US meets Pakistani PM to address WikiLeaks revelations

The US ambassador to Pakistan met with the Prime Minster Wednesday to address issues revealed in leaked secret US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks. Pakistan dismissed fears raised in the cables that its nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists.

Reuters/Andrew Winning

"There has not been a single incident involving our fissile material, which clearly reflects how strong our controls and mechanisms are,” foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit told the AFP news agency.

According to the Guardian newspaper, which has advance access to the cables before they are published on the WikiLeaks site, the US ambassador to Pakistan in 2009, Anne Patterson, wrote about a concern about “the chance someone working in government of Pakistan facilities could gradually smuggle enough material out to eventually make a weapon".

The cables cite serious concerns from the British, as well as from Russia.

“There are 120,000-130,000 people directly involved in Pakistan's nuclear and missile programs,” one cable from February quotes a Russian official. “However, regardless of the clearance process for these people, there is no way to guarantee that all are 100 per cent loyal and reliable.”

To address these and other revelations in the cables, US Ambassador Cameron Munter headed into talks with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday.

Other revelations, according to the Guardian, confirm rumours that Pakistan’s army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, had considered forcing out President Asif Ali Zardari.

Kayani told Patterson in March 2009 that he "might, however reluctantly," have to persuade Zardari to resign, according to one cable.

The cables revealed official US frustrations at Pakistan’s refusal to cut off ties with armed groups, like Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The New York Times quoted a cable in which Biden asked Kayani several times in 2009 whether Pakistan and the US "had the same enemy as we move forward". Kayani tried to reassure him.

But the Guardian quoted separate communications indicating that hundreds of millions of dollars in American military aid was not used for fighting Islamist groups, as was intended. Kayani reportedly said that the money had been diverted into the government's coffers.