Talk of U.S. plans to secure Pakistani nuclear weapons 'wildly hypothetical'

A senior U.S. defense official has dubbed "wildly hypothetical and speculative" some recent reports about Washington's contingency plans for a potential military intervention to secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons from extremists. Concern has been on the rise lately that violent extremists in Pakistan might seize control of nuclear materials or weapons, a scenario that U.S. and allied leaders have long cited as a worst-case possibility. However, some South Asia experts seriously doubt the feasibility of such an incident ever occurring. "I don't think that's a likely scenario to begin with," said Michael Krepon of the Ploughshares-funded Stimson Center.