Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

[jrjrao]

Pakistan Scientist Offers Public Apology for Leaks

"My brothers and sisters, I have chosen to appear before you to offer my deepest regrets and unqualified apologies to a traumatized nation," Khan said on Pakistan Television, speaking in English. "I also wish to clarify that there was never ever any kind of authorization for these activities by the government."

:rotfl:

[jrjrao]

aur dekho yeh photo:

web page 1 ; web page 2

God, what a circus. Who will fall for all this? Other than the Foggies, that is...

[shiv]

Originally posted by Rangudu:
You guys wanna see a tap dance with words? See today's White House briefing

Q But are you taking them on faith, or do you have independent evidence to back up that what he's saying is true?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that I would leave it the way I did. We value his assurances.

:roll: [/b][/QUOTE]

In other words:

[b]ASK NO QUESTIONS AND BE TOLD NO LIES</B>

[daulat]

poor Xerox bhai, provides visible proof that debriefing really does precede GUBO - and this time its from Gola - who by now knows a thing or two about GUBO

wonder what Mush paid him to take the rap?

[Umrao]

FOlks>> DO you understand the kind of Sherif the globe is under.

No matter what, TSP and China are untouchable.

This parody of Threes company is amazing. (unkil winking, Paki China proliferation).

[Mehta]

What an act by pakistan.

They must be nominated for an Oscar !!

You scratch my back and I will scratch yours.

What a bunch of balonny from pakistan military and so called scientist.

[vijayk]

Originally posted by Daulat:
poor Xerox bhai, provides visible proof that debriefing really does precede GUBO - and this time its from Gola - who by now knows a thing or two about GUBO

wonder what Mush paid him to take the rap?

He is neither poor nor punished. It is all Mushy's grand strategic plan. This is how they dealt with JEM leaders, Pearl killer. They talk to them and tell that in view of the US pressure, they have to swallow the pride and confess and absolve the RAPE army, ISI and Mushy. Publicly they will be arrested or under house arrest. I think privately they will be treated royally. They are being asked to sacrifice now so that Pakis can retreat strategically NOW and take their revenge on hindoos later.

My theory is that jihadis, nuclear rougues are all under the full control of Paki rougue army and ISI. The peace initiative is just a diversion by Mushy to prevent another IRAQ happeing to TSP. The only thing that will disprove any of my theories is only if Pakis hang the Daniel pearl killer or send Xerox Khan to the US for trial or extradite Dawood Ibrahim to India. Mushy is just biding for time.

[vijayk]

Originally posted by Sarma:
Mushy and Xerox Khan have a "fine" meeting

web page

He also submitted "his mercy petition to the President and requested for clemency," it said.

Dr Khan, who was reported to be under house arrest for several weeks and questioned intensively by Pakistani investigators about the alleged transfer of nuclear technology, in a surprise move sought a meeting with Musharraf this morning, which was immediately granted.

The President was exceptionally kind and understanding. We discussed this ongoing affair and the international campaign against Pakistan about nuclear matters.

What a farce!
Let me get this straight. A rougue scientist sells/donates nuclear technology to anyone he wants. He is caught and put under house arrest. He says he wants to meet the president and the president accepts it. He then says "I am sorry.. Please forgive me..". The president says "I will see what I can do. Just go on TV and confess..". And this is all bought by GOTUS and trash called western press that include garbage papers like New York TImes, Wahington Post etc..

[SSridhar]

And, the Confessor is a guy who stole technology from Holland and who was convicted there but for a technical fault. To think that TSP hails him as a national hero and he was awarded the country's highest honours twice...speaks volumes for the country.

[daulat]

vijayk - i was being ironic, or is it sardonic? just as xerox is not being punished, gola is also not being punished. after all, in TSP, GUBO is often enjoyed by the TFTA populace at large

[SaiK]

Warhead Blueprints Link Libya Project to Pakistan Figure
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER

Published: February 4, 2004

ASHINGTON, Feb. 3 — Twelve days ago, a 747 aircraft chartered by the United States government landed at Dulles Airport here carrying a single piece of precious cargo: a small box containing warhead designs that American officials believe were sold to Libya by the underground network linked to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the creator of the Pakistani bomb.

