Musharraf warns on nuke weapons
November 17th, 2007 . by TexasFredLONDON - President Pervez Musharraf, defending his decision to declare emergency rule, has said Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands if elections led to disturbances.
The comments, in a BBC interview broadcast on Saturday, come as U.S. envoy John Negroponte visited Pakistan to put pressure on Musharraf to revoke the two-week-old emergency, make peace with opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and hold fair elections.
Musharraf said that if elections were held in a “disturbed environment,†it could bring in dangerous elements who might pose a risk to control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
“They cannot fall into the wrong hands, if we manage ourselves politically. The military is there — as long as the military is there, nothing happens to the strategic assets, we are in charge and nobody does anything with them,†he said.
Musharraf, who took power in a coup eight years ago, cited rising Islamist militancy and a hostile judiciary as reasons for declaring emergency rule. He has said a general election will be held before January 9 and he expects to step down as army chief and be sworn in as a civilian president beforehand.
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Musharraf warns on nuke weapons
I don’t want to get into the politics of Pakistan, it’s an area of global politics where I have little knowledge and I won’t make a fool of myself by trying to claim I do…
I don’t know the difference between Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto and their political ideologies, their religious beliefs, their morals, or lack of, nor do I have any idea what’s in the hearts or minds of either individual as far as Pakistan or the world itself is concerned, but I do know this, Pakistan has nukes…
I also have my own personal theory as to why there has been a sudden lessening of violence in Iraq, I feel that every moonbat Islamic terrorist in the world it literally drooling at the prospect of Pakistan falling into some sort of disarray bordering on total anarchy thus allowing them the opportunity to possibly take possession OF at least a few OF those nukes…
Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is protected by Pakistani soldiers, poorly trained and poorly paid soldiers, I do know that much about Pakistani practices, and soldiers either fight, and sometimes die for one of 2 things, a love of country and cause, or money, the terrorist/insurgent fights for a cause and in most cases lately, that cause has been radical Islam, not money, not nation, a cause, one that has consumed millions upon millions of Muslims world wide, and their ultimate prize would be to take possession of nuclear weapons, where better to do so than a nation in the midst of political upheaval and turmoil, a nation such as Pakistan…
In my opinion, Pakistan, specifically their nuclear arsenal, and it’s security, present the biggest threat faced by us today, Iraq doesn’t have WMDs or nukes, Iran and Syria, while still terrorist nations, don’t have nukes, they are likely in an active campaign to secure nukes but at this time they don’t have them, Pakistan does and the security of those weapons is paramount to ALL else in Pakistan today…
I don’t know if either Musharraf or Bhutto have any concern for the rest of the world or if they comprehend the danger that this dust up presents to the free world, but if Islamic terrorists are allowed to get their hands on nuclear weapons the entire world is in danger and the Global War on Terror just took a hard left turn…
I don’t know what, if anything, we can do legally, morally or ethically, but Pakistan presents 100 times more of a threat to global security than Iraq ever did, and Bush didn’t hesitate to wade in to Iraq, maybe we need to get Musharraf to make some sort of reasonable threat against Daddy Bush, that should be enough to get us involved I would think…
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What I would like to know is how Pakistan got Nukes in the first place?
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program was established in 1972 by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who founded the program while he was Minister for Fuel, Power and Natural Resources, and later became President and Prime Minister. Shortly after the loss of East Pakistan in the 1971 war with India, Bhutto initiated the program with a meeting of physicists and engineers at Multan in January 1972.
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I wrote about this two weeks ago when the Pakistani disturbances began. If Musharaf falls, then falls command and control on a nuclear arsenal. India had its first nuclear tests in 1975; Pakistan in 1998. India has had that much time to refine its command, control and strategy; Pakistan has not. India made much noise following those tests but there wasn’t much to be done at the time, absent complaints to the UN — and we all know how effective those can be. Pakistan is indeed in a precarious position, as is Musharaf. Some were advocating entry into Pakistan but that would be improper. Musharaf, despite his actions, is the ONLY stabilizing entity in that entire nation. This is also one of the primary reasons we have NOT acquired OBL as, had we done so, made entry any number of miles onto sovereign Pakistani territory, elements of the US government feared that the subsequent revolt from Islamic strongholds within the government could have toppled Musharaf himself — despite those as-yet-unsuccessful attempts on his life. Most people don’t remember, but in 1996 her government provided military and financial support to the Taliban, going so far as to send a very small unit of the Pakistani army into Afghanistan.
She was Pakistani PM in 1988 — and there were subsequent dismissals, power plays, corruption, and she was re-elected in 1993 but that government was dissolved in 1996.
She has since come back from exile in Dubai, and is now calling for free elections in Pakistan. Musharaf his shut down most everything and taken control of most everything that he can. He is, quite frankly, doing his best to stem the Islamic tide because that is what he is facing.
His problem and our problem: if there were “open and democratic elections” held today, all of Pakistan would fall under Islamist control — to include the Taliban, AQ and all of its minions. Musharaf — call his means despicable, whatever — knows that if he falls, his country falls.
And whoever takes control of the Pakistani government, takes control of its nuclear arsenal.
The problem of Iran, as you point out, pales in comparison to this current threat.
BZ
Sorry; carried away. “She” is Benazir Bhutto.
BZ