Insiders a threat to Pakistan's nukes...

Someone on the inside could post a major threat...

Pakistan’s nuclear assets face threats from three quarters, the most important being the growing extremism in the country, increasing “the odds of insiders in the nuclear establishment collaborating with outsiders to access weapons, materials, or facilities”, says a new report in ‘Arms Control Today’.

The second is that the “rapid expansion of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme will introduce new vulnerabilities into the security system. Finally, growing instability within the country could lead to unanticipated challenges to nuclear command and control procedures, resulting in a ‘loose nuke’ scenario, a takeover of a facility by outsiders, or, in the worst case, a coup leading to Taliban control over the arsenal.”

Despite repeated reassurances from the Pakistan top brass that its nuclear weapons are safe, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, former CIA official and head of counter-intelligence at the department of energy of US government, says in a sobering article, “All signs indicate that the professional and disciplined Pakistani military establishment that maintains control over the nuclear arsenal understands the dangers of a breakdown in nuclear security.”

But despite this, Larssen argues, the greatest threat to the nuclear assets in Pakistan “stems from insiders in the nuclear establishment working with outsiders.