- Israel has considered attacking nuclear installations
in Pakistan, newly declassified U.S. State Department documents suggest.
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- According to these documents, the possibility of an Israel
attack on the nuclear facilities in Pakistan came up in 1979, during Jimmy
Carter's term as U.S. president. The documents also make clear that the
U.S. government did not hold special discussions to address Israel's "preventive
strike" plans.
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- The documents are being released by the National Security
Archive, an independent non-governmental research institute based in Washington
that specializes in disclosing unclassified documents under the terms of
the Freedom of Information Act.
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- The Israeli plan came up in a meeting held on September
14, 1979, by a disarmament consultation committee, a panel created in the
1960s by the executive branch, but which has ceased to function. Meeting
participants related to "urgent" nuclear matters. The Carter
administration was particularly worried about reports indicating that Pakistan
was making efforts to attain nuclear weapons and attain parity with India.
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- During the meeting, committee deputy director Charles
Van Doren aired concerns that China was helping Pakistan attain nuclear
capability. China's policy, Van Doren argued, evinced double standards:
On the one hand, the Chinese claimed they were not helping their neighbor;
on the other hand, they were urging the Americans to help Pakistan cope
with the "Soviet threat," this being a code word for India's
ties with the Soviet Union.
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- William Burr, senior analyst at the National Security
Archive, told Haaretz that a large portion of the documents, including
ones that allude to the possibility of an Israeli attack on Pakistan, underwent
heavy censorship before they were declassified. Therefore, he said, it
is impossible to attain additional details about the episode and to measure
the seriousness of Israel's plan to attack the Pakistani arms facilities.
The targets of the proposed attack, as well as the way the operation was
planned, remain unclear.
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- Burr said that the National Security Archive has appealed
the decision to censor these materials, and expressed hope that some of
the still classified documents will be released in the future.
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- According to reports, Israel and India collaborated in
the 1970s, and intelligence and military officials from the two countries
considered secret plans for a pre-emptive strike against Pakistan to prevent
it from attaining nuclear arms.
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- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/403248.html
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