The warhead designs were the first hard evidence that the secret network provided its customers with far more than just the technology to turn uranium into bomb fuel. Libyan officials have told investigators that they bought the blueprints from dealers who are part of that network, apparently for more than $50 million. Those blueprints, along with the capability to make enriched uranium, could have given the Libyans all the elements they needed to make a nuclear bomb. What the Libyans purchased, in the words of an American weapons expert who has reviewed the program in detail, was both the kitchen equipment "and the recipes."
<color=red>
Experts familiar with the contents of the box say the designs closely resemble the warheads that China tested in the late 1960's and passed on to Pakistan decades ago. </color>

American officials are still studying the designs flown out of Libya to determine whether, in fact, they are complete. There is no evidence, the officials say, that the Libyans actually produced the warheads, much less sufficient nuclear fuel. The Libyan nuclear program was just getting started, although Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said recently, "It was simply a matter of time."

American officials emphasize that they have no evidence that the Pakistani government itself was aware of the sales, and they wave aside recent accusations by Mr. Khan's allies that President Pervez Musharraf was himself aware of the transactions. But some experts inside and outside the government say it is difficult to believe that Pakistan's nuclear secrets could have been exported without the knowledge of some in the military and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency, especially since some shipments were made on Pakistani military aircraft.

Whoever was responsible, the warhead design appears now to have been a sought-after prize of the network of nuclear middlemen and parts producers that American officials say is being broken up, from Germany to Malaysia, and from Dubai to the Netherlands.

"Ever since the Libya revelations last month, there have been a lot of detentions, and some arrests," one American official said Tuesday.

The documents were hurried out of Libya on the first flight that could be arranged — a Jan. 22 charter that had arrived in Libya with equipment for the C.I.A. and others dismantling the Libyan nuclear complex. The documents are being held by the Department of Energy, which oversees America's nuclear arsenal. A second flight, a few days later, took thousands of parts for centrifuges to a site in Tennessee.

Inside the White House and across the Potomac at the Central Intelligence Agency, the documents from Libya have raised as many urgent questions as they have answered.

American intelligence officials say they are uncertain who else possesses copies of the design, but they assume there are others. Obtaining the enriched uranium or the plutonium to make a bomb is more difficult than getting a workable bomb design, but their fear is that the network they are uncovering sold both.

Investigators are also trying to determine whether the network of suppliers and experts sold a similar weapons design to North Korea.

American and South Korean officials say North Korea traded its missile technology to Pakistan in return for nuclear weapons technology in the late 1990's. That is during the same period when Libya paid to obtain the design and the centrifuge parts, investigators say.

The last shipment of those parts to Libya was intercepted in October, which was several years after Washington began pressuring Mr. Musharraf's government to shut down the scientists at the Khan laboratory.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/04/politics/04NUKE.html?th

[Umrao]

Experts familiar with the contents of the box say the designs closely resemble the warheads that China tested in the late 1960's and passed on to Pakistan decades ago.

Even a skull head can understand the Paki and PRC intention against India US and the democracies of the world.

I still dont understand the so called SA pundits, experts, and SD advisors who are **** scared of calling spade a spade about the Paki bomb.
Wonder of wonders the very same folk talk about India and Pak being the equals. How do these guys get such lucarative jobs in the administration?

[SaiK]

Under the name of establishments like CIA and intelligence, anything can happen in secrecy. The evil can become good, vice-versa.

Pakis became good, because they don't mind being a condom. Unfortunately, it looks like now that condom has spilled too much of beans, and it can give babies back to the intelligence-body to deal with.

If India can't latch on to this, and make uncle dance to what we want, then we are not exploiting a good situation to our ends. Its not a sin, to clean our environment.

