CIA-RDP96-00789R000100440002-1

Approved, For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000100440002-1
Pakistan Reported Near
Atom Arms Production
Acquisition of Weapon Could Halt U.S. Aid
By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
President Reagan certified to
Congress last week that Pakistan
currently "does not possess a nu-
clear explosive device," although
according to intelligence reports
considered reliable inside the ad-
ministration, the country has re-
cently made dramatic progress to-
ward production of a nuclear weap-
on.
Presidential certification is re-
quired by Congress as a condition of
continued U.S. aid to Pakistan,
which receives approximately $600
million a year in military and eco-
nomic assistance. Pakistan has co-
operated with clandestine U.S. aid
to Afghan guerrillas fighting the
. Soviet occupation of their country,
and has provided facilities for U.S.
intelligence-gathering near the So-
viet Union.
According to a classified Defense
Intelligence Agency report, Pakis-
tan detonated a high explosive de-
vice between Sept. 18 and Sept. 21
as part of its continuing efforts to
build an implosion-type nuclear
weapon, sources said,
It was Pakistan's second such
test this year, according to the
sources, who said the Pakistanis
have been conducting the tests for
years in trying to perfect a nuclear
weapons triggering package.
Intelligence reports also show
that Pakistan has enriched uranium
to 93.5 percent at its atomic plant
at Kahuta, according to authorita-
tive sources. A 90-percent level is
normally needed to make a bomb.
President Reagan in late 1984 told
Pakistani President Mohammed Zia
ul-Haq in a top-secret letter that 5
percent would be the highest en-
richment level acceptable to the
United States.
In July, the White House warned
Pakistani Prime Minister Mo-
hammed Khan Junejo during his
visit here that acquiring a nuclear
weapon would result in the end of
U.S. economic and military assist-
ance.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied
that it is developing nuclear weap-
ons. But a Special National Intelli-
gence Estimate (SNIE) completed
earlier this year by U.S. intelligence
agencies cited numerous activities
totally Inconsistent with those as-
surances, according to sources. The
SNIE concluded that Pakistan
would have a small nuclear weapon
at a future, unspecified date.
Charles E. Redman, the State
Department spokesman, said yes-
terday that Reagan signed the
See NUCLEAR, A16, Col. 3
Pakistani Atom Weapon Reported Near
NUCLEAR, From A1
Pakistani certification Oct. 27. He
added, however, that the Reagan
administration still has "serious con-
cerns" about the future and said the
current certification should "not be
interpreted as implying any U.S.
approval of the Pakistani nuclear
- program."
He declined to comment on any
intelligence reports. '
There is disagreement among
intelligence and nuclear nonprolif-
eration experts about the exact sta-
tus of the Pakistani program. One
senior Reagan administration offi-
cial confirmed that the program is
advancing aggressively, but said
that a new, multibillion-dollar U.S.
assistance proposal would provide
leverage to deter actual construc-
tion of a bomb.
Another official said Pakistan
could assemble a bomb within two
weeks. Another well-informed
source said it could be done in a
shorter time and, in practical terms,
Pakistan is only "two screwdriver
turns" from having a fully assem-
bled bomb.
Despite this evidence, sources.
said, keeping Pakistan from obtain-
ing a bomb is a low priority on the
list of administration foreign policy
goals. Said one senior official direct-
ly involved in monitoring the pro-
gram, "This administration wouldn't
come down on Pakistan if we found
a bomb in Zia's basement."
The reason, the sources said, is
Pakistan's willingness to help the
administration by acting as the
pipeline for the hundreds of millions
of dollars in CIA covert assistance
that is provided the Afghanistan
rebels-a top priority for Reagan
and his administration. At the time
of Junejo's visit last summer to
Washington, Reagan said that Pak-
istan was a "front line" against "the
brutal Soviet occupation of Afghan-
istan."
Pakistan also cooperates with
U.S. intelligence agencies in high-
priority electronic intelligence gath-
ering near the Soviet Union and in
Southeast Asia, the sources said.
On June 21 the Soviets issued a
strongly worded, unusual warning
to Zia charging that Pakistan had
achieved the capability to build nu-
clear weapons, which Moscow said
it would not tolerate, according to
sources.
Within two days, the Reagan ad-
ministration replied with its own
protest, in effect telling Moscow to
keep "hands off" Pakistan. This in
effect made the administration a
protector of the Pakistani program,
and two sources said that the Pakis-
tanis may have interpreted the ad-
minstration's remarks as approval.
A senior administration official
disputed this interpretation, how-
ever, saying the White House made
clear last summer to Junejo that a
single bomb would result in termi-
nation of all U.S. aid.
The intelligence report that ura-
nium has been enriched at levels in
excess of 90 percent has alarmed
nuclear weapons experts most.
Leonard S. Spector, a nuclear pro-
liferation expert at the Carnegie
Endowment for International
Peace, said yesterday that, if true,
"it would be the last important step
in the Pakistani program. It was the
one outstanding gap in their pro-
gram and could be a terrible set-
back to worldwide efforts to curtail
the spread of nuclear weapons."
-
:
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000100440002-1
: