Obama feared Pak Taliban had nukes

Soon after assuming office in 2009, President Barack Obama experienced a security nightmare about the possibility of Taliban in Pakistan acquiring a nuclear bomb, with the fear lurking at the back of his mind that the loose weapon could be headed for a major US city.

Soon after assuming office in 2009, President Barack Obama experienced a security nightmare about the possibility of Taliban in Pakistan acquiring a nuclear bomb, with the fear lurking at the back of his mind that the loose weapon could be headed for a major US city.

US intelligence told the President during a key Oval office meeting that they had received information about Taliban acquiring a nuclear bomb, says the latest book by New York Times journalist David Sanger, adding Obama’s aides also worried about the leak of the news to both India and Pakistan.

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In the book entitled Confront and Conceal that hit the stands on Monday, Sanger wrote: “Obama decided he could not take the chance that the story was false: he ordered one of the US government’s nuclear-detection-and-disablement teams to travel to the region in case it was needed for the search.

“Obama’s aides worried that if news of Washington’s suspicions leaked, the Indians — who had barely held back retaliating against Pakistan after a deadly attack in Mumbai the previous year — would mobilise and put their forces on high alert,” Sanger said.

That would trigger a Pakistani response, and the chance for miscalculations and deadly escalations would soar, he said.