Cover Story Overview
The Terrorist Threat to Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons
Al-Qa`ida has made numerous statements about a desire to obtain nuclear weapons for use against the United States and Western interests. In an effort to provide insight on the scale of the threat, this article will first outline Pakistan’s current nuclear safeguards, and then identify a series of weaknesses in the country’s nuclear security that could result in terrorist groups such as al-Qa`ida or the Pakistani Taliban gaining access to sensitive nuclear material.
