More on Pakistan's nukes...and the Taliban getting to them

Tim May tcmay at got.net
Sat Sep 22 09:03:23 PDT 2001


Apropos of what I was saying about India hitting Pakistan's nukes if it
looks like the fundamentalist Muslims will get to them, here's an
article I just saw, excerpted.

Adding to this report, I saw some Pakistani high school kids, in a
physics class (BTW, a physics class such as one might see at the Bronx
High School of Science, not your typical h.s.), explaining with great
enthusiasm that they were all planning to become "mujuhadeen" to
sacrifice themselves for the Jihad. This is what the West will be facing
over the next generation. Keep your powder dry.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001320010-2001324777,00.html

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20 2001
The nuclear threat
Pakistan could lose control of its arsenal
BY NIGEL HAWKES
West's worst scenario
A LEADING authority on Pakistans nuclear programme has given warning of
a nightmare scenario in which a destabilised Pakistan lost control of
its nuclear weapons to supporters of the Taleban.
...
Mr Perkovich said that Pakistan has about two to three dozen potential
nuclear weapons, all based on highly enriched uranium. Tests carried out
in 1998 demonstrated that they work. Pakistan also has medium-range
missiles capable of reaching targets in India, if no farther afield.

In normal times, they keep the warheads separate from the missiles, he
said, and the fissile uranium  the core of the weapon  is not kept in
the warhead, which consists of electronics and high explosives, but
doesnt have the fissile core in it. Its all dressed up and nowhere to
go.
...
The fissile core, about the size of a melon and weighing up to 66lb, can
be sub-divided into segments that can be stored separately. So the
entire weapon can be split into components that in themselves are
innocuous.
--end excerpt--


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