Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

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Rak
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rak »

he will “expose every one and everything” if he was made the scapegoat for “collective actions and decisions” of the past.
Has anybody checked Pakistan's Honor & Dignity Meter after the explosive development above ?

Outcry in Pakistan, as Honor and Dignity goes down the toilet
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rangudu »

Link
Pak scientist sends a videotape in defence abroad

From our correspondent

29 January 2004

ISLAMABAD - Unconfirmed reports have said that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has videotaped his defence and sent a copy abroad through his daughter.

Meanwhile, the ruling party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain met Dr Khan along with Senator S.M. Zafar.

Mr Zafar is very close to Dr Khan and had defended him in a Belgian court in 1980s against charges he stole documents on enrichment.

Dr Khan reportedly handed out one copy of the video to them.

The copy has explosive material revealing many secrets, it is said.

Some intense activity at government level is continuing in the capital amid prospects of action against Dr Khan.

Prime Minister Zafrullah Jamali met President Musharraf on Tuesday evening in which both reportedly reviewed the outcome of the investigations and possible implications at home and abroad.

Late at night, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed met Dr Khan.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Calvin »

Does AQK have no powerful friends that he has to resort to Osama's Videotape methods?

Also, note Qazi's threats
Khaleej Times (Feb 1) - Qazi debriefing not small issue, Army under US control, must prepare to face the masses
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rak »

Originally posted by Calvin:
Does AQK have no powerful friends that he has to resort to Osama's Videotape methods?
A pattern. Abdul X must have learned it from Osama. During his meeting with Osama, Osama would have said "hey abdul x, I always use video tape for BS, preferably in front of a rock formation, I suggest you start sporting a beard, its time my boy, its time to join us inside a cave. I have reserved a corner for you in my five star cave hilton"

Incidently is the videotape titled "Abdul Qader Khan gone Wild !! "
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by kgoan »

2 billion? Geez, no wonder Xerox got dumped on the shaft.

See, with $2 billion in the bank, quite clearly the dude was hoarding and *not* sharing with the rest of the 40 (or how ever many) thieves.

After all, if you were a Pakee (figure of speech - no insult intended to any :eek: ), or if you were a S Asia "expert", or a Non-Prolif mullah for that matter (how many research grants is 2 billion?), wouldn't you get slightly p!ssed at some dude who was holding out on you to the tune of 2 billion?

And if Xerox, who is clearly not the most powerful dude out in Pak land can accumulate 2 billion, how much do you folk think Beg and all those folk with their fingers on the drug trade etc, have?

And people wonder how Cohen, the NP-Mullahs, folk formerly working as Chefs in the Culinary Institute, the Pak-friendship brigade in the US etc, etc work?

LOL!

You know, the question is *not* "who's on the take" in the depths of Indian-peaceniks/SAsia-expert/NPMullah/SD-la-la-land, the real question is: who isn't?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by AJay »

Originally posted by Rakesh_Koshy:
I can't believe Abdul 'Queer' Khan has been sacked. Heheheheh :)
I wonder what purpose is served by this juvenile comment.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by ArunK »

A Hercules C-130's claim to fame is that it is the ONLY transport aircraft that can land on a carrier. There are still clips floating on the net of a C-130 doing that.

Also, a C-130 is the IDEAL aircraft to land at unprepared strips, dirt tracks etc. So who would believe that a C-130 could not land anywhere near Timbuctoo?

Pathetic liars...
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Anantha »

Notice the big numbers like 2 billion $ etc. quoted freely everywhere. As most here were suspecting TSP and its actors have lot of slush funds in their disposal for several under the table activities. Makes you wonder why "South Asia experts" always secretly peddled the TSP position and acted to water down every TSP illegal activity like jihadism against India and the world, fake currency, supporting Indian underworld etc.

BTW, VIP and Jockey aside, could someone seriously expain what is debriefing, what is done during debriefing? Is it an official insult? or demotion, suspension?.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Nandu »

A.Ananth, "debriefing" is an euphemism for questioning, presumably without the use of third degree methods.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Umrao »

Adding to what GEM has said, I have been honking ever since AGra that Mushy is a RAW graduate, who is doing his best o the script.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rangudu »

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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Raman »

Originally posted by Calvin:
Does AQK have no powerful friends that he has to resort to Osama's Videotape methods?
The video tape is the only thing that is keeping him alive. Stakes are too high for Mushy (whatever credibility remains of his regime) and Bush (with elections coming up soon), so if it wasn't for the tape, AXK would have suddenly committed "suicide" in a fit of remorse. Would have cleaned things up quickly and neatly for POTUS and Mushy. AXK knew this perfectly and had the tape made and sent out at the first sign of trouble.

