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Leading US investigative journalist and Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh has created a stir by stating that Washington is working on a clandestine program to secure Pakistan’s nuclear installations. Pakistan has reacted angrily to the assertion made by Hersh in the latest issue of `The New Yorker’. The widely respected journalist is known for having sources in most wings of the US establishment, including Pentagon from where he claims to have acquired the lead on Pakistan’s nuclear assets.
The information may not be easy to dismiss as Hersh points to the fear that extremists in Pakistan’s military establishment – even apart from the threat of a Taliban takeover – might grab control of some of the nuclear facilities in the country. He states in his article that Washington has been “negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military’‘ to prevent such a scenario. “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 General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistan Army chief, has long desired,’‘ he states, adding that the secrecy surrounding the understanding was because of growing antipathy for the US in Pakistan.
Hersh goes on to state that the ongoing consultation on nuclear security between Washington and Islamabad intensified after the announcement in March of President Obama’s “so-called Af-Pak policy’‘ which called upon the Pakistan Army to take more aggressive action against Taliban enclaves inside Pakistan. A Pakistan official close to President Asif Zardari with whom Hersh spoke is said to have reacted angrily to the US interest in Pakistan’s arsenal saying that even if there was a military coup, nobody would give up the control on nuclear weapons.
This official, according to Hersh, wondered why the US was not worried about India’s arsenal. “Because India is your friend, and the longtime policies of America and India converge. Between you and the Indians, you will `f…’ 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,’‘ the official said. Pakistan on Monday dismissed the report saying that it was “nothing more than a concoction to tarnish the image of Pakistan and create misgivings among its people’‘.
