n
.
,
Approved'^qr/RMease 2006/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R0001 00440002-1
Jrakistan Reported Near
I
Atom Arms Production
,
Acquisition of Weapon Could Halt U.S. Aid
By Bob Woodward
~'N
,
Washinuton post Staff Wrilgr-^""
Jsident
Reagan
certified
to
Congress
last week
that
Pakistan
currently “does
not
possess a nu-
clear
explosive
device,”
although
according
to
intelligence
reports
considered
reliable
inside
the
ad-
ministration,
the
country
has
re-
cently made dramatic progress to-
ward production ot a nuclear weap-
Presidential
certification
is
re-
quired by Congress as a condition of
continued
U.S.
aid
to
Pakistan,
which receives approximately $600
million a year in military and eco-
nomic assistance. Pakistan has co-
operated with clandestine U.S. aid
to
Afghan
guerrillas
fighting
the
Soviet occupation of their country,
and has provided
facilities for U.S.
intelligence-gathering near the So-
viet Union,
According to a classified Defense
Intelligence Agency
report,
Pakis-
tan detonated a high explosive de-
vice between Sept. 18 and Sept. 21
as part of
its continuing efforts to
build
an
implosion-type
nuclear
weapon, sources said,
It was
Pakistan’s
second
such
test
this
year,
according
to
the
sources, who
said
the
Pakistanis
i
have been conducting the tests for
j
years in trying to perfect a nuclear
;
weapons triggering package.
j
Intelligence
reports
also
show
that Pakistan has enriched uranium
,
to 93.5 percent at
its atomic plant
at Kahuta, according to authorita-
tive sources. A 90-percent level
is
normally needed to make a bomb.
President Reagan in late 1984 told
Pakistani President Mohammed Zia
ul-Haq in a top-secret letter that 5
percent would be the
highest en-
richment
level
acceptable
to
the
United States.
In July, the White House warned
Pakistani
Prime
Minister
Mo-
hammed
Khan
Junejo
during
his
visit here that acquiring a nuclear
weapon would result
in the end of
U.S. economic and military assist-
ance.
Pakistan
has
repeatedly
denied
that
it
is developing nuclear weap-
ons. But a Special National
Intelli-
gence Estimate (SNIE) completed
earlier this year by U.S. intelligence
agencies cited numerous activities
totally
Inconsistent with
those
as-
surances, according to sources. The
I
SNIE
concluded
that
Pakistan
’
would have a small nuclear weapon
at a future, unspecified date.
Charles
E.
Redman,
the
State
Department spokesman,
said
yes-
terday
that
Reagan
signed
the
See NUCLEAR, A16, Col. 3
Atom Weapon Reported Near
Pakistani
NUCLEAR, From At
Pakistani certification Oct.
27. He
added,
however,
that
the
Reagan
administration still has “serious con-
cerns” about the future and said the
current certification should "not be
interpreted
as
implying
any
U.S.
approval
of
the
Pakistani
nuclear
-program.”
He declined to comment on any
intelligence reports.
There
is
disagreement
among
’
intelligence and
nuclear
nonprolif-
eration experts about the exact sta-
tus of the Pakistani program. One
senior Reagan
administration
offi-
cial confirmed that the program
is
advancing
aggressively,
but
said
that a new,
multibillion-dollar U.S.
assistance
proposal would provide
leverage
to deter actual construc-
tion of a bomb.
Another
official
said
Pakistan
could assemble a bomb within two
weeks.
Another
well-informed
source
said
it could be done
in a
shorter time and, in practical terms,
Pakistan
is only "two screwdriver
turns” from having a
fully assem-
bled bomb.
Despite
this
evidence,
sources
said, keeping Pakistan from obtain-
ing a bomb
is a low priority on the
list of administration foreign policy
goals. Said one senior official direct-
ly involved
in monitoring the pro-
gram, "This administration wouldn’t
come down on Pakistan
if we found
a bomb 1n
l£ifl’s4)agetilent."
The reason, the ’Sources said,
is
Pakistan’s
willingness
to
help
the
administration
by
acting
as
the
pipeline for the hundreds of millions
of dollars
in CIA covert assistance
that
is
provided
the
Afghanistan
rebels—a top
priority
for Reagan
and his administration. At the time
of Junejo’s
visit
last summer
to
Washington, Reagan said that Pak-
istan was a "front line” against “the
brutal Soviet occupation of Afghan-
istan."
Pakistan
also
cooperates
with
U.S. Intelligence agencies
in high-
priority electronic intelligence gath-
ering near the Soviet Union and in
Southeast Asia, the sources said.
On June 21 the Soviets issued a
strongly worded,
unusual warning
to Zia charging that Pakistan had
achieved the capability to build nu-
clear weapons, which Moscow said
it would not tolerate, according to
.sources.
Within two days, the Reagan ad-
ministration
replied
with
its own
protest, in effect telling Moscow to
keep "hands off’ Pakistan. This
in
effect made
the
administration
a
protector of the Pakistani program,
and two sources said that the Pakis-
tanis may have interpreted the ad-
minstration’s remarks as approval.
A
senior
administration
official
disputed
this
interpretation,
how-
ever, saying the White House made
clear last summer to Junejo that a
single bomb would result
in termi-
nation of all U.S. aid.
The intelligence report that ura-
nium has been enriched at levels in
excess of 90 percent has alarmed
nuclear
weapons
experts
most.
Leonard S. Spector, a nuclear pro-
liferation
expert
at
the Carnegie
Endowment
for
International
Peace, said yesterday that,
if true,
“it would bedhe last important step
in the Pakistani program. It was the
one outstanding gap
in
their
pro-
gram and could be
a
terrible
set-
back to worldwide efforts to curtail
the spread of nuclear weapons."
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R0001 00440002-1
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