Specter Of Black Market Transfers Amidst Chaos Send Pak Nuke Fears Soaring
LONDON, Dec 28 (AFP) Dec 28, 2007
Experts in Britain claimed on Friday it is likely that extremists will get their hands on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Some analysts have raised fears that instability following Bhutto’s killing Thursday could lead to unrest which would open the door for weapons to fall into the wrong hands.
Professor Paul Wilkinson, chairman of Saint Andrews University’s Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, said that Western nations “really ought to be concerned” about this “nightmare scenario”.
“We could have a situation where extremists were able to control the nuclear facilities of Pakistan,” he said.
“That would be a very dangerous, nightmare scenario and one that we really ought to be concerned about.”
But Christian Le Miere, managing editor of Jane’s security journal Country Risk, said that Pakistan’s nuclear capacity “remains strongly in the hands of the military”.
He suggested that Bhutto’s death would not seriously affect this.
“The issue is cash — if a scientist or…a group of scientists decide that their income is too low, they could go on the black market to offer material, that’s the main danger,” he said.
“They have still scientists out there that could pass information to the black market or hand over nuclear material to a state, in order to supplement their income.”
He predicted that the military would step up security around facilities in the wake of Bhutto’s death.
The former prime minister was killed in Rawalpindi and was buried alongside her father in southern Pakistan on Friday.
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:lol:….”remains strongly in the hands of the military”. That my friends doesn’t give me any warm fuzzies. These guys are so in bed with the Taliban that the family lineage crosses back and forth with reckless abandon. I keep having to remind myself that the Paki’s are our allies - so are the Saudi’s….makes ya wonder doesn’t it? Does anybody else see the dark future in all of this or is it just me (and that pesky little yellow man in my head)?
December 30th, 2007 at 4:38 pm