Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

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Gerard
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Gerard »

Pakistani scientist 'a scapegoat'
The family of a prominent Pakistani scientist says he is being used as a scapegoat in a row over the alleged transfer of nuclear technology to Iran.
a former head of Pakistani intelligence, Hamid Gul, said it was impossible for eminent nuclear scientists to act independently without detection. He told the BBC comprehensive security and profiling arrangements follow them through their working lives and beyond into retirement.
Gerard
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Gerard »

Nuclear secrecy prevails in Pakistan
Two-time Pakistani Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto once complained that even when she was running the government she was unable to visit the Kahuta laboratories.
the Saudi Crown Prince and Defence Minister, Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, visited Kahuta amid such secrecy that a Pakistani spokesman at the time denied the minister had ever been there.

And in May 2000 an Urdu language Pakistani newspaper reported that the Information Minister of the United Arab Emirates had also visited Kahuta.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by abrahavt »

US squeezing Saudis and trying to denuke Pak?

With the United States facing the prospect of continuing difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan in the new year, there are signs that it will adopt an aggressive policy to cut all kinds of supply lines to the guerrilla movements in these countries, starting with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and making no concessions.

Pakistan
A well-placed source in the Pakistani strategic community tells Asia Times Online that Pakistan has been given a clear message that although Islamabad has pledged its full commitment to the "war on terror", Washington is not entirely pleased with its efforts to date and still considers the country the "naughty boy" of the region and indirectly considers it a catalyst for support of anti-US forces.
The row over a possible Pakistan link to Iran's nuclear program is a case in point, in which the US has lost patience with Islamabad. The Pakistani government has confirmed that the father of its nuclear bomb program, Abd al-Qadir Khan, was being questioned in connection with "debriefings" of several scientists working at his Khan Research Laboratories. This follows a report by The New York Times that information Iran turned over to the International Atomic Energy Agency two months ago has strengthened suspicions that Pakistan sold key nuclear secrets to Iran.
"American and European investigators are interested in what they describe as Iran's purchase of nuclear centrifuge designs from Pakistan 16 years ago, largely to force the Pakistani government to face up to a pattern of clandestine sales by its nuclear engineers and to investigate much more recent transfers," including ones to North Korea in the late 1990s, The Times said.
Although Pakistan claims that some of its nuclear scientists may have been motivated by "personal ambition and greed" to share sensitive nuclear technology with Iran, and that the Pakistan government never authorized the transfer of such information, the US remains unconvinced.
Accordingly, Washington is now placing heavy pressure on Pakistan to abandon its nuclear program. Pakistan and India are believed to be ready next week to exchange lists of their nuclear installations and facilities, and members of the international nuclear club want them to create a South Asian nuclear-free zone by signing a bilateral agreement along the lines of the Treaty of Tlatelolco :confused: in which two nuclear rivals in South America - Argentine and Brazil - in the 1990s declared the region a weapons-free zone and abandoned their long-range missile programs, as well as nuclear plants.
Another bone of contention between Pakistan and the US is Pakistan's remote, mountainous and volatile tribal areas that border Afghanistan and which are acknowledged as a base for the resurgent Taliban. Pakistan has repeatedly promised to control the area, but without any significant results. Indeed, sectors within the Pakistani security apparatus are suspected of actively aiding the Taliban in maintaining their supply lines.
To deal with Pakistan, the Washington response in the first stage is to control its nuclear power, and then to create more US bases in Pakistan. This strategy would take Pakistan back to the 1960s, when Pakistan had very limited military and strategic interests in the region, and what there were, were linked to agreements with the US.

Saudi Arabia
Despite half a century of friendship, in the post-September 11 period the kingdom is now seen in Washington as a hotbed of US antagonism. As a result, the US has drawn up a strategy to combat this, with a heavy accent on education.
According to a source at the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia, under strict US State Department directives, the Saudi government prepared a new educational reform package, a copy of which was handed to Washington. It was rejected, with Saudi authorities asked to prepare another one which removes any teachings about jihad and anti-Christian and Jewish sentiment. Saudi Arabia has also been directed to stop its institutional support of various charity organizations that are suspected of channeling funds to jihad, or Islamic struggle, organizations.
On the political front, local people are to be given broader participation, while in business, strict conditions limiting foreign investment will be lifted, and foreigners will be allowed to operate in the kingdom without a local partner.
By clamping down on Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the US hopes to stem support for terrorism at its roots.
Gerard
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Gerard »

Pakistan and India are believed to be ready next week to exchange lists of their nuclear installations and facilities, and members of the international nuclear club want them to create a South Asian nuclear-free zone by signing a bilateral agreement along the lines of the Treaty of Tlatelolco in which two nuclear rivals in South America - Argentine and Brazil - in the 1990s declared the region a weapons-free zone and abandoned their long-range missile programs, as well as nuclear plants.
Paki fantasies of equal-equal

TSP cannot be trusted with nukes, so India must give them up as well so that Paki H+D is satisfied along with Chinese strategic aims.

