MSM: Pakistan has 60 N-warheads – US Congressional report
May 29th, 2009
Two weeks after Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the US Senate that Pakistan has been expanding its nuclear arsenal, a US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report released on Wednesday has estimated that Pakistan has 60 nuclear warheads. Previous estimates pegged the number of warheads at 80-100.
The report — Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation and Security Issues -– said: “Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal consists of approximately 60 nuclear warheads. It continues fissile material production for weapons, and is adding to its weapons production facilities and delivery vehicles.”
The report notes that India is clearly the only country Pakistan’s “minimum credible deterrent” is directed against.
Giving details of the nuclear warheads, the report said the weapons “use an implosion design with a solid core of highly enriched uranium (HEU), about 15-20 kg per warhead and Islamabad continues to produce about 100 kg of highly enriched uranium for weapons every year.”
Islamabad’s plans to add to its arsenal is exposed due to the expansion work – with help from China — of the Khushab plutonium production reactor, noted the report.
There is growing concern in the US and India over the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and growing suspicion that US aid ($3-billion military aid in 5 years and $7.5-billion civilian aid) might be siphoned off to feed Pakistan’s military, especially its military programme.
The New York Times had reported earlier that US has spent $100 million to protect Pakistan’s nuclear assets from falling into the hands of terrorists or their sympathisers. Another cause for concern is that these warheads are stored Buner and Swat in Pakistan – areas that are under the sway of the Taliban and other militant organisations.
Source: Business Standard
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May 30th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Does “Business Standard” expect us to be surprised by this “new” information? Anxious? Worried? Fearful? Petrified? Pakistan had these nukes yesterday, last month, last year, five years ago…but now, we are supposed to have apoplexy about it? And, INDIA who, if I remember, had us at least mildly quaking in our boots over the exact same issue just a few years ago, is now our only protection? We need to face facts: If someone is insane enough to use nukes, then there is NOTHING we can do about it. Invasion is the LAST thing we are supposed to do to deter actual nuclear war–remember that icy Cold-War logic?
Pakistan–or Russia, Iran, Iraq, Al Quaida, Afghanistan, bin Laden, India, Hussein, Korea, North and South, Castro, China, et cetera, ad nauseum, ad infinitum…have I left any out?–sets off WWIII, and me, I am going to be caught dead living a fear-free life.
Sakerfa, I am not bitching at you, because we need to know what the owners are saying, but I just MUST treat the powers the same way I do all pathological liars: disbelieve every word they say–on priniciple.
After living with the boy who cried wolf long enough, the village came to ignore the phantom warnings. However, this provided for an actual danger, not just an irritant, for wolves DO threaten flocks, and one DID devour the boy and his flock. So, as it turns out, the villagers were not precisely wise to merely ignore him, and leave it at that. If they had just had the forethought to find someone else to mind the sheep, they could have easily avoided the disaster. Thanks, sakerfa.