President Musharraf’s order to move nuclear weapons to “six new secret locations” came at a time of uncertainty about the direction of US-Pakistan relations.

“Pakistan’s leadership was uncertain whether the US would decide to conduct military strikes against Pakistan’s nuclear assets” if it did not support the invasion.

The report claims that Pakistan possesses approximately 60 nuclear warheads and continues to produce more fissile material for weapons, adding to its weapons production facilities and delivery vehicles.

Pakistan stores its warheads unassembled with the fissile core separate from non-nuclear explosives, and these are stored separately from their delivery vehicles, the report notes.

A US Department of Defence report, however, says that Pakistan can probably assemble the weapons fairly quickly. Nevertheless, separate storage may provide a layer of protection against accidental launch or prevent theft of an assembled weapon.

Pakistan does not have a stated nuclear policy, but its “minimum credible deterrent” is thought to be primarily a deterrent to Indian military action, says the congressional report.

“Risk of nuclear war in South Asia ran high in the 1999 Kargil crisis, when the Pakistani military is believed to have begun preparing nuclear-tipped missiles,” the report adds.




dawn

There is noway america would invade a nuclear nation the only reason usa is saying these kind of things is cause pakistan didnt test icbm once u got them they would sit like a kid on a dinner table who dont wanna sit but have no choice


SPEEDY
enjoy

The worrying thing is that how did the US come to know that Pakistan hid the weapons in different locations. Pakistan has to go after the mole.

The worrying thing is that how did the US come to know that Pakistan hid the weapons in different locations. Pakistan has to go after the mole.

Have ever thought about the satellite spying !

You see the thing is ...... they know very well ..... we may not be able to strike back on the US homeland IF THEY ATTACK US FIRST .... but we certainly have the nuclear ability to take out a whole aircraft carrier battle group ..... with our nuclear weapons ..... and they wont risk that ..... so they'll never attack us ....

The Predators and Reapers are not watching Afghanistan alone!!!!

The predator and reapers are allowed to act in our airspace with ou permission some are flown from a base in balchoistan and maintained and kept there, although some are even used to attack terrorists better yet AL-Qaeda and Taliban on our border area's, some times even with out our permission or with out telling us, although for the 1st time i would say whatever you said is crap a predator or reaper coming even close to 50km's of a nuclear site would be shot down and if you meant they will be used against us in recon/attack then i would say thats a bigger BS cause i dont think we would be sleeping dont you?

Regards,

BoB

Many people have their relatives/friends and friends of friends working in many sections of the military. Occasionally things are leaked out in the general public either incidentally or accidentally to boost the moral of the nation or sometimes to let the people know of the up coming events. Remember during the Kargil War the moral of the Pakistani people was much higher than that of the average Indian Soldier. Everybody was saying Now or Never. But unfortunately Nawaz Sharif did the job for the Indians which their military could not have done for them.

US does know so as the Pakistani people but the main thing is that no one knows about their location.

Now we have Nawaz and Zardari to carry on the grand work of the indians!! And this is all thanks to his majesty Mushraf! Thank you for the memories!!

But i have a good feeling that there was a quite a American influence or pressure in safe guarding the Nukes.( quite evident in news and rummer during that time , if u recall) Also.. who needs the reapers and predators when the spy satellite can look the number plate of a car!!! sadly u don't have a ASAT weapon like the Chinese do...
But the bottom line is its safe

I agree to agree with you on one point and to disagree with you on the other, reaosn yes they can use satellites, second i think the pressure us from the US media, our differences aside in India Vs Pakistan
debates or scenario the fact is thatour nukes were always safe and always will be in the regards of them getting into somebody else's hands so JT regardless of your feeling, the facts is nuke weapons arent no small toys they always are guarded well very well.i think the issue was a no issue from the begning just a pressure tactic.

Satellites? We gave them the run around for their penny in May 1998.
Their sattellites were orbiting Pakistan around every 15 odd minutes for a few seconds, and during those few seconds, all our key figures used to hide/become stationary.

Then we had decoy trucks, chassis welded together of 2-3 bedford trucks, who were doing back and forth in areas where we wanted them to concentrate.
They were so very convinced that we are not carrying out the tests, then May 28 happened, CIA had their jaws dropped to the ground.

Beta we are Pakistanis, we improvised toss bombing of nukes on our F-16's when they were convinced that a certain wiring could prevent us from doing just that on the F-16's!