If the tape is found before trial, AXK is toast; you can be damn sure the ISI and CIA are working full-time to recover it prestissimo.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rye »

I believe Rajesh is right. The video tape is AXK's insurance policy. Already he is "missing", and he managed to get this tape out of the country before he went missing. I wager that he prepared the tape a while back, and made sure that the paki army's dirty secrets won't die with him.

More editorials on Pakistani proliferation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47-2004Jan30.html

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/7850505.htm

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0402010028feb01,1,7965233.story?coll=chi-techtopheds-hed

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2478796

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=109597
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by ldev »

I have one question which puzzles me in all of this and it is," Why now"? Why is all of this "outing" happening now? Why are Khan's activities being publicized now? Why all the synchronized news reports now? What has happened in the last 12-18 months that is making the USG move? After all, the evidence has been overwhelming of the Pakistani state role in proliferation for many many years. Individual accounts which hold $2 Billion as alleged, will be under the microscope of the US Treasury. Heck, if you do a transfer of $10,000, your bank has to report the transaction. So an account or accounts holding billions will be well known and monitored by virtually all authorities. By the same token, such authorities can also retroactively credit any account with any amount of money, if the objective is to frame someone. What is going on?

PS: Not that I am complaining. Anything that puts the squeeze on the Pakistanis is good news. But the puzzle remains.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Alok Niranjan »

Originally posted by L Dev:
I have one question which puzzles me in all of this and it is," Why now"?
The naive answer is "due to developments in Libya/Iran/NK" ... IAEA is involved and USG could not brush that stuff under the carpet.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rye »

Originally posted by L Dev:
I have one question which puzzles me in all of this and it is," Why now"? Why is all of this "outing" happening now? Why are Khan's activities being publicized now? Why all the synchronized news reports now?
Actually, this is not just synchronized reporting. Both Iran and Libya have admitted almost simultaneously to have had pakistani assistance in the past, and in Libya's case, he decided to ship all his so-called nukes at this time, when he could have done so at any time in the past. He has been working on getting sanctions removed on Libya for a few years now.

All of these developments happened after Saddam was captured, but I am not sure whether they are directly related.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Raman »

My take is that there were several combined factors:
1. GOTUS needed to shift the focus away from Iraq for a while
2. put more pressure on Mushy to play less footsie with the Taliban
3. reason to re-focus CIA/FBI assets on Pakistan, which seems to be the source of all terrorist training
4. make Pakistan "amenable" to negotiation on Kashmir

My gut feel is that GOTUS didn't expect things to escalate to such an extent; nobody expected Iran and Libya to sing the way they did. That got IAEA involved more deeply restricting GOTUS choices. Left to their own devices, the SD would not have "presurrized" the Mushy regime at this time.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Prof Raghu »

L Dev,
You raise some tangential issues, I will address them and then pose a question. The $10,000 limit is for individual *cash* transactions into or out of the US; AQK would not keep his stash in the US. Further, there are lots of ways to keep such money hidden (or not easily traceable). If you want more on this, maybe start a thread in the other forum.

Coming back on track, the interesting question is this -- why is the USG (or, the State Dept) insisting on keeping the PAEC entirely out of the public arena now? Why the conditions put forth to the media to focus only on KRL, and not the PAEC?

Will the other shoe (PAEC one) also drop, and if so when, what is the trigger for that?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Sarma »

I may be wrong, but it looks like PAEC and its scientist cohorts were targetted after Sept 11, where as now when the war in Afghanistan is going no where, it is KRL's turn.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Tim »

A slightly different take.

The magnifying glass has been more on Pakistan since reports of the HEU program in North Korea first surfaced in public in late 2001 or early 2002. That got people alarmed.

Then came the Iranian disclosures in 2002. There had been rumors of Pakistan-Iran connections in the late 1980s, but there wasn't anything particularly conclusive in the open literature. The Iran revelations were provided by outside sources - Iranian dissident reports, backed up by IAEA investigations, which may have benefited (depends on your point of view) from US pressure on Iran and recent events in the region. As a result, a second proliferation incident (with a second "axis of evil") emerged in policy circles.

