PAKISTAN A-PROJECT UPSETS SUPERPOWERS - WASHINGTON POST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00789R000100440001-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: July 15, 1986
• Content Type: NSPR

By Bob Woodward
and Don Oberdorfer
Washington Post Staff Writers
The United States and the Soviet
Union have engaged in some unpub-
licized tough talk during the past
month 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 its nu-
clear activities, the sources said, in-
cluding a charge that the Pakistanis
O%8 C SR 610D7B9R
0100440001-2
e uperpowers.
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 intelligence source
said that Central Intelligence Agen-
cy analysis shows that Pakistan has
or soon will have the capacity to
build a bomb, despite official denials
by 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 Pakistan 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 A13].
Junejo, whose civilian govern-
ment was installed last Dec. 30 af-
See PAKISTAN, A13, Col. I
oviets Spar Over Pakistan Bomb
PAKISTAN, From Al
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
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 "
ossess" a we
Hi
h-
p
apon.
g
stop
that flow in the past several
stop that ow in warplanes based program, which goes back well over level meetings have reportedly
years, and a decade, is a touchy issue in Wash- been held in recent days to assess
in Afghanistan have repeatedly ington. the Pakistani nuclear program in
crossed the border into Pakistani The Carter administration light of the most recent U.S. intel-
airspace, bringing protests from strongly condemned Pakistan's se- iige e. highest enri_,, p~chmggnt level acceptable
Washington as xiell as Isla lrovedeFdtrRe1msa 2 QOM &IA8 : %AW sQQ7t~a4 01 EbQI W ttes.
The immediate impetus for the
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, though, 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
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
t d. While this would be well
ort 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