Panetta's comments come just days after the top U.S. military officer told Congress that there is evidence that Pakistan is adding to its nuclear weapons systems and warheads.
Speaking at a downtown forum organized by the Pacific Council on International Policy, Panetta was asked if nuclear weapons in Pakistan are more safely guarded than those in the former Soviet Union.
"Obviously, we do try to understand where all of these are located," the director said. "We don't have, frankly, the intelligence to know where they all are located."
He added that the U.S. is confident that Pakistani government has a "pretty secure approach to try to protect these weapons."
"It is something that we continue to watch," the director said. "The last thing we want is to have the Taliban have access to nuclear weapons in Pakistan."
At a congressional hearing last week, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked whether there was evidence that Pakistan was adding to its nuclear arsenal. He replied: "Yes."
Pakistan later issued a denial. Pakistan is battling a growing insurgency by Islamist militants with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Washington is considering giving it billions of dollars in aid to help fight the insurgents, who are blamed for attacks on U.S. and foreign troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
"I am not aware of any U.S. aid that has gone toward nuclear weapons, save that which is very focused in the last several years, last three or four years, on improving their security. Which is exactly what we'd like and they've done that," Mullen said in Washington Monday.
Pakistan is thought to possess more than 60 nuclear weapons under a program that began when its traditional enemy, India, started producing them.
The advance of the Taliban has raised fears in the West that the weapons could fall into militant hands. A more likely scenario, analysts say, is that Islamists may infiltrate its nuclear facilities and get hold of nuclear knowledge and material.
He never mentioned fallout from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's charge that she was misled in 2002 about the use of waterboarding. In a statement last week, Panetta defended the CIA, saying "it is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress."
The former California congressman said he wanted to improve relations with Congress and welcomed vigorous oversight from Capitol Hill. He urged Democrats and Republicans to put aside partisanship in an era of grave dangers around the globe.
"There's been a lot of poison in the well in these last few years," he said.
"If they start to use these issues as political clubs to beat each other up with, then that's when we not only pay a price, but this country pays a price."
In a wide-ranging discussion of national security, Panetta said the U.S. needs a "strong intelligence surge" to match military efforts against the Taliban, warned that nations like Somalia and Yemen must not become training grounds for a new generation of al-Qaida militants, and defended airstrikes aimed at al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan that have claimed some civilian lives.
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Associated Press Writer Anne Gearan in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Penetta On Pelosi… 05.15.09
The head of the CIA defended the agency Friday against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's charge that she was misled in 2002 about the use of waterboarding, but he said it ultimately is up to Congress to decide where the truth lies.
"Let me be clear. It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress," CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a message to agency employees that was released to the public. "That is against our laws and our values."
Referring to Pelosi's remarks, he said, "The political debate over interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday."
Panetta's rebuttal was far more muted that a counterattack the Republicans unleashed against Pelosi.
"I think her accusations against our terror-fighters are irresponsible and, according to the CIA's record, Speaker Pelosi was briefed on what had been done," said Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "It's outrageous that a member of Congress would call our terror-fighters liars."
Pelosi drew the criticism a day after opening her weekly news conference with a prepared statement accusing agency briefers of misleading her in 2002 in connection with the use of waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning.
In the statement, she repeated that she was not told that waterboarding had been used, even though it had been, and said an aide informed her of its use after other lawmakers had been briefed in 2003.
Several hours after Panetta circulated his message, Pelosi issued a response that blamed the Bush administration rather than the CIA by name for any errors in connection with the briefings.
"My criticism of the manner in which the Bush administration did not appropriately inform Congress is separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe," it said.
Pelosi has been the target of a campaign orchestrated in recent days by the House Republican leadership, which is eager to undercut her statements as well as stick Democrats with partial responsibility for the use of waterboarding in the Bush administration.
Some Democrats have expressed surprise that she chose to inject herself more deeply into the controversy, especially at a time when President Barack Obama enjoys widespread public support and Republicans are suffering extremely low approval ratings. Associates of the California Democrat say she decided it was an error to allow Republican attacks to go unanswered any longer.
At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs decided to stay out of the controversy. "I appreciate the invitation to get involved but I'll decline to R.S.V.P.." He said the president wanted to look forward, not back.
Panetta, a former Democratic lawmaker from Pelosi's home state of California, said records from the period "indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of (terrorist suspect) Abu Zubaydah, describing `the enhanced techniques that had been employed.'"
He cited a "long tradition in Washington of making hay out of our business. ... But the political debates about interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday when the CIA was accused of misleading Congress."
He added, "We are an agency of high integrity, professionalism and dedication. Our task is to tell it like it is — even if that's not what people always want to hear."
An unclassified chart released last month by the CIA describes a total of 40 briefings for lawmakers over a period of several years on enhanced interrogation techniques. Pelosi's name appears once, as having attended a session on Sept. 4, 2002, when she was the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Former Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., who at the time was the chairman of the committee and later became CIA director, also was present.
While Goss has scoffed at Pelosi's description of the briefing, other lawmakers have challenged the accuracy of the CIA's overall reconstruction of events.
Associated Press
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