Both Iran and North Korea might, by generous analysts, be dismissed as the acts of rogues or of previous administrations, since both have roots in the mid 90s or earlier, when Pakistan's international position was much different. If these were the only cases, then targeting KRL might be plausible. Not everybody would believe it, but it would provide a scapegoat and an explanation that a lot of people could stomach. Pakistani proliferation, in this explanation, would have been the result of misplaced patriotism/institutional chaos/personal greed in the pre-9/11 environment.

The Libya case is the real messy one, because it's absolutely a case of post 9-11 proliferation, which raises a lot of alarm. Libya revelations are brand new - based on capture of equipment (reportedly with high degree of confidence in Pakistan as source) and Libyan revelations and dramatic change of policy (result of many years of Western-Libyan diplomatic maneuvering, or OIF, or both).

Pack these altogether in fairly rapid succession, and particularly Iran and Libya in the same year, and you get a lot of policy momentum. The Libya case, in particular, raises a lot of eyebrows, because that has never been dealt with in open sources as anything but a rumor from the 1970s, for the most part.

Finally, and I'm not actually sure if this has anything to do with anything, there is at least one persistent rumor floating around about AQ Khan and Iraq. That may be driving some in the administration, although I have no idea about its veracity.

But as I read it, the North Korean revelations alone were enough to get SecState Powell talking to Musharraf about arresting AQ Khan back in summer 2002. Everything else since then has just created a snowball effect. Now the problem will be a) getting to the bottom of the problem or b) providing a reasonable explanation and justification for not getting to the bottom of the problem, while simultaneously creating a reasonable solution to the aspects of the problem you don't want to talk about in public. That should get messy. It will be interesting to see how it falls out.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Prof Raghu »

Originally posted by Tim:

[...]
The Libya case is the real messy one, because it's absolutely a case of post 9-11 proliferation, which raises a lot of alarm. Libya revelations are brand new - based on capture of equipment (reportedly with high degree of confidence in Pakistan as source) and Libyan revelations and dramatic change of policy (result of many years of Western-Libyan diplomatic maneuvering, or OIF, or both).

Pack these altogether in fairly rapid succession, and particularly Iran and Libya in the same year, and you get a lot of policy momentum. The Libya case, in particular, raises a lot of eyebrows, because that has never been dealt with in open sources as anything but a rumor from the 1970s, for the most part.

Finally, and I'm not actually sure if this has anything to do with anything, there is at least one persistent rumor floating around about AQ Khan and Iraq. That may be driving some in the administration, although I have no idea about its veracity.

Tim,
Two points.
1. If the Libyan connection was "known" (granted, circumstantial) even to me -- heck, Tim, why else would a prould man like Bhutto name the largest stadium in his country after Gaddafi -- I find it hard to believe that the US intel agencies were not aware of it.

You as an individual who is starting in this area may not have been aware of it, so your not being aware of the renaming (incidentally, I cannot think of many other things that Bhutto renamed after foreigners, other than the Gaddafi Stadium and the city of Faisalabad) is understandable; but the professional agencies not knowing or caring about that? It almost makes me wonder if they did not *want to be aware* of it.

2. The Iraq connection -- I too have read on many occasions that there was at least one file that the monitoring teams obtained in the early 1990s (1991/92) that mentioned A.Q.Khan offering services and/or products to Iraq. Perhaps that was the mistake! AQK did not realize how dangerous it is for anyone who helped Iraq, especially with WMD, in the era of Bush-II (never mind when the crime occurred) !
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Umrao »

I want to ask the learned Dr. WHy he is not on writing spree asking for punitive strike against Pakis, or atleast impose severest sanctions on Pakistan, in the same voiceferous way he did for sanctions aginst India during the days of POK II.

Remember we didnt sign the NPT we just failed in our Nuklear experiments our explosions fizzled, our missiles dont work, our CC does not exist yet we are to be sanctioned, where as you know damn well Pakis are proliferating left right and center, but they are still darling of the NP jihadi crowd and SD.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Calvin »

So Beg's comments to senior Bush (the first) officials regarding Iran were not deemed credible?

If the magnifying glass has only been on Pakistan since 2001/2, then you are asking us to believe that the entire National Security Apparatus of the United States is either incompetent, or in bed wth the Islamists, or politically expedient.