First, we should never agree to this

[Alok Niranjan]

Originally posted by John Umrao:

How do these guys get such lucarative jobs in the administration?

precisely because they are agreeable to being stupid publicly. It is quite a talent ... most folks can't do it with a straight face

[Vivek K]

Poor Mushy !!Went to Kargil and had his b*tt kicked (by the US)! Supported the Taliban and had his b*tt kicked (by the US). Supported AQ Khan-father of the Islamic bomb and got his b*tt kicked (by the US).

[Rangudu]

http://www.intelligenceonline.net

CIA may question A.Q.Khan

4 February 2004: A three-member CIA team is coming to Islamabad on 26 February to interrogate the so-called father of the Pak A-bomb, A.Q.Khan, over his links to North Korea’s nuclear programme. Khan who has confessed to proliferating nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea is expected to be confronted with photographs and other evidence that he helped set up North Korea’s plutonium pre-processing unit and the controversial P 6-weaponisation reactor.

Diplomats said that Khan spent twenty-eight days in North Korea in July 1999 establishing its nuclear facilities. In diplomatic circles, it was generally known that a Pakistani team was in North Korea at that time, but it was assumed that Pakistan was making emergency purchases of missiles. Now it turns out that Khan and other Pakistani atomic scientists were critically engaged in proliferating to North Korea.

Sources said that the former Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharief, had corroborated some of Khan’s proliferation activities, but apparently said that he had no control over Khan’s movements, and that the powerful atomic scientist could requisition Pakistan airforce planes at will to fly him around the world.

The US wants to keep a lid on the CIA interrogation of A.Q.Khan, fearing that in the event of protests, Pakistan would withdraw the permission for the questioning of the scientist. In addition to Khan, the CIA is expected to question other nuclear scientists connected to the proliferation.

[kgoan]

The body language between Xerox and Mush in this photo, posted by JRJ above, is *very* instructive.

[Vijnan]

http://jang.com.pk/important_events/dr.%20qadeer%20khan/index.html

Qadeer Khan meets President Musharraf, seeks clemency
ISLAMABAD: The founder of Pakistan's nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, accepted full responsibility for all leaks of Pakistani nuclear data on Wednesday and sought clemency from President Pervez Musharraf, a government statement said.

This he said in his meeting with Pakistna’s President General Pevez Musharraf held in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad.

Khan "has accepted full responsibility for all the nuclear proliferation activities which were conducted by him during the period in which he was at the helm of affairs of the Khan Research Laboratories, the statement said.

Khan had also "submitted his mercy petition to the president and requested
for clemency," it said.

Musharraf was to consult the National Command Authority, the top decision-making body on Pakistan's nuclear and missile programme, before deciding whether to accept Khan's plea for mercy, the statement said.

Pakistan television showed an interview with Khan who said he had told the president "what had happened."

"I gave him the background what was happening and what had happaned," Khan
told state-run TV.

"He (Musharraf) appreciated the frankness with which I gave him the details and insh'allah (God willing) he will discuss with the cabinet, with the prime minister, with other colleagues and then he will take a decision how to proceed and close this matter."

Musharraf said the entire nation had been "severely traumatised by the unfortunate events in the last months," a reference to the investigation into nuclear leaks by Pakistani scientists to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

[Umrao]

SO a happy ending has come about. Now

No more proliferation by Pakistan

No more proliferation By Pakistani santists

No more proliferation by PRC

No more Nukes made in Libya

No more Nukes made in Iran

No more Nukes in KSA

No more Nukes in AL Qaeda hands

NO more jobs for SA experts of Non Proliferation Jihadis running the corridors of SD.

Time for another

"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED CARRIER LANDING"

Time for closing the thread.

[A_Gupta]

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is the official US army policy (regarding gays), and now this is the official State Department policy regarding Pakistan

The rule is that WMD proliferation exists if and only if the US Dept of State or Defence says so

In the meantime, we can hope for some leaks from Musharraf's opponents and A.Q. Khan's supporters within the establishment of evidence that the Paki govt. did authorize proliferation program activities (to use a phrase of Prez. Bush).

