By Sean Maroney Islamabad13 November 2009
Pakistani security officials say two suicide car bombings killed at least 16 people and wounded scores of others in northwestern Pakistan on Friday. The attacks come as U.S. National Security Advisor Jim Jones is in the country for meetings with civilian and military leaders.
The first attack early Friday morning targeted the regional headquarters of Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), which is overseeing the anti-militancy campaign in the country's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan....
The goal is to achieve stability in this region of the world. Pakistan is a nuclear country. Non-proliferation needs to be a mandate in countries burdened with extremist regimes within their borders. The nuclear capacity of Pakistan is a direct threat to its sovereignty and a reason the Taliban and/or al Qaeda won't stop their assaults.
ISIS Technical Assessment: Pakistan's Stock of Weapon-Grade Uranium (click here)
byDavid Albright, PresidentKevin O'Neill, Deputy Director
June 1, 1998
On May 28 and May 30, 1998 Pakistan conducted up to six nuclear tests. A Pakistani government statement said that the nuclear test devices contained "uranium-235," commonly referred to as "weapon-grade uranium" (WGU; uranium enriched to 90 percent or more of uranium-235). The statement said that this uranium was produced at the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), called the Kahuta facility, near Islamabad. While Pakistan's tests remove any doubt about its ability to produce nuclear weapons, significant uncertainties surround estimates of Pakistan's WGU stockpile....
From an edition of "Meet the Press" in September of this year.
...MR. GREGORY: Let, let me go through a few other hot-button issues (click here) in our remaining moments. In Pakistan an important al-Qaeda figure, a Mehsud, who was the head of Pakistan's al-Qaeda leadership, reportedly killed. Are you able to confirm that today?
GEN. JONES: I wish I could, to be honest with you totally. We think so. We, we put it in the 90 percent category, if you want. But Pakistan has confirmed it. We know there are some reports now from the Mehsud tribe that, that he wasn't. But the evidence is pretty conclusive.
MR. GREGORY: What, what does it mean to the United States' security?
GEN. JONES: Well, I think it's a--this is a big deal. And, and it's not only--by the way, it's not only happening in this part of the world, it's happening in other parts of the world as well with some--with a gradual coming together by the family of nations to reject terrorism as something that's acceptable. In terms of the region, it means that the Pakistani armed forces and the Pakistani government are doing quite well in terms of their fight against extremism. This was--Baitullah Mehsud was the public enemy number one in, in, in Pakistan, so it's their, their biggest target. And we've already seen evidence of dissension in the ranks about who's, who's going to follow him. This is--if this is--if this happened, and we think it did, this was a good thing.
MR. GREGORY: Is it still your belief that Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan?
GEN. JONES: That one's a little bit more elusive. We are still very much on the hunt. We think that he's still in that general region. But that's a, that's a tougher nut to crack....
ISIS warns of Pakistan's latest nuclear drive (click here)
Wed, 20 May 2009 00:42:48 GMT
A US arms control institute has warned that Pakistan's nuclear weapons programs could threaten the region.
"Pakistan is indeed progressing in a strategic plan to improve the destructiveness and deliverability of its nuclear arsenal," the Institute for Science and International Security said.
The institute released satellite photos on Tuesday that showed the expansion of a chemical plant complex near Dera Ghazi Khan.
The plant produces uranium hexafluoride and uranium metal, materials used to produce nuclear weapons, the ISIS report said....