Since one doubts the first two as logical explanations, one is left with the third. If we look at circumstantial evidence regarding the tme frames of these events, perhaps it is to be said that the one lasting success of Operation Parakram has been to get the US to turn the screws on Pakistani nuclear establishment (perhaps after socking away the nukes themselves).

Umrao Jaan, you know this, but it bears repetition. The greatest fear that the Good Doctor has, is that he will be declared PNG. Therefore he writes what his masters want to hear. Perhaps the right term is Lifafa Analysis
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Mudy »

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2001/20011123/main2.htm
2 Pak N-scientists flee to Myanmar
USA seeks their custody
I am waiting for this link to come out also. I hope Burma do it itself.

http://www.saag.org/papers7/paper601.html
Nuclear Scientific Community of Pakistan: Clear and Present Danger to Nonproliferation.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Calvin »

Also, for those who were not aware of this Libyan connection, where was the Kuwolsan headed to, from Pakistan (if it was not stopped at Kandla)?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Kuttan »

My take is that there were several combined factors:
1. GOTUS needed to shift the focus away from Iraq for a while
2. put more pressure on Mushy to play less footsie with the Taliban
3. reason to re-focus CIA/FBI assets on Pakistan, which seems to be the source of all terrorist training
4. make Pakistan "amenable" to negotiation on Kashmir
In "brief", the 101st Airborne is getting tired of the desert assignment. Want to kick some serious a**. See news about Govt. of Pakistan fleeing from Pindi to IslamaGood and setting up A/A weapons all over. They are aimed at helicopter-borne paratroopers.

Also, folks, this Libya connection now sheds MORE light on the cryptic 'interview' with 'Gen. Halftrack' in SA Tribune, June/July 2002:
"And, General, what about the Strategic Assets?"

"The Strategic Assets are with those who paid for them. And we all know who paid for them".
Now we hear Dr. Tim claim that all transfers to Libya were post-9/11. Were they mainly in May-June 2002? The big spike in TSP's foreign exchange reserves also occurred around then..
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rangudu »

According to my source, the TSP Syria link is going to come out in the coming days...
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Calvin »

When did the KuWolSan get seized?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by jrjrao »

The Pretence is Over | Pak Link with Nuclear Black Market
K SUBRAHMANYAM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/468709.cms
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by svinayak »

Originally posted by Rajesh:
My take is that there were several combined factors:
1. GOTUS needed to shift the focus away from Iraq for a while
2. put more pressure on Mushy to play less footsie with the Taliban
3. reason to re-focus CIA/FBI assets on Pakistan, which seems to be the source of all terrorist training
4. make Pakistan "amenable" to negotiation on Kashmir

My gut feel is that GOTUS didn't expect things to escalate to such an extent; nobody expected Iran and Libya to sing the way they did. That got IAEA involved more deeply restricting GOTUS choices. Left to their own devices, the SD would not have "presurrized" the Mushy regime at this time.
THis is a good take. But what we are missing is from the NP mullahs standpoint.

The Integrity of the non-proliferation policy and frame work is in shatters and this brings down the creidibility of the mullahs to put pressure.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Prof Raghu »

ATTN: Tim.
Originally posted by Calvin:
Umrao Jaan, you know this, but it bears repetition. The greatest fear that the Good Doctor has, is that he will be declared PNG. Therefore he writes what his masters want to hear. Perhaps the right term is Lifafa Analysis
Calvin, the temptation is just too much -- so pardon this -- it still leaves this question.

Why then did Tim not have the same fear when it came to India?

If he and others of the Non-proliferation crowd could write suggesting severe sanctions for India after POK-II, why cannot they do so now asking for punitive actions against Pakistan given that what Pak has done has far more direct consequences for the security of the U.S.?

More generally, why is there a relative absence (sure, they are some isolated voices) of demands in the media for punitive action against Pakistan, given that the Libyan proliferation occurred post 9-11?

Spinster, have wanted to write for quite a while now -- in 1999, I chastised you on the press independence stuff. I stand corrected -- the more I read, the more I am convinced that at least in international matters, for the most part the media (includes both the so-called news only types as well as those who write / provide commentary) in the US acts simply as yet another instrument of the US government.

You were right.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rangudu »

Imagine if AXK goes into hiding in Osama's cave and releases his tape to the Jal Jeera channel. That would get some foggie undies in a bunch wouldn't it?

