'Atlantic Media' the laughing stock of USA

[Areff]

Pakistan Army’s Rebuttal: US Media Report a Mere Laughing Stock

Submitted by Aurangzeb on November 6, 2011 – 3:14 am



ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Friday dubbed a US media report regarding safety and security of its nuclear assets as a mere laughingstock, saying it was handiwork of the same lobby that wants to establish Pakistan as an irresponsible state.

“This a not the US monolithic view. It is work of some lobbies struggling to prove Pakistan as an irresponsible state,” knowledgeable sources in Pakistan’s military told TheNation requesting not to be named.

Laughing at the report published by a US magazine The Atlantic Wire, ‘Pakistan transports its nukes in everyday vans’, sources noted that after acknowledgement by senior US officials that safety and security of Pakistani nuclear assets is no more an issue, such media reports are worthless to comment upon. Castigating the report as a mere fabrication they thought Pakistan’s nuclear programme was the safest in the world.


“Look at the Indian nuclear programme in our neighbourhood, for example, that has gone through hundred of recorded major incidents so far,” the sources said. They were of the view that Pakistan always transported its nuclear assets in parts rather than in any mated form as alleged by the US magazine in the report.

There was no official input immediately available from the ISPR.

However, former Chief of Army Staff Gen (Retd) Mirza Aslam Beg described the report a pack of lies. “This is absolutely nonsense. This propaganda has long history. Some groups in the US create a fake news and then try to justify it by taking reaction from the irrelevant people,” former COAS Pakistan who has deep knowledge about Pakistan’s nuclear programme maintained.

“It’s non of their business. We know very well how to secure and move our assets”, he retorted. He noted that there have been many nuclear related incidents in the world, but Pakistan had none.

“They better look into those vulnerable programmes as well as risks attached to the transportation of fissile nuclear materials around the globe”, he added.

Former Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt.gen (retd) Hamid Gul said while sharing his insight into how safest Pakistan’s nuclear assets are.

He said Indian nuclear programme had gone through 153 major mishaps, but none of the lobbies in the US had ever raised any concern.

He said Pakistan’s nuclear programme is a defensive in nature and most safe and secured in the world.

“ These people should not worry about our nuclear assets. These are our assets and Pakistan is free to move them anywhere”, he quipped. According to The Atlantic’s new cover story, Pakistan transports its nuclear assets in civilian-style vans through busy traffic.

Source: The Nation

[Areff]

The Ally From Hell

Submitted by Aurangzeb on November 6, 2011 – 3:17 pm




by SM Hali

The “Atlantic” magazine, in its article with the same title as above carried in the December 2011 issue has attacked Pakistan and its nuclear program tooth and nail. However, the authors of the article, Jeffrey Goldberg and Marc Ambinder, who claim to have put in six months of research, have apparently never set foot in Pakistan and concocted their fabrication from the comfort of their arm chairs. The leader of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), the custodians of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and the secretariat of neither the Nuclear Command Authority, nor its mid-ranking officers have ever heard the names of these scribes, let alone talking to them. It was rather surprising, since the SPD is fairly transparent in interacting with both the national and international media.

The fictional scenario of the Pakistan Army Chief calling up Lieutenant General Khalid Kidwai (Retd.), the Director General of SPD in the aftermath of the May 02 attack on Abbottabad to eliminate Osama, perhaps is meant to lend credence to the 10,000 words fairy tale conjured with malicious intent and malign Pakistan and its nuclear assets. The tirade is so full of holes and self contradiction that it is surprising how a journal of the repute of “Atlantic” lent space to it, unless it too is part of a more sinister and macabre propaganda. It commences with the preamble that Pakistan is an “unstable and violent country located at the epicenter of global jihadism”. That much is correct although we need not go into the discussion that the violence and instability has been caused by the US itself, by interfering in Pakistan’s domestic politics and its involvement in the war on terror at the behest of the US. In the same article, the authors respectfully acknowledge the professionalism of the Pakistan Army as well as the SPD, even quoting erudite scholars, yet they contradict themselves by claiming the SPD transports nuclear warheads in public transports. What could be more ridiculous than that? They claim that the SPD tries to hide the warheads from USA and not the terrorists. If that were true, the US would by now have taken action towards it or the terrorists stolen a nuke or two. Although it is extremely amateurish to imagine that a ragtag militia would be able to put together a sophisticated nuclear device and explode it by simply pilfering a warhead.

To provide essence to the flavor of bigotry and deceit, the authors take the instance of the attacks on a bus carrying PAF personnel at Sargodha, another at a naval installation at Karachi and at the gates of Pakistan’s Ordnance Factory at Wah as targeting nuclear installations. Since neither the authors and for that matter, the CIA or State Department know the location of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal what to say of the number of warheads it possesses, (the authors quote General James Jones, former National Security Adviser to Obama as expressing no knowledge of the location of Pakistan’s nukes) it is preposterous to imply that the frequent attacks by the terrorist organizations on Pakistan’s armed forces personnel as retaliation for the successful operations by Pakistan Army to eradicate terrorism, as attacks on nuclear installations. The authors have even taken pains to publish a map indicating the supposed locations of Pakistan’s nuclear warheads. It must be relief for the custodians of the nukes to see how widely off mark they appear to be.

In fact if the Abbottabad incident left any aftereffects, it must have been to analyze, augment security procedures and plug the gaps that were exposed in its aftermath. One swallow does not make a summer; hence the detractors of Pakistan’s nukes should give up the Walter Mittyish scenario being presented of nabbing and grabbing Pakistan’s nukes and failing that, maligning their custodians. In fact the authors have presented a factual comment about the US being “the ally from hell” and in the words of the authors, “with a friend like this, who needs enemies?”

Source: Opinion Maker