One of the biggest panic moments of the first year of the Obama Administration is just finally coming to light, with a revelation from David Sanger’s new book “Confront and Conceal,” in which it is reported that officials were told it was possible the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had acquired nuclear weapons.
Apparently the CIA had gotten it in their head early in the summer that the TTP “could” have a nuclear bomb and was considering obliterating an as-yet-unknown US city. They added that the claims were based on “ambiguous” evidence.
The president dispatched a “disablement team” to find and destroy the nuclear weapon in response, though officials say that the team never actually entered Pakistan and was simply “in the region.”
The panic eventually subsided, after officials decided that it might mean Pakistan had lost a nuke to the TTP, and checked with Pakistan, which confirmed that they hadn’t lost one. According to the book, it was then speculated that the NSA had “misunderstood” the TTP cables they intercepted and the whole threat was illusory.
