Sec. Clinton assured Pakistan's nukes are safe

Visiting London on a swing through Europe, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted on October 11 her concern that Taliban insurgents in Pakistan are a growing threat to the South Asian country but denied that they are a risk to the its nuclear arsenal. Echoing her British counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Secretary Clinton dismissed fears that Pakistan’s nukes could fall into the hands of Islamic militants despite a bold attack on the army headquarters at Rawalpindi.

Secretary Clinton admitted in a press conference that Islamic militants were "increasingly threatening the authority of the state, but we see no evidence that they are going to take over the state. We have confidence in the Pakistani government and military's control over nuclear weapons." Miliband echoed Clinton’s public assurances.

The attack at Rawalpindi evidenced increasingly bold attacks on both military and political targets over recent months. On October 10, Taliban insurgents dressed in military clothing attacked the HQ and took dozens of hostages. One of the insurgents wore a bomb vest and threatened to detonate, killing hostages at the military installation. Pakistani special forces and police surrounded the facility, ending the stand-off after 22 hours on October 11 when a squad of special forces seized the building. Three captives and eight insurgents were killed, as were at least 8 Pakistani military and security forces. Pakistani security forces were able to kill the homicide bomber before he could detonate his deadly device.

That there was prior warning of the attack has sent shivers through Pakistan’s security apparatus. Also, the brains behind the attacks was Muhammad Aqeel, a former soldier also known as “Dr. Usman” since he one worked in the Pakistani Army Medical Corp before leaving in 2005. He is believed to be a member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda.

Aqeel led a terrorist operation against the cricket team of Sri Lanka following a match in Lahore in March 2009. He may have also been the mastermind of a homicide bombing in 2008 that killed Pakistan’s Surgeon General. Aqeel was captured on October 11 and is now under guard.

Following the deadly attack on the cricketers, investigators in Punjab issued a warning in July 2009 to Pakistani intelligence agencies that a similar attack was being planned for an army headquarters and even predicted that the insurgents would wear military uniforms and take hostages. On October 5, a national newspaper reprinted the warning on its pages.

Some observers of the skillfully planned attack opined that it showed that the insurgents had intimate knowledge of the headquarters at Rawalpindi. The terrorists managed to drive easily through the first check point on the way to the headquarters, but were fired upon at the second. The surviving four terrorists went directly on foot to the military intelligence building at the headquarters, near the main entrance. There three assailants took both military and civilian hostages to two rooms. Army Brigadier Anwar ul-Haq, director of security for military intelligence, was killed by the insurgents, as was another high-ranking military official.

The October 11 attack that fulfilled Punjabi police prognostications drove deeply into the Punjab region, having gone afield of the Northwest Frontier Province where the Taliban had been previously confined. There is promise that the Pakistani military will take the fight to Southern Waziristan – a redoubt of the Taliban – since Pakistan will soon receive some $1.5 billion in U.S. aid. Nonetheless, Secretary Clinton intoned that the United States retains “confidence in the Pakistani government.”