[James Bund]

But at least Pakistan can contiue denying accusations-only from now on they will be denying having denied proliferation to Iran, Libya etc. I tell ya this is a watershed in the maturing of the Pak psyche-now they have to admit what the 'Hindu b@stards' think of them was right all along.

[Umrao]

X posted from Iraq thread.
----------------------------------

Is this a joke or some cosmological event.

1) Blair sets up an Independent Inquiry to look if WMD in Iraq was sexed up.

(Experts feel that this may take them back to 10 Drowning street as Man of the house could not stand up to Bush, but now blames Bush house!!)

2) Prez sets up an (judicious) Inquiry into intelligence failure.

(Experts feel this may boomerang as White House may be found to be the source of insufficient intelligence)

3) Musharaff sets up an Inquiry to find out the proliferation of Nukes.

(SA experts and Pundits, feel this is a deft move on the part of Mushy the Coyote as he has already prepared what the commission should find. He is then expected to announce that due to the brilliant efforts of Abdul Xerox Khan, Pakistan has helped US to confirm that the axis of evil viz Iran, N Korea Libya were indeed trying to aquire WMD. But not to worry the Pakistani santist only supplied decoys not the real stuff as the real ones are not in Pakistan but in China)

[svinayak]

Originally posted by SSridhar:

A Q Khan has now become the nemesis of western hypocrisy on non-proliferation and of the Pakistani military establishment. It is not easy for General Musharraf to maintain that the Pak military and the ISI had no clue of Khan’s vast operations. They do know that without the European nuclear black market network, the Pakistani nuclear arsenal cannot be sustained indefinitely. Obviously, such an enormous operation could not have been missed out by the CIA, MI-6 and secret services of all major western countries. The commitment of the West to non-proliferation was never genuine.

K is choosy with his words. Does not tell that west was complicit in the proliferation and may have directly aided in the setup of the network for proliferation eg. BCCI.

[daulat]

watch for announcements from SD on Pak weapons now.... and then shortly afterwards unspoken confirmation of nooknoodness

then the eye of sauron will fall on bharat, unkil will not like to leave nooks lying around, especially if mushy is trying to get his .454kg of flesh

[laxmibai]

One fall guy doesnot a nukenood regime make. Nothing stops China from continuing to supply Pakistan with nukes on demand, esp when the US government and its obedient media have been so obliging as to provide 100% impervious cover.

IMO, India should start making noises about the Chinese connection to prevent the situation Daulat talks of.

[Suraj]

Originally posted by kgoan:

But folks, please also keep an eye out for anything *new*. i.e. Any *recent* stuff, (meaning anything written in "reputable"** media since the Xerox stuff blew up in Paks face), that mentions BCCI in the current context.

kgoan: If the sordid stuff on some of the links I posted earlier is any indication, maybe its not farfetched to presume you'll not find the BCCI-Paki nuke link be detailed in so many words in any 'mainstream' media source, because:
a) "Well, golly gee, didn't Powell pat Mushy's tushy and absolve him of all wrongdoing, and don't we all think Mushy's the greatest thing since sliced bread" ?
b) They might themselves have financial ties with the money hoard, of which BCCI just happened to be the most prominent tap. Being mainstream could implicitly ensure that their reportage of the subject sticks to the 'mainstream'.

Still, plugging in various word permutations of "BCCI", "nuclear" and "drugs" into Google News yields some links. There's particularly one to Financial Times dated within the last few days, but I can't access it since I'm not registered with them. Anyone who can access it, please take a look and post it in full if its worthwhile.

[Umrao]

This is what you are looking for kgoan garu.

ASIA-PACIFIC: Pakistan investigates BCCI role in sale of nuclear knowhow
Financial Times, Jan 28, 2004
By Stephen Fidler in London and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
The Pakistani government is examining records of the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International in its investigation...

