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| India-Pakistan |
| Evidence at bin LadenÂ’s home raises nuclear concerns |
| 2011-05-11 |
| Intelligence analysts are sifting through phone numbers and email addresses found at Osama bin Laden’s compound to determine potential links to Pakistani government and military officials while U.S. officials and analysts raise concerns about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear materials. According to three U.S. intelligence officials, the race is on to identify what President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, has called bin Laden’s “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 Pakistan’s 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 University’s International Panel on Fissile Materials, which takes account of the world’s 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 Pakistan’s 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 |
| #3 DRUDGEREPORT AM > [ABC News Video]AL-QAEDA LEADER VOWS REVENGE SO FIERCE THAT US WILL MISS OSAMA BIN LADEN. Escalation of Jihad-Terror. ARTIC > AQAP/AQIY LEADER NASIR AL-WASHISHI = "Whats heading [coming] to You [USA] IS FAR GREATER + MORE DANGEROUS...". AND * WAFF > DID "CROWN PRINCE OF TERROR [Osama son + AQ Heir-Apparent? HAMZA BIN LADEN] ESCAPE THE BIN LADEN RAID? | PAKISTANI INVESTIGATORS FEAR OSAMA BIN LADEN'S YOUNGEST SON + SUCCESSOR ESCAPED DURING DURING THE NIGHT RAID ON MAY 1st, at Abbottabad. Pragmatically, "2012" + JASMINE-LED "POLITICAL-LEGAL JIHAD" = too good a strategic opportunity for Radical Islam = various MilTerr Groups to de facto takeover or control vee electoral power the CIVILIAN NUCENERGY PROGRAMS OF VARIOUS SOVEREIGN ARAB-MUSLIM STATES OTHER THAN IRAN OR PAKISTAN OR EVEN SAUDI ARABIA, AS PER MILITARY = NUCWEAPONS PURPOSES [including Regional, Global Nuclear Terrorism]. * PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > [Pert-Scholar, ordinary Citizen]CHINESE VIEW OF BIN LADEN'S DEATH. ARTIC > SUN ZHE, Director of the Center of Sino-US Relations at Tsinghua University, argues that despite the death of Osama Bin Laden, the GWOT FOR THE US IS FAR FROM OVER + THAT THE US WILL LIKLEY REMAIN ON HIGH ALERT FOR TERROR ATTACKS FOR ANOTHER 5-10 YEARS [Year 2015-2020/2025?]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-05-11 23:55 |
| #2 al Qaeda operatives in 2009 "came within 60 kilometers of what is believed to have been Pakistan's nuclear arsenal Whoopy-doo! You or I can get within 60 km of US nukes any day of the week. It's the last km that's tough (or had better be.) |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2011-05-11 20:16 |
| #1 under the control of the secular military, which has implemented extensive physical, personnel and command and control safeguards. I doubt the 'secular' part of this statement. It's highly likely the Pak nuke security is riddled with Islamists. I wouldn't be that surprised if some day a Pak nuke goes off -- inside Pakistan. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-05-11 17:53 |