ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A Pakistan official described as "pure fiction" an article in two U.S. magazines that its nuclear stockpile are moved around unsafely in vans.
A Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry representative was responding to a question Sunday on the article "The Ally from Hell" jointly reported by The Atlantic and National Journal.
Dismissing the article as "pure fiction, baseless and motivated," a ministry representative said in a statement on the ministry Web site: "It is part of a deliberate propaganda campaign meant to mislead opinion."
"The surfacing of such campaigns is not something new. It is orchestrated by quarters that are inimical to Pakistan," the unnamed representative said. "No one should underestimate Pakistan's will and capability to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interests."
The lengthy article, which the magazines said was the product of dozens of interviews over six months, called Pakistan as an "ally from hell" with a large and growing nuclear arsenal Islamabad fears Washington could seize.
While saying militants remain the biggest threat to Pakistan's nuclear weapons, the article said Islamabad is more concerned about raids on those weapons by the United States in the event of Pakistan's collapse.
"Nuclear-weapons components are sometimes moved by helicopter and sometimes moved over roads," the article said.
"And instead of moving nuclear material in armored, well-defended convoys, the SPD [Strategic Plans Division which is in charge of securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal] prefers to move material by subterfuge, in civilian-style vehicles without noticeable defenses, in the regular flow of traffic. According to both Pakistani and American sources, vans with a modest security profile are sometimes the preferred conveyance."
