Over the past two years, Pakistan’s nuclear sites have been attacked at least three times by homegrown terrorists.

On Nov. 1, 2007, the nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha was hit. Then, a suicide bomber attacked Pakistan’s nuclear airbase at Kamra on Dec. 10, 2007. Most significantly, on Aug. 20, 2008, Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers raided an armament complex at the Wah Cantonment, one of Pakistan’s primary weapons facilities, blowing up several of its entry points.

The little-publicized incidents were tracked by Shaun Gregory, professor at Bradford University in the United Kingdom, who surprised even experts on terrorism with the report.

“He points out something that was news to me,” said terrorism analyst Peter Bergen, “which is that a series of attacks on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons facilities have already happened.”

Pakistan has taken steps to secure its nuclear weapons against attacks, and officials insist that there is no chance of them falling into terrorist possession. But Gregory points out that these safeguard steps were originally designed to protect Pakistan from external attacks—mainly from India and the United States. He posits that, because its nuclear weapons facilities are mainly in areas dominated by the Taliban and al Qaeda, today’s Pakistan is more vulnerable to internal attacks.

“[D]espite these elaborate safeguards,” Gregory says, “empirical evidence points to a clear set of weaknesses and vulnerabilities in Pakistan’s nuclear safety and security arrangements.”

This bodes poorly for the world’s efforts to squelch nuclear proliferation.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has listed the possibility of terrorists conquering nuclear Pakistan among the indicators that the nuclear “genie” is out of the bottle. For information on why this threat is serious and where it is leading, read his article “Major News Sources Ask: Will Christ Ever Return?”