**
Unfortunately my subscription has expired.

[Suraj]

Jumrao: yep, that's the one I mentioned. Any FT subscribers here ?

[Rangudu]

Here it is.

http://news.ft.com

Pakistan investigates BCCI role in sale of nuclear knowhow

By Stephen Fidler in London and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad

Published: January 28 2004 4:00 | Last Updated: January 28 2004 4:00

The Pakistani government is examining records of the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International in its investigation into the role Pakistani scientists may have played in selling nuclear knowhow to Iran, North Korea and Libya.


According to bankers, some of whom worked with BCCI before it collapsed in 1991, Pakistani investigators have sought the help of former BCCI employees to try to uncover payments made to scientists connected with Pakistan's nuclear programme.

BCCI's role in financing Pakistan's own nuclear efforts has long been the subject of scrutiny. In 1992, a report into BCCI from a US Congressional sub-committee headed by Senator John Kerry, now a leading Democratic presidential contender, said "there is good reason to conclude that BCCI did finance Pakistan's nuclear programme". Though it said the issue deserved further investigation, there was little public follow-through.

This year, however, as evidence has mounted that Pakistani scientists helped the uranium enrichment programmes of Iran, North Korea and Libya, the Pakistani government has launched an investigation. A government spokesman in Islamabad said that anybody found to have passed on secrets would be punished, but denied that the government approved any transfers.

At least 11 Pakistani scientists and officials - as well as the so-called father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan - have been questioned.

BCCI helped the Pakistani government under General Zia ul Haq, the military dictator killed in a 1988 plane crash, to channel payments from the US Central Intelligence Agency to fighters seeking to oust Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Soviet troops withdrew in 1989 but former BCCI officials said the relationship for organising undocumented payments for influential Pakistanis continued until the bank's collapse.

One former BCCI banker who said he organised funds transfers on behalf of senior military officers in the Zia regime commented: "I'm not surprised that the Pakistanis are now looking to put together dossiers on some of their scientists receiving payments through BCCI."

He said that over the past two months, Pakistani officials had travelled to the Middle East, looking for evidence of nuclear scientists receiving payments through BCCI.

Another former BCCI banker said that establishing payments to Pakistani nuclear scientists through the bank could provide evidence about the so far undocumented role of senior former Pakistani military officers in overseeing the transfer of nuclear knowhow to other countries. The investigation has prompted speculation among western intelligence officials and diplomats over the extent to which General Zia, leader of a frontline anti-communist state, in fact sanctioned the transfer of nuclear knowhow to Iran.

In the past four to eight weeks, he said the Pakistani investigators have been seeking evidence of payments made to Mohammad Farooq, one of the nuclear scientists at the centre of the investigation. Pakistani officials are said to have focused on Mr Farooq as a possible contact between the Iranians and Mr Khan.

Mr Farooq is said to be one of a handful of Pakistani nuclear scientists who travelled to Iran in the past. According to a retired Pakistani government official now settled overseas, Gen Zia authorised the transfer of nuclear information but only if it was intended for peaceful purposes.

In a report aimed at outlining proliferation risks to Dutch businesses, the country's General Intelligence and Security Service said "Pakistan had based its nuclear weapons programme on knowledge that had been stolen in the Netherlands". It said Mr Khan "largely acquired his knowledge through a study and a trainee project in the Netherlands. He concluded his traineeship by stealing technology from his employer", the Anglo-Dutch-German consortium Urenco.

According to people who have debriefed Iraqi scientists, and Iraqi memos uncovered earlier, a person saying he represented Mr Khan visited Baghdad in October 1990 to offer bomb design and help with uranium enrichment centrifuges. The approach was never pursued.

[Umrao]

recall this BCCI was big time Sharja Cricket sponosorer, from which the fountain of Match fixing started ( note: match fixing is not the same as arranged marriage )

[Avram S]

Originally posted by shiv:

Originally posted by Rangudu:
[b]You guys wanna see a tap dance with words? See today's White House briefing

Q But are you taking them on faith, or do you have independent evidence to back up that what he's saying is true?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that I would leave it the way I did. We value his assurances.