:lol:
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Div »

Didn't some Iraqi scientist bury "centrifuge type of equipment" under his rose bushes, in order to hide them from the original post Desert Storm inspectors? I thought I saw a CNN interview with this guy last year...and the parts were supposedly Paki? Anyone else remember that?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Prateek »

Editorial :

http://www.navhindtimes.com/stories.php?part=news&Story_ID=020216

The Secret is Out
EDITORIAL

PAKISTAN’S father of nuclear bomb, Dr Abdul Qadir Khan has been sacked and divested of his position as Advisor to the Prime Minister by the President, Gen Pervez Musharraf in the wake of allegations of he secretly passing on nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and Korea, the countries listed as “axis of evil” by the US President, Mr George W Bush. Pakistan began its investigation in late November only after Iran admitted about its nuclear programme to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog. Allegations have been levelled by the FBI, the US intelligence agency, that Dr Khan, who was forced to retire from Khan Research Laboratories in 2001, had actually masterminded the missile-for-nuke exchange with North Korea. Undoubtedly it was a tough decision as Dr Khan is a national hero for having set up a challenge to Indian nuclear might, but Gen Musharraf had to take the decision in order to send the message to the international community and the US that Pakistan government was with them for stopping any proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons technology.

After the fall of Soviet Union and destruction of Iraq’s nuclear infrastructure under UN auspices, the Bush administration redoubled its efforts to stem regional nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, on the Korean peninsula, and in the South Asian sub-continent. Initially Pakistan had rejected charges of proliferation and then denied any official complicity but it was the Iranian evidence that forced it to publicly concede that “one or two people” acted for personal gain. Preliminary investigations revealed that Dr Khan and former director-general of the Khan Research Laboratories, Dr Mohammed Farooq had supplied nuclear technology to Iran and Libya through underground nuclear mafia for pecuniary gains. Investigators have also traced huge accounts and are trying to ascertain the source who gave them the money. Earlier Dr Khan was convicted in absentia for stealing blueprints from a nuclear lab in the Netherlands where he worked in the 1970 but was acquitted on a technicality.

Though Gen Musharraf sacked Dr Khan, he is faced with a piquant situation: any rigorous action against Dr Khan has the potential to boomerang on his face but at the same time mere a slap on Dr Khan only stripping him of his post would not satisfy Islamabad’s Western allies and give the impression Pakistan condones nuclear proliferation. Initiating no action would damage the credibility of Gen Musharraf and make him suspect in the eyes of Mr Bush and his allies. Already the religious, civic and military circles have started criticising Gen Musharraf for buckling under the US pressure, jeopardising Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities. The mainstream opposition parties have even threatened to launch a nation-wide protest against government move to victimise the countrys top scientists.

Though the decision was taken at the meeting of the Nuclear Command and Control Authority chaired by Gen Musharraf, indications reveal that even the cabinet colleagues of the Prime Minister, Mr Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali are sharply divided on the issue of prosecuting Dr Khan. The Interior Minister, Mr Hayyat opposed it, and went on record that there was no evidence against Dr Khan and he was not a suspect. Even the military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan was not clear in his assertion that the government will take action against the scientist. Significantly at least six scientists and security officials are in military custody in the scandal.

Dr Khan was removed from KRL in 2001, but the evidence suggest that the Pakistani rulers have been in the trade of nuclear proliferation and transferring nuclear technology to Iran and other countries for more than a decade. It was during Mr Nawaz Sharif’s rule that the then army chief, Mr Mirza Aslam Beg had sought clearance for transferring Pakistan’s technology to Iran at an exhorbitant price. In the fragile political structure of Pakistan, Dr Khan emerged as the most powerful person who did not care for the political masters. So strong was his clout that even Ms Benazir Bhutto as the Prime Minister was ignorant of his activities and also Pakistan’s nuclear status in 1990 till she was briefed by the CIA. Though the supporters of Dr Khan allege that it was due to his personal dislike for Dr Khan that Gen Musharraf divested him of the important post, one thing is certain that allowing a person like Dr Khan to hold such a crucial position when all suspicion leads to the case that he allegedly bartered the prestige of the country and the peace in the world for his own pecuniary gains and luxuries would be damaging Pakistan’s position in the eyes of the international community even more seriously.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rangudu »

http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/feb-2004/2/MAIN/top1.asp
Qadeer admits N- proliferation in national interest

from our correspondent

RAWALPINDI - Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has admitted that he had been involved in nuclear proliferation to Iran, Libya, and North Korea, officials said Sunday night.

