| Submit your comments on this article | |||
| India-Pakistan | |||
| More on Pak nuclear program | |||
| 2004-01-29 | |||
The United States’s patience could finally be running out with Pakistan and its nuclear program, even though Islamabad is scrambling to reassure Washington that any proliferation in the past was an aberration on the part of rogue individuals. Disclosure by Iran to the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency of the names of people who provided Tehran with nuclear technology - including Pakistani scientists - has clearly alarmed Washington, even though these events took place some years ago. All of Pakistan’s scientists are also now under heavy surveillance to track their every move, and the government has issued a circular stating that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, a long-time celebrity in Pakistan, is not to be invited to any ceremonies or official functions, or in any way treated as a VIP.
That would be something very difficult to pull off, I shudder to think how Musharaff’s fellow Generals would react. Besides which, Washington would probably have to put pressure on India to disarm in order to pacify the Pakistanis, and it has much less leverage over New Delhi than Islamabad. US attention is also focussed clearly on Dr Khan. US and UK investigators have already made known evidence of him traveling on a personal rather than a diplomatic passport to Iran, North Korea, the United Arab Emirates and the UK. The UK government unofficially informed Islamabad several times of the visits, but received no response, leading investigators to conclude that he was, in fact, on official business. Tehran authorities have also released information concerning a property near the port of Bandar Abbas, officially given to Dr Khan by the government of Iran. A Pakistan scientist who was affiliated with Pakistan’s nuclear program spoke to Asia Times Online about the country’s nuclear program. The program was the brain child of former premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was a champion of Third World countries and their rights. "If India develops nuclear weapons, Pakistan will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry" in order to develop a program of its own, he said at the time. But somehow I doubt Bhutto missed many meals.. Pakistan became the main supply line of arms (mostly from the US) to Afghan mujahideen rallying to fight the Soviets, who had invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. In 1981, because of its importance in the Afghan puzzle, the US Congress granted Pakistan a six-year exemption from the Symington Amendment, which prohibited aid to any non-nuclear country engaged in illegal procurement of equipment for a nuclear weapons program. Pakistan also accepted a US$3.2 billion, six-year aid package from the US that included the sale of F-16 planes. Free from the threat of sanctions, in 1982, there was a cold test at a small-scale reprocessing plant in Pakistan. Another case of blowback from the Afghan Jihad.. Around this time, Allama Ariful Hussaini, the chief of the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqa-i-Jaferia Pakistan, the largest Shi’ite organization in Pakistan, emerged as a go-between for Tehran and Pakistan, first for arms, and ultimately in the transfer of nuclear technology. Hussaini was shot dead in Peshawar in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) a few days before General Zia’s death in a plane accident in August 1988. Hussaini’s party blamed then corps commander and governor of NWFP, Lieutenant-General Fazal-i-Haq, who was Zia’s right-hand man. Haq himself was later murdered by a Shi’ite assassin. Wheels within wheels By the late 1980s, then, the US was aware that Pakistan’s nuclear program was well advanced, and knew that Pakistan and Iran were cooperating in weapons transfers - most likely including nuclear technology. In mid-1988, a US oil tanker was fired on and it emerged that US missiles that had been given to Pakistan as supplies for Afghan mujahideen had been used in the attack.
The Former director of the ISI, Javid Nassir, openly admitted to smuggling Stinger Missiles to Chechnya and Bosnia. His forceable retirement was on of the conditions Clinton gave Pakistan to get them off the State Sponsorship of Terrorism list back in 1993. And that ammunition dump explosion isn’t the only time convenient fires have destroyed incriminating evidence in Pakistan. Since Pakistan was still a trusted ally in the Cold War, the US did not take any action. In June 1989, then prime minister Benazir Bhutto visited Washington DC. Before Bhutto’s trip, though, production of highly-enriched uranium was stopped, a step that was verified by the US. It is believed that production was re-started after heightening tensions with India over Kashmir in 1990. During these years, the deep seeds of suspicion over Pakistan’s trustworthiness were planted, and they are now bearing the fruit that could poison Pakistan’s nuclear program, with the country’s scientists already feeling the ill effects. | |||
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #19 Back after work. Ok Faisal, what have you contributed. You've been around Rantburg for a while - you've read comments where people have despaired over the Islamists, comments where people have wanted the all Islamists annihilated. You've got an opinion (which seems the standard "It's all Israel's fault"). The point of my post is this; the West can do what the Islamists aspire to (ie annihilate the 'others') and its been able to do that for fifty years but hasn't. It is *trying really hard* not to do that, but everything we read from the Islamists is making us in the Western World think that it's not worth the bother. Read up on the things that Westerners did to each other in the Second World War, the First World War, the Boer War, the Napoleonic Wars and through to the Medieval Wars (and those wars were *completely* psycho) and so on and so on. Do Islamists truly want to unleash that? In my opinion this is one of the main reasons that Westerners try to understand, and are so tolerant? of other cultures. We (subconciously?) realise what we're capable of, so we do everything we can to avoid it. The veneer is very thin though, and barbarism is always very close to the surface. The Islamists had better hope that the veneer remains there. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2004-1-29 6:06:23 PM |
