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But why should we give it to you? Even if there was a military coup dвЂ™Г©tat in Pakistan, no one is going to give up total control of our nuclear weapons. After the September 11th attacks, he said, there had been an understanding between the Bush Administration and then President Pervez Musharraf вЂњover what Pakistan had and did not have.вЂќ Today, he said, вЂњyouвЂ™d like control of our day-to-day deployment. In June, Congress approved a four-hundred-million-dollar request for what the Administration called the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund, providing immediate assistance to the Pakistan Army for equipment, training, and вЂњrenovation and construction.вЂќДЄ senior Pakistani official who has close ties to Zardari exploded with anger during an interview when the subject turned to the American demands for more information about the arsenal. At the same time, the Pakistani military would be given money to equip and train Pakistani soldiers and to improve their housing and facilities-goals that General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of the Pakistan Army, has long desired. These would allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis.

Obama did not say so, but current and former officials said in interviews in Washington and Pakistan that his Administration has been negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military. вЂњI feel confident that the nuclear arsenal will remain out of militant hands. вЂњIвЂ™m not going to engage in hypotheticals of that sort,вЂќ he said. The questioner, Chuck Todd, of NBC, began asking whether the American military could, if necessary, move in and secure PakistanвЂ™s bombs. national-security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you donвЂ™t end up having a nuclear-armed militant state.вЂќ The United States, he said, could вЂњmake sure that PakistanвЂ™s nuclear arsenal is secure-primarily, initially, because the Pakistan Army, I think, recognizes the hazards of those weaponsвЂ™ falling into the wrong hands.вЂќ вЂњTheir biggest threat right now comes internally,вЂќ Obama said. He was, he said, вЂњgravely concernedвЂќ about the fragility of the civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari. ObamaвЂ™s answer remains the clearest delineation of the AdministrationвЂ™s public posture. On April 29th, President Obama was asked at a news conference whether he could reassure the American people that PakistanвЂ™s nuclear arsenal could be kept away from terrorists. The principal fear is mutiny-that extremists inside the Pakistani military might stage a coup, take control of some nuclear assets, or even divert a warhead. But the Taliban overrunning Islamabad is not the only, or even the greatest, concern.

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The success of the latest attacks raised an obvious question: Are the bombs safe? Asked this question the day after the Rawalpindi raid, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, вЂњWe have confidence in the Pakistani government and the militaryвЂ™s control over nuclear weapons.вЂќ Clinton-whose own visit to Pakistan, two weeks later, would be disrupted by more terrorist bombs-added that, despite the attacks by the Taliban, вЂњwe see no evidence that they are going to take over the state.вЂќД¬lintonвЂ™s words sounded reassuring, and several current and former officials also said in interviews that the Pakistan Army was in full control of the nuclear arsenal. Pakistan has been a nuclear power for two decades, and has an estimated eighty to a hundred warheads, scattered in facilities around the country. The assassins clearly had advance knowledge of the generalвЂ™s route, indicating that they had contacts and allies inside the security forces. There were also attacks on police installations in Peshawar and Lahore, and, once the offensive began, an Army general was shot dead by gunmen on motorcycles on the streets of Islamabad, the capital. The terrorists had been dressed in Army uniforms.

In the most brazen strike, ten gunmen penetrated the ArmyвЂ™s main headquarters, in Rawalpindi, instigating a twenty-two-hour standoff that left twenty-three dead and the military thoroughly embarrassed. In the tumultuous days leading up to the Pakistan ArmyвЂ™s ground offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan, which began on October 17th, the Pakistani Taliban attacked what should have been some of the countryвЂ™s best-guarded targets.

Tribal wars nukes