Taliban Say They Won't Hit Nuclear Arsenal

WSJ, MAY 26, 2011
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG And OWAIS TOHID
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303654804576345331283515312.html#printMode

ISLAMABAD—The Taliban has no plans to attack Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, its spokesman declared, as the militants kept up their campaign to avenge Osama bin Laden's death, ramming a pickup truck laden with explosives into a police station and killing six people.

A larger assault earlier this week by the Pakistan Taliban on a naval base renewed fears that Pakistan's sizable nuclear arsenal could be vulnerable. The Taliban's spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, dismissed those concerns Wednesday as America's "excuse" to pressure Pakistan's government into fighting the Taliban, who he portrayed as the country's true protectors.

"Pakistan is the only Muslim nuclear-power state," Mr. Ehsan said in a telephone interview, adding that the Taliban had no intention of changing that fact. The Taliban, after all, aim to take over Pakistan and its weapons.

He then mocked Pakistan's willingness to work with the U.S., saying, "isn't it a shame for us to have the Islamic bomb, and even then we are bowing down to the pressures of America?"

While the brutality of the Pakistan Taliban has alienated them from most Pakistanis, Mr. Ehsan's anti-American sentiments are shared by many people here.

The long-questioned alliance with the U.S. has come under increased scrutiny following the raid this month that killed bin Laden. The U.S. raid was seen by most here as a violation of national sovereignty by an unfaithful ally.

Mr. Ehsan's remarks appeared tailored to appeal to that increasingly nationalist mainstream, where conspiracy theories flourish about American, Indian and Israeli plots to deprive Pakistan of its atomic arsenal. Pakistan's nuclear capability is cherished here as the guarantor of safety from India's far larger conventional military.

The Pakistan Taliban, an offshoot of the Afghan insurgent movement, have repeatedly tried to win public support by presenting themselves as a defender of Pakistan, though their attacks have killed thousands of Pakistanis. Following the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai by Pakistani militants and the resulting spike in tensions with archrival India, the Taliban offered to fight alongside Pakistan's army in the event of war.

Still, it was impossible to judge the sincerity of Mr. Ehsan's declaration regarding Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Even if the Pakistan Taliban has no designs on the arms, there are myriad Islamist groups in Pakistan, including al Qaeda, that are believed to have interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.

Pakistan says its nuclear arsenal, which is believed to include about 100 warheads, is safe. Officials say facilities that store the weapons are well guarded, and that rigorous checks screen out political and religious extremists from the nuclear program.

But U.S. and other Western officials have raised doubts about those guarantees in part because they have little visibility into Pakistan's nuclear program. Their access is limited by the military, which fears both allies and enemies ultimately aim to take the weapons away.

One of army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani's first thoughts upon hearing a helicopter had crashed the night bin Laden was killed was that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal was under attack, according to people familiar with his thinking. The helicopter turned out to be one of the U.S. choppers involved in the raid.

Adding to concerns about Pakistan's nuclear program is the Taliban's proven ability to penetrate high-security areas, such as the naval air station it attacked Sunday in the Arabian Sea port of Karachi, the country largest city. A base storing atomic weapons is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the air station.

It took hundreds of navy commandos and marines and paramilitary soldiers more than 15 hours to clear the navy base in Karachi. Ten people were killed and a pair of American made maritime surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft, each priced at $36 million, were destroyed.

The navy said Wednesday the base's commander had been relieved.

Wednesday's attack, the fourth since bin Laden's death, leveled a police station in the northwestern city of Peshawar. The station is used in part to interrogate militants, though none were inside at the time, said police chief Liaquat Ali Khan.

The pickup truck used in the attack was carrying at least 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of explosives, said Bashir Bilour, a senior official in the province where Peshawar is located, according to the Associated Press.

Mr. Ehsan, the Taliban spokesman, said the attack was a "continuation of our recent attacks to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden."