Word: zia
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...then President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto vowed that his nation would develop the capacity to make atomic weapons even if the effort required its citizens to "eat grass." Bhutto did not live to make good on that pledge. But the man who deposed him and ordered his execution, Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, took it just as seriously. Last week, after years of doubtful claims that Pakistan's nuclear research program was not aimed at building weapons, Zia acknowledged with surprising candor that his country has achieved the means of doing precisely that...
...interview with TIME, the President declared, "Pakistan has the capability of building the Bomb. You can write today that Pakistan can build a bomb whenever it wishes. Once you have acquired the technology, which Pakistan has, you can do whatever you like." Zia added, however, that Pakistan still has no actual plan to make nuclear weapons...
...assertion nonetheless makes Pakistan a potential ninth member of the nuclear club.* And it confirmed widespread reports that within the past year Pakistani scientists had acquired or learned how to produce all the components of an atomic bomb, including a nuclear triggering device and weapons-grade uranium. Zia insists that Pakistan has not yet manufactured enriched uranium -- an assertion that is doubted by some observers, including U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Deane R. Hinton. Indeed, Zia seemed to imply that Pakistan could produce a bomb within a month, a deadline that most scientists consider would be difficult to meet unless weapons...
Pakistan's new capability also puts the U.S. on the spot. For years Washington has warned Islamabad against developing nuclear arms. In 1979 the U.S. cut off military and economic aid to Pakistan. When Jimmy Carter offered to restore some assistance following the Soviet invasion of neighboring Afghanistan, Zia contemptuously told the ex-peanut farmer that the funds would not be missed because they amounted to "only peanuts." In recent weeks there have been renewed cries in Congress to punish Pakistan for continuing to defy U.S. nonproliferation policy. John Glenn, leader of the movement in the Senate, warned last week...
...Congress wavers, Sandinista confidence grows. -- U. S. Jewish leaders go to Israel. -- Zia admits Pakistan can build the Bomb...