US President Barack Obama confronted the ultimate security nightmare early in his administration — the possibility that the Taliban had acquired a nuclear bomb, according to a new book published on Tuesday.
The book, Confront and Conceal by New York Times chief Washington correspondent David Sanger, says Obama was told at an Oval Office meeting in early summer 2009 of “ambiguous” evidence supporting such a fear.
Intercepted conversations between members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan led intelligence agencies to warn the group could have a bomb, and the CIA picked up “chatter” of possible attacks on US cities, the book said.
However, Sanger reports that no one in the intelligence community could be sure about the authenticity of the threat.
Some seasoned analysts believed that any danger was more likely to be posed by nuclear material combined into a radiological or “dirty” bomb.
Other officials in US spy agencies believed that there were serious doubts about the intelligence, but no one was willing to ignore the fears, amid concern about the security of Pakistan’s fast growing nuclear arsenal.
Senior Obama administration officials have previously confided that the fear of a terrorist or insurgent group acquiring nuclear materials is the national security threat most likely to keep them awake at night.
Obama has made halting proliferation a signature of his presidency and was instrumental in the debut of a new global nuclear security summit, which took place for the second time in Seoul in March.
“There are still too many bad actors in search of these dangerous materials and these dangerous materials are still vulnerable in too many places,” he said in Seoul, warning that it would take just a small amount “to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people.”
According to Sanger’s book, Obama decided that with the 2009 case, he could not take any chances and dispatched a nuclear detect and disablement team to the region, though not directly to Pakistan, in case it was needed.
After several days of tension, Sanger wrote, the threat dissipated. Pakistan surveyed its arsenal and reported that no nuclear components were missing.
One school of thought about the incident suggested that Taliban members had been hoaxed and bought material from a third party that was useless in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
Other officials believed that the US National Security Agency had misunderstood the dialect of Taliban members on the intercepts, and been misled into believing their worst fears, the book said.
However, Sanger quoted one official as saying that facing a possible nuclear crisis so early in Obama’s presidency “created a lasting impression on all of us.”
Since the incident, US officials have held regular meetings with members of Pakistan’s nuclear establishment in neutral locations like London to discuss nuclear safety, Sanger wrote.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
RSS