Briefing journalists here the officials, who have been interrogating Dr Khan, said the proliferation was not done for money but the objective was to ward off international pressure from Pakistan. :roll:

Dr Khan, the officials said, had given this statement in writing and a further administrative action would be taken after due consideration. Gen Musharraf would address the nation in next few days to spell out the details of the findings and the announcement of the action, if any.


“The issue is of proliferation and not the money,” the officials said. The officials said that the country was thankful to Dr Qadeer for his services to accomplish Pakistan’s nuclear programme but Pakistan wanted to clear its image, which was being tarnished due to proliferation accusations. The officials had held a series of meetings with Dr Khan and the last such meeting was held on Sunday morning at Dr Khan’s residence.

The officials said two former Chiefs of Army Staff Mirza Aslam Beg and Jehangir Karamat were also questioned over this issue. To a question the officials admitted that it was an intelligence failure.

They, however, defended this intelligence failure saying the KRL programme was being run autonomously and no one could interfere in it. From 1989 onward, they said, the nuclear proliferation took place and strict measures were taken once this leakage came to the notice of the security agencies. The officials said a citizen of Sri Lanka, Farooq, was also involved in the proliferation.

Asked if the name of Khan Research Laboratories would be changed, they said: “No.” The officials eulogised the services of Dr Khan for the country but added that he should not have leaked his know how to any other country.

The officials categorically said Dr Khan would not be handed over to the United States. Dr Khan, they said, had not only provided nuclear related information but equipment was also smuggled to these countries. Dr Khan, they said, had also admitted that he had given papers to his daughter to defend him in case the government took any action against him. “No doubt he is our hero,” the officials said. They said Pakistan had spent Rs 184.5 billion on its nuclear programme during the last 32 years.

Meanwhile, The government has restricted Dr Khan’s movement to his family members only.
Rak
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rak »

Originally posted by Rangudu:
Briefing journalists here the officials, who have been interrogating Dr Khan, said the proliferation was not done for money but the objective was to ward off international pressure from Pakistan.
Every Indian should learn Patriotism from Abdul X. What an exemplary deed indeed ? So the $2 billion in his personal bank account is part of Pakistan's foreign reserves, I would presume.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by khan »

The best solution for Mush is for A Q Khan to "Dissapear" into N Korea. :rotfl:
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rangudu »

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_2-2-2004_pg1_2
AQ Khan confesses N-proliferation

By Rana Qaisar

ISLAMABAD: Father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has confessed that he proliferated nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, official sources confirmed on Sunday.

“We have completed our probe and the information provided to Pakistan by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Libya and Iran has matched the findings of our investigation,” sources said. They said Dr AQ Khan was in debriefing sessions for eight hours over the last couple of months and he admitted to having cooperated with Iran, Libya and North Korea.

However, sources said, the government had not decided what action to take against Dr Khan. “Maybe it will be of administrative nature or the government may decide on a trial,” the officials said. They said that besides a dozen scientists, engineers and security staff, General (r) Aslam Beg, General (r) Jehangir Karamat and Lt Gen Zulfikar Ali Khan had also been questioned during investigations.

But the officials refrained from sharing any details of the interviews with these generals. “Dr Khan named the retired generals or deceased people for having pressured him to proliferate,” the officials said.

The officials admitted that it was complete intelligence failure that machines, drawings and other equipment found their way out of Pakistan. “We have traced a network that Dr Khan had outside KRL and abroad.”

They said these acts of proliferation took place from 1991 to 1997. “We have also traced the entire route of this proliferation and Dr Khan’s connections with the nuclear black marketers.”

The officials said around four people, who were already in custody, had collaborated with Dr Khan and action would be taken against them too.

In administrative action, Dr Khan was sacked on Saturday from the office of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Strategic Programmes.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Rak »

Originally posted by Rangudu:
But the officials refrained from sharing any details of the interviews with these generals. “Dr Khan named the retired generals or deceased people for having pressured him to proliferate,” the officials said.
:roll:

Sure... If Musharraf was deceased he would have been named too. :rotfl:
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 31 Jan 2004

Post by Calvin »

Why are the officials revealing the link to military officers pressuring Khan to proliferate? Is this another MI/ISI split?

Finally:

"deceased" person = Zia?
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