US could hit Pak nukes if Musharraf is removed

Very interesting story, but I am not sure if it came down to Musharraf being removed if India wouldn't beat the U.S to the punch. And if the US were to strike Pakistan, would the new leader perhaps retaliate against closer neighbors such as India and US bases in Afghanistan? This is not the message that should be coming forth from any US gov officials imo but the key word in the whole story is "Could".

US could hit Pak nukes if Musharraf is removed
The US may consider military strikes against Pakistan's nuclear assets if President Pervez Musharraf is removed from power, a Democratic candidate for the Senate has said.

Dawn Tuesday quoted Barack Obama, a Democratic Party Senate contender, as saying in San Francisco that the US feared that Islamic extremists would take over Pakistan if Mushrraf were overthrown.

In such a situation, the US would have to consider "going in and taking the nuclear bombs out", he said.

The Senate hopeful's remarks are in line with Musharraf's own argument that it was important for Pakistan to have him at the helm of affairs as the country would otherwise be taken over by fundamentalists.

Ever since Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in May 1998 in a tit-for-tat retaliation against Indian tests, there have been international concerns about its nuclear weapons falling into the hands terrorist and Islamic fundamentalist groups.

Pakistan's close links with Afghanistan's then Taliban regime and the way various terrorist groups, including those active in Jammu and Kashmir, operated freely in that country had heightened these fears.

Though Islamabad under Musharraf dumped the Taliban and supported the US military offensive against Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the US, these failed to remove concerns about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

The admission by A Q Khan, the scientist behind Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, that he had sold nuclear secrets to countries like Iran, Libya and North Korea had added to these fears.

[edit on 10-1-2004 by worldwatcher]

Great Find

I wonder if they would try a Delta Force type raid to seize the weapons and get them out if that happened? If Musharraf is overthrown, there would be a period of chaos that they could exploit to get the nukes, buts its probably way to risk to try it. Bombs away I guess.

What about when Musharraf dies?
He�s not going to live forever, is he?

This was very bad news.
Hope it�s not true...

I cant wait for someone to say this is Bush's doing, even though this was brought up by a "Democratic candidate for the Senate" That sounds like preemptive strike to me.

I dont think the UN will look to kindly on such a action.

[edit on 1-10-2004 by ShadowXIX]

If this were to happen the world would have to immediately step in. Not just the US because in a period of anarchy, these nukes would be in the wrong peoples hands in a heartbeat. This is probably the most frightening scenario to date. If this were to happen, you better buckle up and hold on to your seat cause its gonna be a tidal wave of activity from every country in the world. Israel, US, Russia, UK, Austrialia and India to name a few that would be very very concern and would have to act in a heartbeat to prevent these weapons from walking away.