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Evidence at bin Ladens home raises nuclear concerns
Intelligence analysts are sifting through phone numbers and email addresses found at Osama bin Ladens compound to determine potential links to Pakistani government and military officials while U.S. officials and analysts raise concerns about the safety of Pakistans nuclear materials.According to three U.S. intelligence officials, the race is on to identify what President Obamas top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, has called bin Ladens support system inside Pakistan. These sources sought anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to reporters. My concern now is that we cannot exclude the possibility that officers in the Pakistani military and the intelligence service were helping to harbor or aware of the location of bin Laden, said Olli Heinonen, who served as the deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 2005 to 2010. What is to say they would not help al Qaeda or other terrorist groups to gain access to sensitive nuclear materials such as highly enriched uranium and plutonium? Mr. Rothman said al Qaeda operatives in 2009 came within 60 kilometers of what is believed to have been Pakistans nuclear arsenal, though he could not elaborate on the incident. Two years ago, al Qaeda came close, too close for comfort, Mr. Rothman said. That resulted in new safeguards and new measures taken by the United States and Pakistan and others to minimize any possibility of anyone acquiring the Pakistani nuclear weapons or material. Pakistan is neither a member of the IAEA nor a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Nonetheless, it has agreed to some IAEA safeguards on its civil nuclear program, but nothing comprehensive. Analysts estimate Pakistan to have more than 100 nuclear weapons. The latest estimate by Princeton Universitys International Panel on Fissile Materials, which takes account of the worlds nuclear material, estimates that Pakistan possesses between 1.6 tons and 3.8 tons of weapons-grade uranium and between 132 pounds and 286 pounds of plutonium. Up to now, the Pakistanis have said the nuclear material is under military and ISI control and particularly the plutonium and highly enriched uranium, Mr. Heinonen said. These are from facilities that are not under IAEA control at all. A Feb. 19, 2009, cable from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said the nuclear arsenal is under the control of the secular military, which has implemented extensive physical, personnel and command and control safeguards. Our major concern has not been that an Islamic militant could steal an entire weapon but rather the chance someone working in [Pakistani government] facilities could gradually smuggle enough fissile material out to eventually make a weapon and the vulnerability of weapons in transit, said the cable, which was released Wednesday by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. The cable was prepared in anticipation of the February 2009 visit to Washington of Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, who is chief of staff of Pakistan's military. In it, the cable also acknowledged how the ISI and Pakistani army have elements that still support terrorist groups. We need to lay down a clear marker that Pakistans Army/ISI must stop overt or tacit support for militant proxies. We should preface that conversation with an agreement to open a new page in relations; Kayani, who was ISI Chief from 2004-2007, does not want a reckoning with the past, the cable said. Posted by: Sherry 2011-05-11 |
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