Obama’s Worst Pakistan Nightmare

Pakistani security personnel adamantly insist that their nuclear arsenal is safe, but US security officials do not agree. Senior officials in the Bush administration worry that radical Islamist groups could gain access to the weapons by either seizing them or by infiltrating the labs as scientists. Security officials also worry that extremists could use regional violence to manipulate Pakistan into moving the weapons into less secure positions. The US has secretly poured millions of dollars to train the Pakistani officials in warhead storage, but has not received any information on how the money is used, reports David Sanger for the New York Times and in a new book. The Pakistan Army takes pride in its nuclear arsenal and resists US efforts to secure or inspect weapons, fearing the country might attempt to gain control over them. Although Pakistani scientists have a record of leaking nuclear secrets to rogue states and terror networks both for money and for religious reasons, Pakistan continues to insist that American fears are overblown. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence might actually be aiding the jihadist militants, regarding them as a useful counterweight to India’s influence in the region, and the democratically-elected civilian government has little control. – YaleGlobal

Obama’s Worst Pakistan Nightmare

David E. Sanger
Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Click here for the article on The New York Times.

David E. Sanger is chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times. His book “The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power,” from which this article is adapted, will be published this week by Harmony Books.

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