U.S. Offers Nuclear Security Assistance to Pakistan
The United States has offered to help Pakistan secure
its nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities following the September
11 terrorist attacks and the start of the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan.
During a November 1 press briefing, Pakistani Foreign
Minister Abdul Sattar said that, during a mid-October meeting with
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad, Secretary of
State Colin Powell offered to invite Pakistani officials “to
see how safety and security is ensured in the United States.”
Asked if Pakistan had accepted, Sattar was widely reported to have
responded, “Who would refuse?”
At an October 31 briefing, Powell said Musharraf “knows
that if he needs any technical assistance in how to improve [Pakistan’s
nuclear] security level, we would be more than willing to help in
any way we can.” During a November 11 interview on NBC’s
Meet the Press, the secretary added that he had had “direct
conversations” with Musharraf about the risk of Pakistan’s
nuclear arsenal falling “into the wrong hands.”
Powell’s statement marked the first official
U.S. acknowledgement that it has engaged Pakistan in post-September
11 talks on nuclear safety and security issues. Bush administration
officials had previously denied Pakistani officials’ claims
that Washington had held such talks with Islamabad. (See
ACT, November 2001.)
Analysts have been concerned that Pakistani participation
in the U.S. campaign against terrorism could result in political
instability in Pakistan, which, in turn, could cause Musharraf’s
government to lose control over its nuclear weapons or nuclear facilities.
Reports that suspect-terrorist Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network
may be seeking to steal nuclear weapons from Pakistan have also
heightened concerns.
An administration official said that Pakistan appears
willing to accept some U.S. nuclear-related assistance offers, asserting,
“Pakistan feels such cooperation might help” improve its
nuclear security and enhance “the steps it has already taken
to improve the safety of its weapons and fissile material.”
During an interview, a Pakistani official said that
Washington had also offered to help physically protect Pakistan’s
nuclear facilities but that Islamabad had refused. According to
a South Asian diplomat, U.S. technology placed at Pakistani nuclear
facilities would be widely viewed in Pakistan as a means for the
United States to “track and monitor” Islamabad’s
nuclear program.
Pakistani Nuclear Security
Despite U.S. offers of assistance, senior Bush administration
officials appear confident that Pakistan has sufficient control
over its nuclear assets. During his Meet the Press interview, Powell
said that he did not “see any risk” of Pakistan losing
control of its nuclear weapons. Furthermore, during a November 7
interview with CNN, Wendy Chamberlin, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan,
said that she did not “think that there is any threat that
[Pakistan’s nuclear weapons] will fall into the hands of people
that would use those against the U.S.”
During his November 1 briefing, Foreign Minister Sattar
also gave assurances that Pakistan retains control over its nuclear
infrastructure. Islamabad’s nuclear command and control are
under “foolproof custodial controls,” he said. Sattar
noted that the government has “constantly maintained, developed,
and upgraded command and control systems and custodial security
procedures” and has invested the “requisite financial
and personnel resources in order to devise and apply ironclad measures
to deal with all contingencies of threat to strategic assets.”
However, reports raising questions about the security
of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons have recently emerged. According
to a November 11 Washington Post report, Pakistan’s military
began to relocate “critical nuclear weapons components within
two days of the September 11 terrorist attacks.” The relocation
was reportedly prompted by fears over possible terrorist strikes
against Pakistan’s nuclear facilities and was also intended
to remove the weapons from “air bases and corridors that might
be used by the United States in an attack on Afghanistan.”
The Pakistani embassy in Washington said that the story had “no
basis” said that Musharraf had denied the report.
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