Will Pakistani uprising give Al Qaeda a nuke?

Amidst the Swine Flu - I mean H1N1 flu - panic, we have somewhat lost sight of a sobering reality in the country of Pakistan. An uprising lead by Taliban and Al Qaeda sympathizers has been winning battles in Pakistan, and has begun to capture towns and cities near the capital. Why do we care, you ask? Because there is a very real possibility of the insurgents capturing a nuke from the Pakistani security system.

Several current officials said that they were worried that insurgents could try to provoke an incident that would prompt Pakistan to move the weapons, and perhaps use an insider with knowledge of the transportation schedule for weapons or materials to tip them off. That concern appeared to be what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was hinting at in testimony 10 days ago before the House Appropriations Committee. Pakistan’s weapons, she noted, “are widely dispersed in the country.”

“There’s not a central location, as you know,” she added. “They’ve adopted a policy of dispersing their nuclear weapons and facilities.” She went on to describe a potential situation in which a confrontation with India could prompt a Pakistani response, though she did not go as far as saying that such a response could include moving weapons toward India — which American officials believed happened in 2002. Other experts note that even as Pakistan faces instability, it is producing more plutonium for new weapons, and building more production reactors.

Allowing a nuclear weapon - any nuclear weapon - to fall into the hands of terrorists is clearly a worst-case scenario. Hopefully, Pakistan will be wise in their use of these weapons, and America will aggressive in its intelligence-gathering and oversight of the arsenal. But here's hoping President Obama shows the toughness he has always claimed to have in addressing this threat with Islamabad.

Major Al Qaeda Spiritual Leader renouces Jihad and Bin Laden

What would have happened if the Pope had suddenly renounced the Crusades and called for the public trials of the Crusaders who committed acts of heinous violence in the name of Christ? Perhaps history would have gone very differently, and the status quo of Jerusalem today would be more balanced and peaceful. Well, according to the New York Sun, the main theologian for Al Qaeda has renounced Jihad again America and is calling for a sharia court to try Osama Bin Laden and other senior leaders of Al Qaeda. This is the same man who years ago wrote the definitive theoological works justifying the Jihad.

One of Al Qaeda's senior theologians is calling on his followers to end their military jihad and saying the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a "catastrophe for all Muslims."

In a serialized manifesto written from prison in Egypt, Sayyed Imam al-Sharif is blasting Osama bin Laden for deceiving the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and for insulting the Prophet Muhammad by comparing the September 11 attacks to the early raids of the Ansar warriors. The lapsed jihadist even calls for the formation of a special Islamic court to try Osama bin Laden and his old comrade Ayman al-Zawahri.

It is important to note that al-Sharif is in an Egyptian prison, and Islamic critics suggest that this turnaround was extracted by means of torture. But experts quoted in the article seem to believe the change of heart is genuine, and that this may be a sign that Al Qaeda is breaking apart from internal dissention and dissatisfaction with what the Jihad has really acccomplished to benefit the average Muslim.