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Pakistan A Haven For Terrorists, Says Pressler

This is from misc.news.southasia.
Source: News India-Times, New York, April 19, 1995

Pak A Haven For Terrorists, Says Pressler  
Special To News India-Times  
 
NEW YORK: Senator Larry Pressler last week called Pakistan "a safe 
haven for terrorists," adding that "Pakistani officials have been 
advising the terrorist state of Iran how to start its own nuclear program."

In a hard-hitting op-ed article in The New York Times April 16, the 
South Dakota Republican argued that congressional approval of US 
aid to Pakistan "would be a huge mistake."  
 
Pressler maintained that a law he sponsored in 1985, banning US 
economic and military assistance to Pakistan as long as that 
country pursues a nuclear-weapons program, be reaffirmed.  
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto lobbied for a repeal of the Pressler 
Amendment during her recent visit to the United States. President 
Clinton, after talks with Bhutto, pledged to ask Congress to relax 
the ban on aid. 
 
Pressler said Pakistan is now said to have enough material to 
assemble at least six bombs, adding that it is also building a 
nuclear reactor that would give it access to vast amounts of 
plutonium to construct even more nuclear bombs.  
"President Clinton should demand that Pakistan abandon its nuclear 
agenda," Pressler said.  
 
"Sizable aid in any form would be seen as a reward for Pakistan's 
nuclear ambitions. It would deliver a blow to regional peace, 
generate renewed hostilities and a nuclear arms race between 
Pakistan and India and increase the likelihood of nuclear weapons 
falling into terrorist hands," Pressler added. 
"We cannot condone, through taxpayer assistance, Pakistan's 
becoming a nuclear power." 
 
In an interview with The Washington Times, Pressler said that 
before Bhutto arrived in the United States, he attended a CIA 
briefing that convinced him Pakistan's program goes beyond simply 
having the nuclear capability it already acknowledges.  
"Pakistan has about five weapons ready to go and India has between 
five and 10," the senator said.  
 
The Washington Times noted in the interview that "the Pakistani 
nuclear program poses a direct challenge to the US goal of stopping 
the spread of nuclear weapons." 
 
As Pressler's assertions about Pakistan's nuclear program and its 
adverse impact on South Asia's stability continued, Clinton 
administration officials sought to advance their point of view. 
John Holum, director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 
told foreign correspondents that he did not know which CIA briefing 
Pressler attended had led the senator to conclude that Pakistan 
possesses nuclear weapons.  
 
Holum, a bitter critic of the Pressler Amendment, said that what 
the US has learned is that Pakistan has the capability to assemble 
a nuclear weapon in a short time. 
 
Robin Raphel, assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, 
echoed Holum's position. She told reporters: "Let me repeat what 
we've often said on this very question, and that is that we believe 
that Pakistan could assemble a relatively small number of nuclear 
devices on relatively... short time frame. We say precisely the 
same about India." 
 
Defending his position, Pressler said: "There is a price for a 
nation's decision to go nuclear. Mr. Clinton must realize that 
there is a greater global price for not upholding the only 
effective piece of nuclear non-proliferation law on the books." 
He said, "The message sent to countries such as Iraq, North Korea 
and other rogue states by the Clinton administration as it 
continues to attempt to make an exception to US law is dangerous 
and potentially destabilizing."
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