The Chinese armed TSP with nuclear weapons with the hope that India could be trapped into a South Asian denuclearization process.

Unfortunately for China, and even more so for its lap dog Pakistan, the proliferation of nuke WMD to members of the axis of evil wasn't from the mythical "South Asia", it was from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

I wonder how severe a GUBO session is "Gola" Musharraf in for?
MTCR? CTBT ? or even... NPT ?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Vivek_A »

Originally posted by abrahavt:
US squeezing Saudis and trying to denuke Pak?

Although Pakistan claims that some of its nuclear scientists may have been motivated by "personal ambition and greed" to share sensitive nuclear technology with Iran, and that the Pakistan government never authorized the transfer of such information, the US remains unconvinced.
That's the difference between the public proclamations and the real policy. This is "we won't let the Northern Alliance enter Kabul" all over again..If that moron Chidanand Rajghatts is lurking, he needs to shop online for a clue..
Saudi Arabia
It was rejected, with Saudi authorities asked to prepare another one which removes any teachings about jihad and anti-Christian and Jewish sentiment.
This smells like BS...the saudi backed schools are teaching anti-christian and anti-jewish cr@p right here in DC.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Vivek_A »

Two pointer right there..

http://www.dawn.com/2003/12/24/top6.htm

(The) president of Pakistan has given 400 per cent assurance and commitment that no violation or infraction of Pakistan's commitments would ever take place."
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Aarya »

Would someone post the following two news stories.

1. Earlier this year, FBI discovered marketing pamplets in NFWP by AQ Khan peddling nuclear technology.

2. This one is going to be more difficult but extremely important. From about 1974, the stories about Libya (Gaddafi) inducing huge sums of cash into Pakistan to kick-start the AQ Khan research labs for building the "Islamic Bomb".
vijayk
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by vijayk »

Originally posted by John Umrao:
Folks>>
ONE OF THE EMINENT SOUTH ASIAN EXPERT HAS SAID/CERTIFIED ON THIS FORUM THAT
"PAKISTAN IS A RATIONAL NUCLEAR POWER FAR SUPERIOR TO INDIA IN MANY WAYS."

WHILE A LESSER PERSON HAD SAID

'THE ROAD TO NUCLEAR NON PROLIFERATION STARTS IN ISLAMABAD ENDS IN PONGYANG VIA BEJING' Spinster 1998

:D
:rotfl:

Did somebody use PAKISTAN and RATIONAL in the same sentence? He should take an IQ TEST!

May be he should borrow spinster's brain once a day!
vijayk
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by vijayk »

Originally posted by Vivek A:
Bush Doctrine Works: Pakistan Follows Libya in Bowing to U.S. Pressure


Pakistan Doesn't Want to Be the Next Iraq


Got a kick out of that! :rotfl:
Div
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Div »

Originally posted by Aarya:
Would someone post the following two news stories.
1. Earlier this year, FBI discovered marketing pamplets in NFWP by AQ Khan peddling nuclear technology.
I don't know if these were discovered in the NWFP, but nonetheless....
The information that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has been offering nuclear and nuclear related technology to other nations is being circulated in Washington since early December.

Last month, Dawn received a copy of the pamphlet purportedly distributed by A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, offering vacuum technology for sale. The distributors said the technology can also be used in nuclear plants and thus the offer can be interpreted as promoting nuclear technology.

The pamphlet has a Rawalpindi address, P.O. Box 502, and has pictures of the equipment it promotes. It also has a picture of Dr Khan on the extreme right corner wearing the medals awarded by the government of Pakistan.

A message distributed with the pamphlet says: "Besides manufacturing of vacuum components and systems, our vacuum consultancy services are also available for system design, operational troubleshooting, quality assurance, maintenance, system development and human resource training."

