Untitled - orsam

According to the cables, the U.S. has for years led top secret efforts to remove highly
enriched uranium from Pakistan, worried it could be used to make an illicit nuclear
device.
U.S. officials have long expressed concern that Islamic extremists in Pakistan could target
the country's nuclear program in an attempt to steal a weapon or, more likely, the
materials needed to build one.
Islamabad has been adamant that its nuclear weapons are in safe hands and U.S.
President Barack Obama has publicly concurred.
But the leaked cables reportedly reveal the U.S. has doubts and has clashed with
Pakistan over the issue.
"No one can touch Pakistan's nuclear facilities and assets," Foreign Ministry spokesman
Abdul Basit said in a press release.
Islamist militants embarked on a nationwide bombing campaign across Pakistan in 2007,
the same year that the cables said the secret efforts began.
The U.S. has since then mounted an unsuccessful secret effort to remove from a
Pakistani reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted
for use in an illicit nuclear device, according to The New York Times, one of several news
organizations that received the leaked cables in advance.
Removing fuel
Former U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson reported in May 2009 that Pakistan refused to
schedule a visit by American technical experts, according to the newspaper, because, as
a Pakistani official said, "if the local media got word of the fuel removal, 'they certainly
would portray it as the United States taking Pakistan's nuclear weapons,' he argued."
Rumors that the U.S. is intent on seizing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal have contributed to
strong anti-American sentiment in the country despite frequent denials by U.S. officials.
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