If you're looking for excitement and don't have much to worry about, here's a free panic attack. Seymour Hersh has been exploring the issue of the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear complex. Here are a couple of excerpts from his latest article.
... Obama didn't say so, but current and former officials said in interviews in Washington and Pakistan that his Administration has been negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military. These would allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis. At the same time, the Pakistani military would be given money to equip and train Pakistani soldiers and to improve their housing and facilities -- goals that Askfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of the Pakistan army, has long desired. In June, Congress approved a four-hundred-million dollar-request for what the Administration called the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund, providing immediate assistance to the Pakistan Army for equipment and training and "renovation and construction."
The secrecy surrounding the understandings was important because there is a growing antipathy toward America in Pakistan, as well as a history of distrust. Many Pakistanis believe that America's true goal is not to keep their weapons safe but to diminish of destroy the Pakistani nuclear complex. ... A senior Pakistani official with close ties to [President Asif Ali][ Zardari exploded with anger during an interview when the subject turned to American demands for more information about the arsenal. After the September 11th attacks, he said, there had been an understanding between the Bush Administration and then President Pervez Musharraf “over what Pakistan had and did not have.” Today, he said, “you’d like control of our day-to-day deployment. But why should we give it to you? Even if there was a military coup d’état in Pakistan, no one is going to give up total control of our nuclear weapons. Never. Why are you not afraid of India’s nuclear weapons?” the official asked. “Because India is your friend, and the longtime policies of America and India converge. Between you and the Indians, you will fuck us in every way. The truth is that our weapons are less of a problem for the Obama Administration than finding a respectable way out of Afghanistan.”. ...
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... A senior Obama Administration official brought up Hizb ut-Tahrir, a Sunni organization whose goal is to establish the Caliphate. “They’ve penetrated the Pakistani military and now have cells in the Army,” he said. (The Pakistan Army denies this.) In one case, according to the official, Hizb ut-Tahrir had recruited members of a junior officer group, from the most élite Pakistani military academy, who had been sent to England for additional training.
“Where do these guys get socialized and exposed to Islamic evangelism and the fundamentalism narrative?” the Obama Administration official asked. “In services every Friday for Army officers, and at corps and unit meetings where they are addressed by senior commanders and clerics.” ... excerpts from a Seymour Hersh article in the 11/16 New Yorker
