Pakistan Is In A Mess -- Nuclear Weapons Overseen By Officers With Links To The Taliban

The following article by Bill Roggio captures the sense of the mess that Pakistan is presently in.

Pakistani security forces have captured the leader of an al Qaeda suicide cell that was behind the attack on the Sargodha military base last fall. Ahsan al Haq and five cell members have been detained by Pakistani security forces in the city of Lahore.

Al Haq, a retired Pakistani Army major, "was said have been close to Afghan Muslim guerrilla commander Younis Khalis, who battled Soviet forces in the 1980s and later had links with the Taliban," Reuters reported. "Haq ran a militant training camp in Afghanistan during Taliban rule."

The Sargodha attack targeted a bus carrying military personnel on the air base. Eight were killed and 27 wounded in the strike. Four military officers were among those killed.

The Sargodha Air Force Base is a nuclear weapons and missile storage facility in central Punjab province. The Taliban and al Qaeda have conducted multiple strikes on or near Pakistani nuclear facilities, as well as against military and police facilities situated near nuclear facilities. There have been two suicide attacks at Sargodha since the summer of 2007.

Read more ....

Belmont Club has a good follow-up here.

22 Dead In Pakistan Suicide Bomb Attack -- Times Online

Pakistan Turns On Its Islamic Radicals -- Strategy Page

My Comment: Pakistan is no longer a reliable ally. Unfortunately, the alternative to the present Pakistan government is even worse.