Islamabad turbulence's nuclear shadow worries Washington

Washington: In striking ways, this is America's deepest worry: an Islamic nation in the world's most unstable region, home to Al Qaida's global headquarters, engaged in a shooting war with insurgents and radical terrorists, now beset with escalating political turmoil - and, at the centre of it all, an arsenal of nuclear bombs.

Pakistan's growing turbulence is raising fears that Al Qaida and allied Islamist extremist groups, which have had deep roots inside Pakistan's intelligence services, will renew their determination to acquire a nuclear device, or that control of Pakistan's prized nuclear arsenal could be seized as a bargaining tool by a political faction.

"We will watch it quite closely," said Army Lt Gen Carter F. Ham, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Wednesday. Pakistan's estimated arsenal of between 45 and 60 nuclear weapons is controlled by a 10-man National Command Authority headed by Musharraf, said Pakistani Brig Gen Naeem Salik, who retired two years ago as a senior officer within the NCA.

Salik, a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, scoffed at the idea that the political crisis threatened the security of the nuclear arsenal.

The White House on Wednesday declined to comment on Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Military experts said US options to intervene, if Pakistan's nuclear weapons are threatened or missing, are limited.

In the midst of this turmoil, US officials and private analysts acknowledged that not much is known about the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, built since Pakistan first tested a nuclear device in 1998.

The nuclear warheads are separated or "de-mated" from the missiles or bomb casings that would carry them in an attack, said Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, and may be stored in bunkers or a tunnel at the Sargodha air base and weapons complex west of Lahore near the Indian border. At present, each Pakistani warhead is fitted with a "permissive action link" (PAL), a code-lock device which prevents unauthorised release of the weapon, Salik said.

In addition, Pakistan has a separate 10,000-strong security force for its nuclear facilities, commanded by a two-star general. But Salik stressed that Pakistan has not accepted American technical advice on PALs or any other aspect of its nuclear programm.