KABUL, Afghanistan — Pakistan
is not just one of nine countries with nuclear weapons, it is also a
hotbed of global jihadism, where the military and the intelligence
services use terrorist networks to advance their regional goals. And
even as Pakistani officials proclaim that their nuclear assets are
secure, evidence, including internal Pakistani documents, suggests that
they know better.
Having
served in senior roles in Afghanistan’s intelligence services, I have
good reason to be skeptical about Pakistan’s ability to keep its nuclear
weapons safe from extremists.
The
international community, working with the United Nations Atomic Energy
Agency or the United Nations Security Council, must take action to
prevent a global catastrophe before it is too late. Pakistan is believed
to have the fifth-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, larger than
Britain’s. It also has an established history of giving nuclear
technology to countries like Iran and North Korea. As the Trump
administration begins developing its policies toward Pakistan and toward
nuclear nonproliferation, it should make Pakistan a top priority.
Pakistanis
with the most knowledge of the country’s nuclear program are among the
most worried. On Dec. 16, 2014, the Taliban launched a deadly attack
on an army-run school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. Afterward,
Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission sent an urgent letter to the
director general of the Strategic Plans Division, which is responsible
for securing Pakistan’s nuclear assets, expressing concern. The Atomic
Energy Commission requested that the military devote more resources to
ensuring that the personnel with knowledge of the nuclear program are
monitored. This letter, which has been kept secret until now, reveals
just how concerned some Pakistani officials are — and how worried the
rest of the world should be.
The
Atomic Energy Commission is not the only group sounding alarms about
the role of extremists inside Pakistan. In early 2014, the ministry of
interior issued a policy paper called the National Internal Security Policy 2014-2018,
a classified document that outlined the government’s security
priorities. It warns that Pakistan is home to hundreds of terrorist and
extremist groups, and points out that many of them are operational in
all four provinces of Pakistan, including in the areas in Punjab near
some of Pakistan’s nuclear facilities. This document also raises
concerns over the growing influence of certain terrorist groups, in
particular Lashkar-e-Taiba, inside the Pakistan Army and intelligence
agencies, and within the families of senior and midlevel military
officers.
Despite all of this, the Pakistani authorities continue to insist in public that their nuclear assets are safe. As a senior official told The Atlantic magazine in 2011,
“Of all the things in the world to worry about, the issue you should
worry about the least is the safety of our nuclear program.” When
Pakistani officials came to Washington for a nuclear security summit
last spring, they affirmed in the broadest terms
their country’s commitment to nuclear security from “the entire
spectrum of threats” — playing down terrorism specifically, or the fact
that Pakistan represents a particular threat.
The
Pakistanis say they are confident in the Strategic Plans Division’s
professionalism. And the division claims to have strong systems in place
to screen personnel for integrity, weeding out those who have dangerous
political, ethnic or religious affiliations. They also report that
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are de-mated, meaning the warheads are
separated from their delivery mechanisms. But even if this is true, it
doesn’t mean that all nuclear material is safe. There are reports that Pakistan is building
tactical nuclear weapons, smaller arms that are easier to use on the
battlefield. It is unclear how the Strategic Plans Division intends to
secure them.
Instead
of asking for help dealing with these vulnerabilities, the Pakistani
Army and intelligence community close themselves off. They fear that the
United States is trying to seize their nuclear weapons and say that the
West refuses to allow a Muslim country to have access to the world’s
most powerful weapons, a line often repeated by extremists.
Pakistan
should instead be asking for help keeping its nuclear weapons out of
terrorists’ hands. But until that happens, the United Nations Security
Council — and the United States, an ally of Pakistan’s — should step in.
First,
Pakistan must be forced to stop playing a double game, supporting
extremist groups while publicly proclaiming that it is fighting
terrorism. Second, the government in Islamabad should welcome the help
of the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency in securing nuclear assets.
Government agencies inside Pakistan have admitted that the country’s
nuclear assets are in danger. The rest of the world should take heed and
try to protect them before it’s too late.
