Pakistan's Nukes And Other Concerns

What a swamp this is: via CNN --

U.S. military intelligence officials are urgently assessing how secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons would be in the event President Gen. Pervez Musharraf were replaced as the nation's leader, CNN has learned.

Bill Roggio goes into the region's on going issues in more detail, including the Nuke situation. Evidently the Taliban have emptied several training camps. That poses concerns along several fronts, including - who's minding the Nukes? Were it not for those inconvenient little peccadillos we call being rational and humane, there's a good case for removing the blemish of Pakistan, or at least its Tribal Area from the map. What would Ahmadinejad do?

The emptying of the camps is a cause for great concern in the military and intelligence communities. "We don't know where they went to or who was in the camps," the military officer told The Fourth Rail.. "They are well trained, these aren't your entry level jihadis. They are dangerous."

Comments

[Purple Avenger]

I don't suppose its too forward to ask why those camps weren't flattened prior to this exodus?

[Capitalist Infidel]

That's a relief, at least Obama won't invade now...

[Captain Joe]

I suspect there is contingency planning for the destruction of the nukes by US forces in the event of the removal of Musharaff, perhaps even before his removal.

[mensablonde]

According to WorldNetDaily.com, via JihadWatch.com: the camps emptied out after the U.S. shared intelligence regarding the camps with Pakistan.

"Information regarding the location of 29 Taliban bases, ID'd by U.S. intelligence and shared with Pakistan, has lost its targeting value for Islamabad's promised offensive against the militant group with the apparent evacuation of 28 of the training camps along the country's northern border with Afghanistan.
The U.S. presented Pakistan with a dossier meticulously detailing the bases' locations in the tribal areas of North Waziristan and South Waziristan, but, according to a report by Asia Times, the camps 'have simply fallen off the radar.' Neither the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led coalition in Afghanistan nor Pakistan intelligence have detected any movement in the camps since early this month."

hmmm.

[JLawson]

Purple Avenger -

I can think of a number of reasons why the camps weren't hit.

Pakistan's a soverign country with which we are NOT at war. It would be very impolite to flatten areas of a country we're not at war with.

If we were to flatten said camps, regardless of how impolite it would be, the left would be screaming for Bush's head on a platter... even more so than they are now.

If we were to have gone to the Pakistan government for permission to flatten said camps, (and for all that's been reported, that might have been in process) we could expect a significant delay in getting permission. Certainly a number of people in Pakistan's government would be more than happy to tip off the folks in the camps, ensuring the targets would be deserted.

But you know what'd be really wierd? (And I don't expect this, I'm just tossing it up.) What if the folks in the camp had good internet access? They could see for themselves that the tolerance, the 'welcome' of their brand of 'liberation' was pretty well gone in Iraq, and a whole lot of their Muslim brethren were sick and tired of being targets for their homicidal tendencies. They could tell, at their levels, that being 'liberators' in Iraq (or wherever else they might get sent) was the rough equivalent of wearing a red shirt in a Star Trek episode. They were going to get killed, and for no good jihad effect. After talking it over - the collective decision was 'Sod this - it's not worth it' - they killed and buried their controllers, and decamped back to Uncle Abdul's Goat Market

Don't think it happened - but wouldn't it be sweet if it did?

[mensablonde]

My understanding was that Pakistan had promised to mount an offensive against the camps, and the US provided intel to facilitate that offensive.

Are the camps now empty because they were tipped off to a coming offensive by Pakistan (unlikely, in my opinion, as I don't think Musharaff has the necessary support within his own country/government to go after the Taliban)? Or because they want to deprive the US of a retaliatory target in response to some upcoming attack on us?

[Rich Casebolt]

Jlawson ... I agree. Unlikely, but sweet.

It would also be a heckuva piece of disinformation to spread ... in the hope that the jihadis would expose themselves to disprove the idea that their cause has been weighed by their fellow warriors ... and found wanting.