Pakistan says nuclear controls are firmly in place

[bananas]

Source: Washington Post

Pakistan on Tuesday described its nuclear policy as one of “restraint and responsibility” and declared that it has a well-established regime of controls to “ensure the safety and security” of its nuclear facilities.

The statement from the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad was issued in response to a report in Tuesday’s Washington Post that documented growing U.S. concerns regarding Pakistan’s nuclear safeguards and security agencies.

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Pakistan’s statement did not comment specifically on the pattern of mistrust between Washington and Islamabad that was described in the Post report, which was based on secret budget documents provided to the newspaper by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

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Pakistani media outlets seized on information in the Post report about alleged extra-judicial killings of suspected Islamist militants by Pakistani security forces and on the reasons U.S. officials did not publicly reveal or act on those concerns.

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Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pakistan-says-nuclear-controls-are-firmly-in-place/2013/09/03/75f96120-148e-11e3-b220-2c950c7f3263_story.html

[bananas]

1. Top-secret U.S. intelligence files show new levels of distrust of Pakistan

Here is the story Pakistan is responding to:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/top-secret-us-intelligence-files-show-new-levels-of-distrust-of-pakistan/2013/09/02/e19d03c2-11bf-11e3-b630-36617ca6640f_story.html

Top-secret U.S. intelligence files show new levels of distrust of Pakistan

By Greg Miller, Craig Whitlock and Barton Gellman

The $52.6 billion U.S. intelligence arsenal is aimed mainly at unambiguous adversaries, including al-Qaeda, North Korea and Iran. But top-secret budget documents reveal an equally intense focus on one purported ally: Pakistan.

No other nation draws as much scrutiny across so many categories of national security concern.

A 178-page summary of the U.S. intelligence community’s “black budget” shows that the United States has ramped up its surveillance of Pakistan’s nuclear arms, cites previously undisclosed concerns about biological and chemical sites there, and details efforts to assess the loyalties of counter­terrorism sources recruited by the CIA.

Pakistan appears at the top of charts listing critical U.S. intelligence gaps. It is named as a target of newly formed analytic cells. And fears about the security of its nuclear program are so pervasive that a budget section on containing the spread of illicit weapons divides the world into two categories: Pakistan and everybody else.

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[Mnemosyne]

2. K&R nt

[cosmicone]

3. Pakistan's nukes (all three of them) are gifts

from China and have Chinese lock codes. China controls Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.

[gordianot]

5. Never heard that before fascinating.

[cosmicone]

6. India carried out an underground nuclear test

in May 1998.

Pakistan had no nukes to immediately do a tit-for-tat test. In the ensuing weeks, Musharrf, Sharif and several top leaders went to China begging for some nuke fireworks so that the domestic population doesn't get unsettled.

China obliged and gave some nukes to Pakistan to carry out a test as a face-saving measure.

Pakistan is a paper tiger and not really a nuclear power. They cannot detonate a nuke without China's permission and assistance.

[tabasco]

4. Are they still looking for Osama Bin Laden?

Goodie gumdrops!