Pak was preparing to use nukes during Kargil war, says ex-US official

A former top White House official has claimed that the CIA had warned the then US president Bill Clinton that Pakistan was preparing to deploy its nuclear weapons and possibly use them at the height of the 1999 Kargil war against India.

According to The News International, the CIA's assessment formed part of the daily top secret classified briefing for Clinton on July 4, 1999 when the president was scheduled to meet the visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Bruce Riedel said that the CIA wrote in its top-secret Daily Brief on July 4, 1999, that Pakistan was preparing its nuclear weapons for deployment and possible use.

Riedel said that the intelligence was very compelling and that the mood in the Oval Office was grim.

Riedel said that Sharif was later called to the office and forced to withdraw troops from the border.

Riedel, a former CIA analyst and now working at the Brookings Institution, made the revelations in an obituary he wrote for Sandy Berger, former national security adviser to Clinton, who died of cancer couple of days ago.