Al Qaeda & Pakistan’s Nukes: Apocalypse Soon?

It sounds like a routine alarm, but the things are getting serious. The question being asked in this part of the world is: Who would grab Pakistan’s nuclear weapons first…the Al Qaeda or the USA? To this speculation one may add an Aesop’s fable: Would it be the “monkey” India/Israel combo snatching the nukes away from the Al Qaeda/USA “cat” ?

Here is a categorical statement from Mustafa Abu al-Yazid (photo above), the leader of al Qaeda’s in Afghanistan, in an interview with Al Jazeera television: “Al Qaeda would use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States.”

Considering the increasing overt and covert support that the extremist fringe enjoys within the Pakistan polity, including the Army, this Al Qaeda threat assumes menacing proportions. All the generous aid that the US administration is pouring out to Pakistan in the hope of winning over this radicalized section is unlikely to work.

Expressing concern over Pakistan’s rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, General Deepak Kapoor, India’s chief of army staff, recently called on the international community to prevail on Pakistan to cap its warheads at present levels.

India’s DNA newspaper comments: “Pakistan’s nuclear command and control passed into army hands when General Zia-ul-Haq overthrew Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in a military coup d’etat on July 5, 1977 and has remained with the army ever since.

“With Taliban and jihadi terrorism having taken hold of large parts of Pakistan’s polity, there are serious doubts whether Pakistan’s nuclear warheads are safe from falling into jihadi hands.

“As long as the warheads are under the custody of the Pakistan army, such reservations are misplaced. However, in case there is ever a successful coup led by radical extremists with the support of disgruntled elements in the Pakistan army, or a colonels’ coup, it will be necessary to either capture the nuclear warheads or bomb the suspected nuclear storage sites to render the warheads ineffective.” More here…

Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper writes: “The correct position convincingly stated by scientist Pervez Hoodbhoy and human rights activists (call them pacifists if you like) is that nuclear weapons, in our situation, are not an asset as is generally said but a liability.

“Hillary Clinton’s declaration that a nuclear Pakistan is a ‘mortal threat to international security’ leaves one wondering whether one day, if the Taliban are not exterminated, America will intervene militarily to save the weapons from falling into their hands.

“After all the Americans keep firing missiles at the Taliban’s suspected hideouts in Pakistan but our army cannot, or does not want to, stop them. And our political leaders keep protesting only for the record.”

Meanwhile an American think tank says: “Pakistan’s military establishment remains focused on conventional conflict with its neighbor India, and cooperation between civilian and military leaders on counterterrorism action remains mixed, despite increasing domestic anxiety about the actions of militants in the country’s northwest.”

Here’s my earlier post on why USA overlooks Pakistan’s nuclear plans…See here…