| #18 Oh, and Faisal? In case you couldn't tell, whitecollar redneck was being sarcastic. |
| Posted by: Korora 2004-1-29 3:38:25 PM |
| #17 Still looking for Emperor Zorg, he's late for the Price is Right. Tell him to get his little white butt back to the ward. |
| Posted by: Nuss Ratchett 2004-1-29 3:23:44 PM |
| #16 Why is it that Islamist trolls always write "u" in place of "you." Because that's how they learned to spell it at the madrassa? In between classes on seething, putting together a bomb jacket and twisting around the Koran, that is. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2004-1-29 2:21:16 PM |
| #15 Don't worry about Israel going down, Faisel, on the bright side, they'll be taking out a lot of palis and Syrians w/them. And if we really get lucky and the wind's blowing the right way.... And all that fighting and death about Al Asqa for naught. But that's OK, some Egyptian scholars think it doesn't have significance anyway. |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-1-29 1:59:40 PM |
| #14 Why is it that Islamist trolls always write "u" in place of "you." I only do that on my cell fone. Every other electronic communication gets the full treatment (messaging on a cell fone is such a pain). |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-1-29 1:20:24 PM |
| #13 Why is it that Islamist trolls always write "u" in place of "you." I've noticed the same thing on LGF. It's like reading a twelve year old's cell phone text messages. Because they're sub-literate twits? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-1-29 12:45:46 PM |
| #12 Is AbuTrollSlicer amongst us? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-29 12:10:42 PM |
| #11 You realize of course that under a secret agreement with the royal family in 1974 the interest your father pays is being skimmed off to support Israel. It was called "Operation Shylock." I suggest you go to Lyndon LaRouche's website for further information. http://larouchein2004.net/ |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-1-29 11:45:13 AM |
| #10 Why is it that Islamist trolls always write "u" in place of "you." I've noticed the same thing on LGF. It's like reading a twelve year old's cell phone text messages. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-1-29 11:43:31 AM |
| #9 Jeez. maybe i should weigh the monetary benefits of this vast global zionist conspiracy (VGZC) lol. i hope your mortgage rates arent too high eh. good that i live in ma dad's house so i don't have any housepayments to make. Where's Jon She(e)p of UK fame lol. |
| Posted by: Faisal 2004-1-29 11:14:18 AM |
| #8 Thanks Faisal, I get paid piece work by the Vast Zionist Conspiracy. Your most recent contributions helped me make my house payment this month. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-1-29 11:01:14 AM |
| #7 Lol redneck. Just was a bit busy with stuff. As u know i don't get paid by anyone for the rants ... like u do :-). Jews are fine with me. zionists are not. cheers! |
| Posted by: Faisal 2004-1-29 10:56:52 AM |
| #6 I just love how you shriek the words "Zionist" and "JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWS" |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-1-29 10:36:24 AM |
| #5 Hey everybody, Faisal's back. Come on F. Make some more funny noises. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-1-29 10:33:09 AM |
| #4 That reminds me... a Pakiwaki president once told his US counterpart that we can't reach you... but if we are ever threatened, we take Mama israel down with us. Let's hope White House is rid of all the monkeys soon. Man, I'm betting on Sen. Kerry. |
| Posted by: Faisal 2004-1-29 10:19:33 AM |
| #3 Oops! Tony - you used the "L" word: Logic. As a Westerner, your logic is unassailable. But... There is none in Islam - and Pakiwakiland is even a special case of Illogical Islam. Perv may "get it" - but Steve's right about this: there's no way the rest will. They have attached just about everything regards their self-image and worth, not to mention the size of their Pakiwaki dicks, to being the proud thieves of nuke technology to threaten India... and wobble and bluster on the World Stage as if they aren't the bottom of the barrel. Khan & Co have taken the fatal step in peddling it to other insane regimes, as recent evidence proves. An aside: Given the way Prez Putty has been acting for the last year or so, I'd say that he would've done it if they hadn't - and that's a damning comment regards the pathetic / faltering Russian economy and half-assed efforts at capitalism while working overtime on gangsterism. The disaster of Russia's condition is the incredible stupidity it took to choose not to work on closer US ties and, instead, take their current course of selling off Soviet tech to the highest bidder, while their infrastructure crumbles - especially their hard-currency oil industry, and mimic Chirac's absurd and pretentious pseudo-morality games in the UNSC. Truly stupid. Your conclusion is spot-on, though: all bets will be off if Dubya gets another term. The problem will be that they won't think. I have concluded that someday, by our hand or theirs or someone else's, Pakiwakiland will be a smoking hole. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-1-29 8:36:07 AM |
| #2 Steve, my comment yesterday (on the Pak nuke program) was to the effect of; if GWB is re-elected, then the gloves come off and the Paks may have to hand over their nukes - because the Ohio class submarine in the Indian Ocean will have quite a few warheads pointed their way. If there is any evidence that these weapons are finding their way into terrorist hands, then the terrible logic of The Three Conjectures comes into play and all bets are off. Perhaps someone has told Perv this? |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2004-1-29 2:42:32 AM |
| #1 Paks won't give up their nuke program -- simply won't happen. Generals will whack Perv themselves if he tries it. Best we can hope for is a complete accounting of what happened and some sort of monitoring system to keep the |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-1-29 12:11:53 AM |