The distributors of the pamphlet seemed particularly concerned about the offer of "human resource training" because they claimed it was offering to train people for making a key component of a nuclear plant.
http://www.dawn.com/2003/01/08/top3.htm
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Div »

Axis of evidence
While China’s support for Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes is evidently part of its effort to “contain” India, Bhutto’s references to the Islamic dimensions of Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions are now coming under closer international scrutiny. His political adviser, Khalid Hassan, has revealed how Bhutto solicited and obtained funding for Pakistan’s nuclear programme from Libya and Saudi Arabia. Around the same time, the then Indian prime minister, Morarji Desai, rejected a Libyan request for nuclear assistance in 1978. UN weapons inspectors are reported to have evidence about offers from Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan to provide nuclear know-how to Iraq. Iran is also reported to have acknowledged obtaining “second hand nuclear equipment” from Pakistan for uranium enrichment. But, given the antagonism and suspicions that prevail between Iran and Pakistan, it appears that any equipment supplied by Pakistan to Iran would have been given primarily to enable Pakistan to retain some leverage and goodwill in Tehran.
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=35269
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Rangudu »

Snake oil salesman Mansoor Ijaz was on Fox with Linda Vester two days ago. Transcripts:
VESTER: Got it. OK, now to the other big news of the day, the information today that Pakistan sold its nuclear secrets to members of the "axis of evil." True, all true?

IJAZ: Yes. Absolutely. Every word of what was written in both "The Washington Post" article on Sunday and "The New York Times" article today is not only true, but it's probably, in my judgment -- in fact, I can tell you, point blank it is the tip of the iceberg.

The fact of the matter is that Pakistan's -- there are rogue elements. :roll: I don't want to say the government has been involved in this full-fledged, but there are rogue elements of the intelligence and military establishment in Pakistan that have been involved in the metastasis of that nuclear program for a very long time. And these guys now have to come clean with us and tell us exactly what it is that they've been doing.

That is why General Musharraf ordered today -- and I tell you this is an extraordinary event -- ordered today that Abdul Khidir (ph) Khan, the father of the bomb program, who is revered much like Usama bin Laden is in that part of the world -- he ordered him to be questioned by the authorities to make sure that we know everything that he knows about what they were doing to pass these nuclear secrets around.

VESTER: By ordering this investigation, though -- I mean, he already has a target painted on his back, Musharraf. Doesn't he just make it worse?

IJAZ: Yes. Well, I'll tell you one thing. He doesn't have too many easy choices these days. But I think he would make things a lot easier on himself to go forward in doing what he's doing right now. And probably that won't yield very much. But if he did something else, and that is to have President Bush offer him -- and he accept -- things like vaults, sensors, alarms, closed-circuit cameras, monitoring devices for all of Pakistan's nuclear facilities and tracking of their nuclear scientists inside and outside the country, doing that in such a way that it becomes transparent, at least to the world powers that need to know that Pakistan is not doing anything more to give it to Saudi Arabia, to give it to the United Arab Emirates, to Lebanon, to Egypt, to, you know, Algeria, to Malaysia, any of these other Muslim countries because I can tell you, Abdul Khidir Khan is a megalomaniac just this side of Usama bin Laden and probably one of the most dangerous men walking the face of the earth today.

VESTER: Mansoor Ijaz, thank you very much.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Prateek »

Pakistan admits to Iran nuclear role
By Ian Traynor
London
December 25, 2003


http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/24/1072239719611.html
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by laxmibai »

In my view, in common with people with sources in the Pakistani defence establishment like Mansoor Ijaz, the US has known all along what was going on. This pious outrage is purely made-on-order.

India for example, never chose to rely on the US Congress/US President's views of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, views which were in total contradiction to the reality. I have heard even Hamid Gul say openly, 'at least the US allowed us to develop our bomb during the Afghan war'.

It was during the same late eighties period that the Congress passed sanctions waivers specific to Pakistan and the US President personally signed off on Pakistan's nuke cleanliness. Is the US trying to say that the President and the Congress did so in total and complete ignorance not only of weapons development at that time but also of the proliferation which was happening at exactly that time? Thats a real stretch.

The information may have been in the 'top secret' domain and hence deniable by the US. It has now come into public domain via IAEA, and US is using it to play cat and mouse with Musharraf for some unknown reason. I wonder what this reason is.

I wonder when will the US pull out the nuclear technology/missiles proliferation to Pakistan from China rabbit out of the hat. When the trade imbalance becomes unsustainable, perhaps.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Vivek_A »

Saudi arabia?

