"Jihadist nuclear-armed Pak worst nightmare for India, US, world": Riedel

"That means working with the Pakistan of today to try to improve its very spotty record on terrorism and proliferation. While many (on both sides of the U.S.-Pakistan dialogue) are pessimistic that cooperation/engagement between America and Pakistan will succeed, there is every reason to try, given the alternatives," he said.

The all-too-possible nightmare scenarios, which he mentioned in his book, should "impel the United States to focus on the current state of Pakistan. It needs to do better in Pakistan. For Obama, 2011 may be the year of Pakistan," Reidel concluded.

The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism

In Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf survived two assassination attempts in December 2003, new investigations have revealed unauthorized sales of sensitive nuclear technology by Pakistani nuclear scientists supportive of a fundamentalist Islamic agenda, developments that raise questions about the security of that country’s nuclear arsenal. new revelations echo earlier disclosures in November 2001 that Pakistani nuclear scientists provided aid of unknown dimensions to al Qaeda.

In Pakistan, the greatest challenges to secure custody of nuclear assets derive from instabilities in the Pakistani political system, questions about the reliability of the military and nuclear chain of command, and the commitment of the nation’s leaders to abandon past ties with radical Islamic causes. Prior to 9/11, Pakistan supported the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, and many within Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, were sympathetic to the Taliban and to al Qaeda.