Free Republic

Pakistan on Sunday angrily rejected a media report that raised fears of a militant takeover of the Taliban-hit nation's nuclear weapons and suggested that the US had a hand in protecting the arsenal. In the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wrote that US officials had negotiated pacts with Pakistan to provide security for the nuclear arsenal in extreme circumstances. It also raised the possibility that the threat to the security of the nuclear programme might come not from Taliban rebels battling the government, but from a "mutiny" by fundamentalist elements within the powerful military....

An audacious weekend assault by Islamic militants on Pakistan's army headquarters is again raising fears of an insurgent attack on the country's nuclear weapons installation. Pakistan has sought to protect its nuclear weapons from attack by the Taliban or other militants by storing the warheads, detonators and missiles separately in facilities patrolled by elite troops. Analysts are divided on how secure these weapons are. Some say the weapons are less secure than they were five years ago, and Saturday's attack would show a "worrisome" overconfidence by the Pakistanis. While complex security is in place, much depends on the Pakistani army...

Pakistan's nuclear weapon bases have been attacked by al-Qaeda and the Taliban at least three times in the last two years, it has emerged. The allegations, by a leading British expert on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, increased fears that terrorists could acquire a nuclear device or could trigger a nuclear disaster by bombing an atomic facility. In a paper for the respected anti-terrorism journal of America's West Point Military Academy, Professor Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Bradford University, detailed three attacks since November 2007 and raised the spectre of more incidents in the future. He said...

<p>The United States yesterday demanded that Pakistan dismantle its vast network of nuclear technology sales "by its roots" and said it had President Pervez Musharraf's assurance that the pardon he had granted the operation's leader was a conditional one.</p> <p>The Bush administration continued to insist, however, that the investigation into the activities of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist who admitted last week to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, is an internal Pakistani matter.</p>

MMA to ensure Pak nukes defend Muslim world * MMA local leaders call for Jihad to ‘stop aggression by infidels’ * Says protection of holy places in Iraq duty of every Muslim Staff Report PESHAWAR: The MMA leadership on Friday said that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenals would serve as deterrence for the defence of the entire Muslim world if their party came to power. Speaking at an anti-war rally here, the MMA leaders and parliamentarians said Pakistan was a nuclear power but the “coward leaders” were reluctant to use the nuclear deterrence for the protection of the Muslim world. “After coming...