Beg asked Nawaz to give nuclear technology to a ‘friend’, says Ishaq Dar

PML-N leader says ex-COAS said Pakistan would offer $12 billion for technology transfer

By Shaukat Piracha

ISLAMABAD: Senator Ishaq Dar of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) on Wednesday claimed that General Mirza Aslam Beg had asked the government of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to transfer Pakistan’s nuclear technology to a ‘friendly’ state for $12 billion when he was chief of army staff (COAS), but Mr Sharif had rejected that suggestion.

Mr Dar claimed that a senior official of the ‘friendly’ country had also accompanied Gen Beg when he made the offer. The PML-N leader was addressing journalists along with other opposition senators after they boycotted the Senate proceedings.

MMA senators joined the opposition lawmakers in the boycott despite announcement of the religious alliance’s agreement with the government. Mr Dar said the Foreign Office had publicly stated that Pakistani scientists might have made some deal on the nuclear issue in their ‘private capacity’.

“If an unauthorised transfer of technology is established, then we condemn such a deal and will urge strict action against the culprits,” he said. Mr Dar demanded an inquiry into what he called lapses by security agencies assigned to prevent leakage or transfer of nuclear technology.

However, Mr Dar said that the scientists being ‘debriefed’ must get an opportunity to air their point of view and reiterated the constitution of a house committee for that. “We fear that it may be a preparatory process for another surrender,” he added. PPPP’s Raza Rabbani maintained that the ARD and other opposition parties would oppose an agreement between the government and the MMA.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Umrao »

agree, It would be dumb to assume that unkil did not know the Pakistani Perfidy against Non proliferation. I would even suggest that unkil encouraged Pakistan to do precisely what it did.

I would further ass that this 'Past is past' and Pakistan is not doing anymore proliferation is also a part of unkils strategy.

Paksiatn can not do any wrong as far as unkil,SD is concerned.

Pakistan is still the best front line allie of US period, even if there is evidence that yet another 9-11 is being hatched in Islamabad.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by yensoy »

Originally posted by John Umrao:
agree, It would be dumb to assume that unkil did not know the Pakistani Perfidy against Non proliferation. I would even suggest that unkil encouraged Pakistan to do precisely what it did.
There is a phrase in Tamil that means "you can't wake someone who is pretending to be asleep" :roll:
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by shiv »

***WARNING***

This thread has been around for a long time and it will soon go past the traditional 9 page limit. Threads on BR do not have a great history of staying archived for posterity.

YOUR BEST BET for archival is to store up the threads you find valuable on your own HDD. Multiple copies stored on multiple HDDs serve as information "stored in the environment" and is more likely to survive and resurface years from now.

So please start making your back-ups of this thread NOW.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by JaiS »

Not related with Pakistan's efforts at nuclear proliferation, but related to anti-proliferation work in general.

Washingtonpost - U.S.-Russia Team Seizes Uranium At Bulgaria Plant
Material Was Potent Enough for Bomb
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 24, 2003; Page A10

MOSCOW, Dec. 23 -- An international team of nuclear specialists backed by armed security units swooped into a shuttered Bulgarian reactor and recovered 37 pounds of highly enriched uranium in a secretive operation intended to forestall nuclear terrorism, U.S. officials said Tuesday.



The elaborately planned mission, which was organized with the cooperation of Bulgarian authorities, removed nearly enough uranium to make a small nuclear bomb, the officials said. The material was sent by plane on Tuesday to a Russian facility where it will be converted into a form that cannot be used for weapons, they said.

It was the third time since last year that U.S. and Russian authorities have teamed up to retrieve highly enriched uranium from Soviet-era facilities in an effort to keep such material from falling into the hands of terrorists or rogue states. Experts worry that such caches of uranium scattered in obscure corners of the former Soviet Union and its satellite states represent one of the most vulnerable sources of fissile material for would-be bomb-makers.

"Proliferation of nuclear materials is a worldwide problem and requires a worldwide solution," Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in a statement. "We must not allow terrorists and others with bad intentions to acquire deadly material, and the Department of Energy will continue doing its part."

U.S. authorities have begun stepping up such joint operations with the Russians. In August 2002, a team from the two countries retrieved 100 pounds of weapons-grade uranium from an aging reactor in Yugoslavia. The second seizure of uranium took place three months ago, when 30 pounds was removed from a facility in Romania.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Rangudu »

<font size=5>[/b]Starting a new thread. Admins please close and archive this one.

Thanks[/b]</font>
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 14 Jan 2003

Post by Guest »

I was IB4TL! :D
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