PAKISTAN A-PROJECT UPSETS SUPERPOWERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90B01390R000100070012-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: July 15, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

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APPEARED.
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
15 July 1986 cj:ti
Pakistan AProject
BY Bob Woodward '
and Don Oberdorfer
Washingtte Post Staff Writs:*
The United States and the Soviet
Union have engaged in some unpub-
licized tough talk during the past
moan over growing indications
that Pakistan's nuclear program has
moved far along the path toward
production of an atomic bomb, ac-
cording to administration sources.
The discussion was generated by
a direct and unusually tough Soviet
warning to Pakistan about ita nu-
clear activities, the sources said, in-
cluding a charge that the Pakistanis
are on the verge of constructing a
nuclear bomb, which Moscow indi-
cated it would not tolerate.
The Reagan administration, on
learning of the warning, responded
with a private 'message to Moscow
reiterating the strong U.S. commit-
ment to Pakistan's security. One of-
ficial described the message as ex-
tremely grave and said that Wash-
ington, in effect, told Moscow to
keep "hands off". Pakistan.
A well-placed intellince source
said that Central Intelligence Agen-
cy analysis shows that Pakistan has
or soon will have the capacity to
build a bomb, despite official deruals
bv Pakistan. Sources said long-
standing Pakistani nuclear efforts
have increased this year. According
to one account, it is just a matter of
assembling components.
The security of Palcistan as well.
as its highly secretive nuclear pro-
gram are likely to be discussed dur-
ing the visit of Pakistani Prime Min-
ister Mohammad Khan Junejo, who
is to arrive late today on his first of-
ficial visit to Washington. [Details
on Page A131.
Junejo, whose civilian govern-
ment was installed last Dec. 30 af-
ter nearly nine years of military
rule, is to meet President Reagan
Wednesday morning and see other
senior administration figures as
well as members of Congress be-
fore departing Friday.
Pakistan is particularly sensitive
for both superpowers because of its
geography bordering Afghanistan
and because nearly all of the U.S.
covert assistance to the Afghani-
stan resistance fighting the Soviet
army flows through Pakistan, with
Pakistani permission.
The Soviets have issued a num-
ber of stern warnings to Pakistan to
stop that flow in the past several
years, and Soviet warplanes based
in Afghanistan have repeatedly
crossed the border into Pakistani
airspace, bringing protests from
Washington as well as Islamabacl.
The immediate impetus for he
recent Soviet warning to Pakistan is
believed by Washington officials to
have been the visit to Moscow in
mid-June by Indian Foreign Minis-
ter P. Shiv Shankar, who reportedly
complained vociferously about Pak-
istan's nuclear efforts.
Moscow's warning, which was
delivered by the Soviet ambassador
in the Pakistani capital of Isla-
mabad, also covered the Afghani-
stan issues. It was considered par-
ticularly important, thotilh, be-
cause of the nuclear aspect, which
had not been a matter of urgency in
other recent Moscow-Islamabad ex-
changes.
Pakistan's well-advanced nuclear
program, which goes back well over
a decade, is a touchy issue in Wash-
ington.
The Carter administration
strongly condemned Pakistan's se-
cret efforts to build an atomic bomb
ts Superpowers
and cut off U.S. aid to Pakistan be-
cause of them.
The Reagan administration,
which began a $3.2 billion Pakistan
aid program in 1981, has been re-
quired by Congress to certify an-
nually that Pakistan does not "pos-
sess" an atomic bomb. A stronger
assurance may be required to per-
suade. Congress to approve a new
$4 billion U.S. aid program nego-
tiated with Pakistan this March.
White House national security af-
fairs adviser John M. Poindexter is
concerned, according to sources,
that the administration may not be
able to certify to Congress as re-
quired in October that Pakistan
does not "possess" a weapon. High-
level meetings have reportedly
been held in recent days to assess
the Pakistani nuclear program in
light of the most recent U.S. intel-
ligence.
"There is no question that [Pak-
istan) has the bomb or will soon," a
congressional source said.
Leonard S. Spector, an expert on
nuclear nonproliferation issues at
the Carnegie Endowment for Inter-
national Peace, reported in Novem-
ber that Pakistan is "at the thresh-
old of becoming a nuclear-weapons
state.' Spector said yesterday that
more recent information, which he
said he could not describe in detail,
suggests that "something very se-
rious has happened" in the Pakistani
nuclear program since last winter.
In March the Foreign Report of
The Economist of London cited re-
ports that Pakistan had succeeded
in enriching uranium to 30 percent
at its heavily guarded atomic plant
at Kahuta. While this would be well
short of the 90 percent level
needed to make a bomb, such an
achievement would far exceed the 5
percent level reportedly cited in a
confidential letter from Reagan to
Pakistani President Mohammed Zia
ul-Haq in September 1984 as the
highest enrichment level acceptable
to the United States.
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/06: CIA-RDP90B01390R000100070012-9
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