Pakistan and Nuclear Weapons A Big Problem for the United States

As many of you know, I have written numerous times about the possibility of Pakistans nuclear arms falling into the hands of terrorists who plan on using them against the West.

Posts such as these:

Pakistans President Announces Nukes May Fall Into Terrorist Hands

Taliban May Already Hold Some Key Nuke Sites In Pakistan

Al-Qaeda Declares It Will Use Pakistan’s Nukes To Strike Unites States

(For more posts on this topic use the search box on the right)

Weather or not this actually happens is hard to say, but it is not something beyond the realm of possibility.

I am also a big long time fan of National Terror Alert, as they do an excellent job on reporting on some of these issues, and noticed the story on their site yesterday titled: Are Pakistans Nuclear Weapons Safe?

This post on their site points to the article Defending The Arsenal In an unstable Pakistan, can nuclear warheads be kept safe?

My personal views on this is that it is just a matter of time at this point. It could happen 2 weeks from now, or 5 years from now, but the pendulum is swinging in favor of the radicals at this point and they want nothing more than to get their hands on a nuclear weapon.

Make no mistake they are keeping their eyes on the prize, and we in the West are not doing enough to stop it from happening.

Read the articles linked in this post to get up to date on this issue.

Al-Qaeda Declares It Will Use Pakistan’s Nukes To Strike Unites States

Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the top Al-Qaesa leader in Afghanistan has declared that Al-Qaeda will use Partisan's nuclear weapons against the United States during an interview with al-Jazeera television.

In a statement during the interview he directly said, "God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the Mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans."

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari maintains that his country has a strong command-and-control system for its nuclear weapons and has ruled out the possibility that their nuclear weapons might fall into militant hands.

However, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid believes that pro-Taliban forces can overpower the Pakistani military in thein the northwestern areas and get hold of the nuclear weapons. He went on to say,"We expect that the Pakistani army would be defeated (in Swat) ... and that would be its end everywhere, God willing."

During an April interview with Fox News, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said the US was worried about the "unthinkable" in Pakistan -- that the Taliban and al-Qaeda could topple the government, and get their hands on "the keys to nuclear arsenal."

I've been warning about this issue for a while now, see these posts:

Pakistans President Announces Nukes May Fall Into Terrorist Hands

Taliban May Already Hold Some Key Nuke Sites In Pakistan

Pakistan Near Collapse, Nukes Will Fall Into Terrorist Hands

Taliban May Already Hold Some Key Nuke Sites In Pakistan

According to a news story in the Times of India, the Taliban, Al-Qeada partnership and possibly other radical factions may already be in control of some of Pakistan's Nuclear sites.

The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has allegedly told told the Obama administration the names of the sites in question and also warned the administration that "Pakistan is lost".

We have written several posts on the situation in Pakistan that you can view here:

Pakistan Near Collapse, Nukes Will Fall Into Terrorists Hands

Taliban Make Comeback Inside Pakistan, Shari'a Law Imposed

Taliban 60 Miles From Pakistan Capital, Collapse of Country May Be Imminent

The paper also reported and highlighted the disappointment of US experts at the administration and failure to take the threat seriously.

US experts have been greatly perturbed in recent days about what they say is Washington's misplaced confidence in, and lackadaisical approach towards, Pakistan's nuclear assets. The disquiet comes amid reports that Pakistan is ramping up its nuclear arsenal even as the rest of the world is scaling it down.

"It is quite disturbing that the administration is allowing Pakistan to quantitatively and qualitatively step up production of fissile material without as much as a public reproach," Robert Windrem, a visiting scholar with the Center for Law and Security in New York University and an expert on South Asia nuclear issues told ToI in an interview on Thursday. "Iraq and Iran did not get a similar concessions... and Pakistan has a much worse record of proliferation and security breaches than any other country in the world."

Taliban 60 Miles From Pakistan Capital, Collapse Of Country May Be Imminent

Governments around the world are becoming concerned that the Pakistani capital Islamabad and the entire country will fall into Taliban hands.

This is a nightmare scenario that as far back as two years ago, many would have said impossible, that it could never happen.

However it seems the Pakistani civilian government seems almost blind to the threat, or worse yet almost seemingly welcoming the coming takeover by the Taliban.

In the past, which was only months ago, the new Pakistani government allowed for the Taliban control over the Swat valley under a peace agreement. However once the Taliban moved in and secured the area, the continued attacks against Pakistani police forces and are now approximately 60 miles from the capital.

I'm not sure if it will be months or years, but it looks to me that without NATO, or U.S. intervention which seems unlikely that Pakistan will fall into Taliban hands, and rule.

Recently the militants attacked a NATO convoy of tankers carrying fuel. Please see the AP video below and take note of what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says:

Here is another video on the topic from The New York Times:

Interesting News clip from France TV station:

I have written before about this see the posts here:

Taliban Make Comeback Inside Pakistan, Shari'a Law Imposed

Pakistan Near Collapse, Nukes Will Fall Into Terrorist Hands

Pakistain Near Collapse, Nukes Will Fall Into Terrorist Hands

I have been talking about this for a while now, mostly to people in my inner circle.

Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have had pretty much free reign over the northern regions of Pakistan for quite sometime.

Pakistan has done little to stop it, and it has resulted in widespread terror attacks throughout the country.

Recently, the Taliban was allowed to impose Shari'a law over what is known as the Swat Valley inside Pakistan. 

This has allowed them to establish a base of operations, just as they had pre- 9/11 and scarier still, has given them a foothold in a nuclear powered country.

Reports have come in through various channels that the country is near collapse. Something the Taliban and Al-Qaeda would love, and would give them cause to establish rule over the entire country and access to nuclear weapons and missile capabilities.

Though I hope that this scenario does not occur, it is highly likely.

Basically I feel like our eye is off the ball and steps are being taken on a daily basis to weaken our National Defense. Folks this issue is real, and it presents a major problem. The likely hood of Pakistan falling into terrorist hands is a greater possibility than Iran obtaining nukes, not that either is agreeable.

If we do not keep our Missile defense program, we may see a nuclear attack on the U.S. within the next 15 years.

Check out our post on The Importance of Missile Defense.