:roll: [/b]

In other words:

ASK NO QUESTIONS AND BE TOLD NO LIES [/b][/QUOTE]

Folks, I think this tap dancing -if that is what it is called- is only for public consumption. Once the situation and the noise calms down, heads are going to roll. Mushy may be involved in the whole operation of selling the secrets but to save his hide (he has made too many enemies among his cliques) will be willing to send a few more to the gulag. AQK could have been part of the Cabal that opposes any so called Kashmir sell out. State Department folks are well aware of it all. So is the White House and Pentagon. Moreover, they have been given complaints after complaints by the command in Afghanistan and the Afghans themselves. The pressure is intense on Mushy from all angles. Now at least for public consumption, MUshy cannot be painted as a "bad guy" by either White House or SD. The heat applied is all behind the scene. The FBI and CIA have almost free reign in there and now they want all American military action inside the border. Mushy may have escaped assasination in the past but the inevitable could still be a possibility. He is buying time by getting rid of all those he smells as rats. If that includes AQK, so be it. It is impossible to think that nuke trade was conducted without the military's knowledge or for that matter Mushy's. In the last few days the news out of Pak is all rosy about ZA Butto's nuke policy and achievements and the claim that these were messed up by Zia. Maybe Mushy is doing to monkey dance to get into the good books of PPP now that he is soon going to shed his uniform. I like to believe that the days of military supremacy in politics is declining now.If what Irfan Hussein implies is correct-in his weekend piece he says that it was the military which had come to the conclusion that they had failed to wrest Kashmir away from India through direct and indirect approach and they were the ones who gave Mushy the green light to seek a peaceful solution.All these puzzles could be leading to one big jig-saw.
AS

[kgoan]

Bingo!

Thank you gentlemen, that theres gold!

Because while the report doesn't say much, that statement about the Paks looking into BCCI records, that's the giveaway!

There is a lot (and I mean a *lot*) of stuff on BCCI around, so to look into it is really hard. But what that statement about the Paks looking into BCCI tells us is that there is info there.

Info that came out when the Paks were *not* worried about the US and so were probably not, at the time, concerned about the things they are *now* concerned about. So somethings *might* have slipped out. Which is probably what the Paks are checking on.

And it tells us that it *is* worth looking for some sort of patterns in the BCCI saga - and to see if any of those names ring a bell. (By, among other things, downloading websites if necessary and writing little perl scripts to pattern-match names etc.)

A *lot* of folk (not just in Pak Land) are going to be trying to cover their tracks and hide things - the precise type of things we want to expose and write articles on.

Can't say for sure what will come out of this, but lets see.

[Kanu]

Originally posted by John Umrao:
recall this BCCI was big time Sharja Cricket sponosorer, from which the fountain of Match fixing started ( note: match fixing is not the same as arranged marriage )

God I used to go and scream at the stadium like a mad man. Little did I know then the true horrors of the world.

[Vikram]

This is from Rajeev Srinivasan's article titled, "Give war a chance".

This scholarly thesis by Seymour Hersh is a must-read and must archive.

On the Nuclear Edge

The entire blame for nuclear proliferation should rest squarely on the shoulders of Reagan and Bush Sr. Not only did they turn a blind eye to Pakistan's attempt to steal the bomb but they also lied to the US Congress by certifying that Pakistan didn't have the bomb while fully aware of the contrary. But then Reagan was a habitual liar. Remember, the Iran-Contra ?

Now no telling how many other nations and how many other terrorist groups may have the bomb. Like Jasjit Singh said, you don't know what you don't know.

God forbid, if the US ever gets attacked by one of these, the world can now just shrug it's shoulders and say, "bad karma".

