Monday June 22, 2009
Pakistans nuclear program which has been built indigenously without acquiring foreign assistance has come under constant assault. Hardly a day passes when some weird and cockeyed story is not published in western print media or a statement not made by senior US officials. Purpose of the malicious campaign is to smear and bring into disrepute Pakistan by deliberately spreading disinformation campaign about the security of our nuclear assets. The theme revolves around weak safety and apprehensions are expressed that nuclear weapons could be stolen by the extremists. Doubts are created that some compromises have been or being made.
A scandalous report was published in US media alleging that Pakistan had already agreed to hand over its enriched uranium to the US. A rumor is in circulation that when Zardari went to USA with a begging bowl, so-called Friends of Pakistan Forum (FPF) was created and an offer of $100 billion was made in return for our nuclear program. Shirin Mazari has referred to her conversation with Seymour Hersh (The News dated 20 May). He informed her that compromises by our political leadership on nuclear program had already been made. This rumor was given air when Zardari announced that Pakistan will put an end to further manufacturing of nuclear weapons and assured India that Pakistan will not exercise the option of first strike. Drastic reduction in budget for SPD, which seriously impacted our nuclear and missile R&D programs and curtailed missile tests, has given grist to the rumor mill.
One of the motives of onslaught against our nuclear program is to compel Pakistan to seek foreign assistance for its safety, thus allowing interested groups to intrude into prohibited areas and ascertain missing links they are desperately looking for. French offer is an attempt in that direction. US effort to find a berth in NCA for its official as an observer failed. The US supplied security vehicles for safe carriage of weapons, but these are not in use. Drumming up Taliban threat that they were on the verge of capturing Islamabad and nuclear weapons was part of the design to make the leadership panicky and compel it to shift stored weapons to alternative safer locations. This exercise if undertaken would allow the spy satellites of USA as well as the Indo-Israeli satellite to photograph new sites for eventual destruction through surgical strikes.
CIA Director has stated that the US doesnt know about the location of all Pakistani nukes. I had mentioned about this critical aspect in one of my articles in 2008. Threat of Indo-Pak war was deliberately stoked in 2002 to force Pakistan to takeout its nuclear weapons from the closets, assemble them and move them to deployment sites. The ones that were taken out were tracked by US satellites and put on trackers. Those which were not taken out or those that have been added are their chief concern. Escalation of tensions in the wake of Mumbai carnage was aimed at forcing Pakistan to once again deploy their nuclear weapons but the gory plan fizzled out midway.
The day CIA learns of 60-100 nuclear warheads, game for Pakistan will be up. It is this uncanny fear of untraced weapons that is keeping USA and India backed by Israel in check since even a single unaccounted weapon could prove costly. The US well knows that Pakistan has excellent command and control system and possibility of theft is impossible. The detractors are not worried about safety of our nuclear weapons; what cause them anxiety are the untraced locations of weapons, now quietly shifted to new underground sites. Concerted efforts are underway to trace out whereabouts of weapons so that the prepared plans to hijack them in one go can be mounted by US Special Forces. Obama has said that he could consider all options to secure nuclear weapons if the country gets less stable. Frances special envoy to Pakistan painted a grim picture in early May of Pakistan collapsing under pressure from Islamists who could one day seize control of its nuclear weapons. He talked of rampant Talibanisation of areas close to Islamabad. It was probably this fear that Sarkozy offered cooperation to make our nuclear program safe which Zardari and his team misconstrued it as cooperation in civilian nuclear technology.
It is now being alleged that Pakistan is expanding its nuclear program and reference has been made towards a plant being built near DG Khan for commercial purposes to generate energy. Detractors fear that Pakistan may make use of plutonium deposits found in DG Khan and follow the plutonium path for development of tactical nuclear weapons and thus offset advantage gained by India.
The News dated 25 May published an account of Brig retired Imtiaz. He disclosed that strenuous efforts were made by CIA from 1978 onwards to disable our nuclear program in its crib. By stroke of luck he found out about a gang of Pakistani scientists and engineers working in Kahuta and other nuclear plants working on the payroll of CIA to sabotage our nuclear sites. They were caught and sentenced and their foreign handlers deported. It indicates the frenzy of USA to denuclearize Pakistan through covert means at a time when Islamabad used to repeatedly assert that its nuclear program was not nuclear tipped but meant for peaceful purposes only. It has not given up and is still working with full zeal to achieve its mission. If the CIA had succeeded in cultivating so many well-paid and pampered scientists in 1978, what is the guarantee that it has not made a breakthrough now particularly after it was allowed unlimited freedom of action to operate in Pakistan after 2001 and still no restrictions have been imposed on it. Another disclosure has been made by Advisor to PM that Petroleum and Natural Resources Ministry has certain elements bought over by USA who are bent upon scuttling Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project.
It was a pleasant change to see Foreign Office spokesman shedding away usual apologetic stance and giving a measured and terse reply to one-sided barrage of propaganda. Barbed questions were well answered. He scoffed at the sponsored themes against Pakistan terming it a failing and a fragile state and that its nuclear weapons would fall in wrong hands. Instead of indulging in unproductive lengthy explanations about Pakistans nuclear program which is an eyesore for USA, India and Israel, he astutely said that it was not possible for Pakistan to remain unaware of increasing conventional asymmetries and unrelenting arms acquisition by India. He also pointed out preferential treatment accorded to certain countries (Indo-US nexus), which disturbed regional military equilibrium and forced Pakistan to adopt necessary safeguards as it deemed fit. He rounded up his resume by reminding India to resolve longstanding Kashmir issue and to abide by the provisions of 1960 Indus Water Treaty.
CJSC Gen Tariq Majid delivered a hard hitting riposte to dispel misperceptions spread by vested groups about security of nuclear weapons. He made it clear that no foreign individual, entity or state had been provided or shall ever be provided access to our sensitive information and insinuations in this regard are mischievous and should be contemptuously dismissed. He assured that security apparatus put in place prepares and practices contingencies to meet all such eventualities.. His assurance that strategic assets are jealously guarded and any attempt to undermine our core capability will be strongly resisted and defeated is comforting and has acted as a tonic for the Pakistanis.
Our leaders have all along adopted an apologetic stance and a policy of appeasement to allay their fears. No amount of our explanations has brought any change despite the fact that SPD has developed and operationalised a very effective nuclear weapons security regime which is multilayer, has stringent access controls, foolproof custodial controls and failsafe security arrangements. It is high time that we put an end to giving defensive explanations. Their hackneyed and nauseating mantras should be pooh-poohed. We should just say that apprehensions are misconceived, frivolous and absurd warranting no further comments. The ones worried about Pakistan nuclear program should worry about their own nukes which are vulnerable to domestic threat and a far greater hazard for world peace and security. This has now been amply verified from recent bungling in US nuclear safety system and kidnapping of a senior Indian scientist along with sensitive documents and his murder and Indian record of nuclear proliferation to Iran, Iraq and Libya.
