Nuke assets safe under multi-layered security: FO
By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan on Sunday once again said that its nuclear assets are completely safe and secure under fully indigenous, multi-layered, institutional security and command and control structure. Responding to Hillary Clinton’s statement about safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets, the foreign office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said that there is vagueness about what she meant to say, whether the interest was sharing the information about safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets or something else.
The spokesman said, “regardless of the meaning of Senator Clinton’s remarks, it must be clearly understood that Pakistan alone is, and will be responsible for security of its strategic assets.” He said Pakistan has always attached great significance to the security of its assets. The spokesman further said, “our leaders at the highest level have repeatedly said that nuclear assets are completely safe and secure under fully indigenous, multi-layered, institutionalised security and command and control structures.”
US White House hopeful Hillary Clinton said she would propose a joint US-British team to oversee the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal if she is elected president. “So far as we know right now, the nuclear technology is considered secure, but there isn’t any guarantee, especially given the political turmoil going on inside Pakistan,” Clinton said during a Democratic debate here.
If elected president, the US senator said, “I would try to get President Musharraf to share the security responsibility of the nuclear weapons with a delegation from the United States and, perhaps, Great Britain, so that there is some fail-safe.” The four Democratic candidates — Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, Governor Bill Richardson and former senator John Edwards — were scathing about President George W. Bush’s policy towards Pakistan.
They said they were prepared to launch unilateral military strikes in the country if they detected an imminent threat or could pinpoint the location of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden. Obama, who won the first Democratic White House nominating contest in Iowa on Thursday, reiterated his earlier stance that he would take action in Pakistan even if Islamabad is opposed, if there is strong intelligence on Al-Qaeda there.
“Back in August, I said we should work with the Pakistani government, first of all to encourage democracy in Pakistan so you’ve got a legitimate government that we’re working with, and secondly that we have to press them to do more to take on Al Qaida in their territory,” he said. “What I said was, if they could not or would not do so, and we had actionable intelligence, then I would strike.”