[SaiK]

Our major irk is pakistan getting away, without the "bad karma".. is the thought really helping? It feels like sadist regimes joins with more sadist and imperialistic economic blocks, that makes love with all god-damned things... and the history being made hiding the real bad.

Can't let go the evil doers like that. We need to pull the rug right now or never. If unkil, gets away with this play, then he sure gonna make us dance ubiquitously. We need to hold on to this string and let the real puppet be puppets for ever.

We have to kill with the real force. This is a real bad pinnochio, under disguise.

[RobinM]

TEXT of A.Q. Khan's Apology to Pakistanis

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/04/international/asia/04CND-TEXT.html

I also appeal to all citizens of Pakistan in the supreme national interest to refrain from any further speculations and not to politicize this extremely sensitive issue of national security. May Allah keep Pakistan safe and secure. Pakistan Paindabad! :confused: [Long Live Pakistan!].

[Bhrigu]

As an aside - for bay area folks - in tomorrow's forum program on KQED 88.5 FM, Michael Krasny is going to discuss pakistani 'rogue scientists' nuclear proliferation. In the second half of the prog, listeners can call in with their questions. dont yet know the expert panel he is going to assemble. this will be on air at 9 AM PST and will be an hour long.

[Kuttan]

Yesterday's Houston Chronicle (Feb.3, p. 10A)had an inside page headline saying:

Musharraf named in Nuclear (proliferation..)

By John Lancaster and Kamran Khan, Washington Post

Unfortunately the piece of the paper that I kept (for other readons) has only upto "nuce.." left.

Underneath it says in smaller title print: "Top Pakistani scientist says senior officials OK'd...) Shows a nice mug shot of AXK.

quoted excerpts follow:

(AXK) has told investigators that he helped North Korea design and equip facilities for making weapons-grade uranium [b]with the knowledge of senior military commanders, including Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, according to a friend of Khan's and a senior Pakistani investigator.

Khanalso has told investigators that Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, the Pakistani army chief of staff from 1988 to 1991, was aware of assistance Khan was providing to Iran's nuclear program and that two other army chiefs, including Musharraf, knew and approved of his efforts on behalf of North Korea, the same individuals said Monday.

Khan's assertions.... (blah-blah). They contradict repeated contentions by Musharraf and other senior officials that Khan and at least one other scientist, Mohammed Farooq, acted out of greed and in violation of government policy that bars the export of nuclear weapons technology to any foreign country.

On the basis of Khan's claims, Beg and another former (chief of staff) Jehangir Karamat, who occuiped the post from 1996 to 1998, have been questioned by investigators in recent days, but both have denied any knowledge of the transactions, according to a senior Pakistani military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity...

The article goes downhill about Paki denials, but anyway that's all that survived the "downsizing" of the paper.

How come this has not been seen anywhere else? Sounds like it should be in the Washington Boast, hey? They left the newspaper bundles outside and Pamela con Stable ate all the papers or what?

[Rye]

Originally posted by narayanan:

How come this has not been seen anywhere else? Sounds like it should be in the Washington Boast, hey?

As I suspected, the "free press" in the land of the free and the home of the brave probably have been requested by the SD to keep this one out of the news. I mean, if Mushy's is part of the nuke proliferation, then the Bush admin has to answer really uncomfortable questions as to why Iraq was targeted instead of its frontline ally in the GOAT. The US and Paki govts. are working in concert to keep AXK's accusation of musharraf under the lid. AXK voluntarily becomes the fall guy and in return gets to keep his loot and is out on parole in pakistan, just like the rest of his fellow criminals. Mushy gets to blame AXK and saves the H&D of the paki army, and keeps the army out of this proliferation scandal. The US SD gets to continue with "Musharraf is pakistan's savior" line because now he cannot be accused of nuke proliferation post 9/11. What a freaking scam!

[svinayak]

Nobody talks about the period between 1991 to 1996 between Beg and Karamat. Is this not odd.

WHo where the COAS and the ISI DG. Also we need to know which govt Bhutto and Sharief was more active in this proliferation.