Pakistani military: Epic failure

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Tue May 24, 2011 8:37am EDT

ISLAMABAD, May 24 (Reuters) - Pakistan's military was ridiculed and accused of complicity in the media on Tuesday after a small group of militants laid siege to a naval air base, holding out for 16 hours against about 100 commandos and rangers.

As few as six militants infiltrated the PNS Mehran naval base in Karachi, the headquarters of Pakistan's naval air wing, on Sunday night, killing 10 security forces and wounding 20.

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Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani travelled to the base on Tuesday to pay tribute to the security forcers who died.

Gilani particularly praised Lieutenant Yasir Abbas, the young Navy officer who died leading a counter-attack against the militants and who has been embraced as a national hero.

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Two P-3C Orion aircraft from the United States -- crucial assets for Pakistan's anti-submarine and maritime surveillance capability -- were destroyed in Monday's raid, and the Pakistan military's reputation as a defender of the country and of Islam was left in tatters.

Reaction to the raid from the generally pro-military Pakistani media was harsh.

"Political rhetoric and a Cabinet Defence Committee meeting are not going to solve this one," read an editorial in the English-language daily, The News. "This is an epic failure exposing an existential threat that will need epic leadership to countervail."

An editorial in the Urdu-language Jang, one of nuclear-armed Pakistan's biggest and most pro-military newspapers, said the attacks illustrated "a weakness of security measures".

"In very polite words, it can be called worrisome negligence."

Others went beyond incompetence and suggested that the attackers had help from within the military.

"Did the Taliban raiders have information inside the naval base?" wrote Dawn, another English-language daily. "Such a possibility cannot be ruled out, because the involvement of serving personnel in several previous attacks has been well-established."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/pakistan-attack-idUSL3E7GO22G20110524

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Pakistan can't save its aircraft, what about its nukes?

Indrani Bagchi

24 May 2011, 01:05 AM IST

The Taliban attack on Pakistan’s Mehran Naval base raises an oft-repeated question: if Pakistan could not save its best maritime surveillance aircraft, can they save their nuclear weapons?

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Rahul Roy Chaudhury of International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London, sums up the fears. "The attack on Mehran, a well-guarded military installation, at a time when Pakistan is on its highest alert status following the Abbottabad raid, raises serious questions over the security of Pakistan's nuclear assets. Not merely weapon storage sites, whose locations may be secure, but more likely, nuclear plants and research facilities whose locations are well known. This could be exacerbated by the passing of 'insider' information on their security systems by employees angered and radicalized by the Abbottabad raid".

How can Pakistan’s nukes fall into the wrong hands? Either Taliban/Al-qaida getting a hold of the weapons, jihadis accessing fissile material which could be used to make a "dirty bomb" or, extremist officials within the Pakistani military establishment itself accessing weapons or material.

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But as strategic experts have said, it’s not easy getting a nuclear weapon, leave alone use it. The supporting infrastructure needed is fairly large. George Perkovich of Carnegie wrote, "Pakistan’s ... nukes are its crown jewels. The army cares about them in ways that it does not about bin Laden’s whereabouts or fighting the Haqqani network."

Besides, Pakistan’s weapons are not holed up in traditional silos. The military keeps them secret, but they are generally believed to be in storage sites (most probably in Punjab) and not in a high state of alert. Pakistani experts say they are also mobile to keep their locations secret. Shireen Mazari, Pakistani strategic expert, dismissed Taliban takeover fears in a post Osama briefing. "The nuclear program has matured, is robust, self sustaining and widely dispersed." Its well guarded, but after a breach at their naval airbase, the question being asked is, how well is well guarded?

[Saddle Bronc 124]

No surprise, given that they haven't learned in the 40 years after their ultimately most grotesque failure.