Grave concern over Pakistan nuclear weapons after attack

[Richmark Sentinel]

Associated Press ;

An audacious weekend assault by Islamic militants on Pakistan's army
headquarters is again raising fears of an insurgent attack on the
country's nuclear weapons installation.

Pakistan has sought to protect its nuclear weapons from attack by the
Taliban or other militants by storing the warheads, detonators and
missiles separately in facilities patrolled by elite troops.

Analysts are divided on how secure these weapons are. Some say the
weapons are less secure than they were five years ago, and Saturday's
attack would show a "worrisome" overconfidence by the Pakistanis.

Full article :

http://www.richmarksentinel.com/rs_headlines.asp?recid=2587

While the decision on Afghan troop increases hangs in the balance and debate
rages on about the Pakistani aid package, real concerns are being expressed
about the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.

If the Taliban or al-Qeada can target the army HQ then the possibility of
acquiring nukes via a more substantial attack has to be a possibility.

If they should fall into the hands of Omar or Bin Laden the downside
would be enormous.

Firstly in delivering the terrorists first nuclear attack ; and
Secondly in making Bin Laden safe from capture and free to lead.

[obliviously]

1. They have like 6 primitive ones that you could probably take out

with a well thrown rock. But seriously aren't you glad we are dismantling our missile defense?

[Statistical]

2. Terrorists would use the missile...

put the warhead in a shipping container like one of the 400 million indentical ones that enter US ports each year. When the ship docks in a major port like Atlanta, or San Francisco, or New York detonate it.

Even a crude 20kt device would kill 10,000 to 50,000 instantly and double that within a week. Long term death rates from radiation related ailments would be in the hundreds of thousands.

How would a missile shield stop that?

[thunder rising]

3. Man in cave decodes nuclear arming sequence and rebuilds triggers to detonate by GPS coordinates

from inside steel crate

You watch too much 24.

[Statistical]

6. For nearly 20 years the codes on every nuclear warhead in the US was 000000

In 1960 Congress required the airforce to put codes on the weapons, but AF feared it would delay a launch. So they complied with Congressional order and had permissive links installed on all bombs, and silo launch centers. The code was 0000000. Airforce doctrine even required daily checks to ensure the weapons hadn't be accidentally changed off 0. The codes were only randomized in 1977 after a whistle blower brought the situation to light. If you stole any nuclear weapon in the United States between 1960 and 1977 you could detonate it without any access code.

http://www.cdi.org/blair/permissive-action-links.cfm

So if this happened in the United States for 17 years what makes you think Pakistan's warheads are so super secure?
What makes you think they don't do something foolish like have the code in the same location as the warhead?
What makes you think they wouldn't have insider provide codes?
What makes you think the bomb isn't poorly designed that the arming mechanism can be simply bypassed?
Worst case scenario what makes you think they couldn't detonating it manually? While it wouldn't be a thermonuclear detonaiton it would result in a dirty bomb and spread radioactive material over dozens of square miles.

The point is the most likely nuclear attack will be covert not via an ICBM and a $20T missile shield will do nothing if a nuclear warhead is smuggled into a shipping container. Plus who said anything about GPS. Take a volenteer, some water jugs, a pot to shit in, and a weeks worth of food and you could manually detonate it.

[thunder rising]

4. Pakistan, India and the US know where the silos are: the Pakistanis will destroy hit their own site

And if the insurgents capture all 6 or 7 sites; the US will do the honors.

It's just easier on everybody if it's an internal order.

[cliffordu]

5. There's no such thing as a missle defense system.

numbnuts.

[obliviously]

7. Why that explains the tingling in my crotch!

Thank you your a genius.