Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

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Sunil
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Sunil »

Links in the chain:

1) Pakistan (Nodong Missile from DPRK)
2) North Korea, (Uranium refining tech from Pakistan, Nuclear weapons designs from Pakistan).
3) Burma (Scud missiles from DPRK, nuclear saintists (sic) from Pakistan)
4) Syria (Scud-D from DPRK, ? from Pakistan)
5) Egypt (Scud and Nodong missiles from DPRK, ? Pakistan)
6) Libya (Scud-Nodong from DPRK, Uranium enrichment from Pakistan, Nuclear bomb design from Pakistan)
7) Iran (Nodong from DPRK, Uranium enrichment from Pakistan, Plutonium line for Pakistan(?))
8) Yemen (Scud type missiles from DPRK, ? Pakistan)

Probable links.
1) KSA (possibly recieved uranium refining tech from Pakistan, Most probably received Scud and Nodong from DPRK)
2) Algeria (?)
3) Malaysia (?)
4) Indonesia(?)
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by jrjrao »

Hilarious letter by the Official PakLiar in Ireland:

The Irish Times
February 14, 2004
SECTION: CITY EDITION; EDITORIAL PAGE; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 15
HEADLINE: Nuclear inquiry in Pakistan
Madam, - I refer to the coverage of the nuclear inquiry in Pakistan in your esteemed newspaper and your Editorial of February 9th.

The Government of Pakistan has strongly rejected allegations of any involvement in or official patronage of nuclear proliferation. No government institution or entity :rotfl: has been involved in any transactions or transfers. The government of Pakistan has never proliferated and shall never proliferate. :rotfl:

Pakistan, as a responsible nuclear power, takes its obligations with utmost seriousness. This includes uncompromising adherence to a policy of not exporting any sensitive technology to third countries. :rotfl:

The inquiry was conducted voluntarily :rotfl: by Pakistan to curb such activities under Pakistani law and also to prove to the world that Pakistan is a responsible state...The inquiry was conducted voluntarily by Pakistan to curb such activities under Pakistani law and also to prove to the world that Pakistan is a responsible state.

Our strategic assets are completely safe and secure. They are under iron-clad organisational, administrative and command and control structures (of Uncle Sam)...

There is an international black market for all kinds of technology, the focus should be on eliminating such shady networks.

Yours, etc.,

Rifat Iqbal, Ambassador of Pakistan, Dublin 4.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Calvin »

Kamran Khan discloses that AQK met with Assad in 1995. Now, were there any Chinese agreements with Assad previous to, or after this meeting?

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,235225,00.html

Krepon comes out swinging. Notes that Libyan blueprints provided BY Pakistan were of "Chinese parentage". But does not demand action against Chinese "parents".

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=3285
Guest

Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Guest »

I feel there is a contradiction in the views of US particularly in relation to Pakistan's spreading of Nuke tech. The way US is trying to help Pakistan in this issue is going to damage them. The basic policy is that US should support Pakistan because US will get support in whatever action it takes in the Middle East or in Afgan borders. Pakis too are in trouble because public is very angry with the Pakistan leaders in their surrender towards Americans. I think in future Pakistan or Pak supported groups will use nuke material against US force or people then US will fight whoever in the government in Pakistan.
This is what the rotation of events suggests...
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by jrjrao »

Islamabad accused of nuclear cover-up
Relatives of six scientists who worked with A.Q. Khan, the disgraced "father of the Islamic bomb", have accused Islamabad of indulging in a cover-up to protect the Pakistani military from being tainted by the nuclear proliferation scandal.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Div »

Opening a Pandora’s box! By Mir Jamilur Rahman
http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en53906&F_catID=&f_type=source

Some interesting tidbits on Xerox's trips to Timbuktu, including a bunch of stops in Niger. Got me thinking of "sexed up dossiers".
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Prof Raghu »

There are some interesting nuggets in the link posted above by Div:

"After making a short stopover in a Nigerian city we reached Timbuktu on 24 February 1999. After spending a couple of days we were on our way back and our first stop was Niamey, capital of Niger. Our next stop was N’Djamena, capital of Chad where we were accorded official protocol. Next day we flew to Khartoum. After Dr Khan has attended to some business we visited the Shifa factory that was destroyed last year by the American missiles. Dr Khan met the Sudanese president. We were back in Dubai on 28 February 1999.

We were again air borne for Timbuktu on 20 February 2000. From Dubai we flew to Khartoum, where two Sudanese friends joined us. We reached Niamey, capital of Niger, on 22 February 2000. Our ambassador Brig Nisar welcomed the group and gave a dinner in honour of Dr Khan. Brig Nisar had also served as the military secretary of Nawaz Sharif. Niger has big uranium deposits. We reached Timbuktu on 24 February 2000 for a stay of two days and were lodged in the newly built (completed in December 1999) Hotel La Colombe. We started the return journey on 26 February 2000, touching various countries on the way. We broke our journey in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, where First Secretary in the Pakistan Embassy Mr Najmus Saqib welcomed us. We were back in Dubai on 29 February 2000 after having visited 10 African cities."

______________

Niger -- the uranium connection. But the interesting thing is, why is the Pakistani author mentioning this? Note that the book was published in 2000, well-before Niger became synonymous with "sexed-up dossiers."

Shifa factory -- the US bombing connection. What was Khan doing at a place that supposedly had WMD connections?

Also note the "offical protocol" in Chad. Do private "for-profit proliferators" get official protocols?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Kuttan »

Do private "for-profit proliferators" get official protocols?
Are they received and welcomed by Ambassadors everywhere?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Prateek »

Bush Says Terrorists Must Lose Race for Weapons of Mass Murder
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service


http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2004/n02142004_200402142.html

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2004 – When suicidal terrorists used commercial airliners as bombs on Sept. 11, 2001, it raised the prospect of even worse dangers: terrorists armed with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, President Bush said in his weekly radio address today.

"The possibility of secret and sudden attack with weapons of mass destruction is the greatest threat before humanity today," he emphasized.

The president said America is confronting this danger with open eyes and unbending purpose. But he warned that America faces the possibility of catastrophic attack from ballistic missiles armed with weapons of mass destruction.

"So we are developing and deploying missile defenses to guard our people," he said. "The best intelligence is necessary to win the war on terror and to stop proliferation. So we are improving and adapting our intelligence capabilities for new and emerging threats."

The nation is using every means of diplomacy to confront the regimes that develop deadly weapons, Bush noted. "We are cooperating with more than a dozen nations under the Proliferation Security Initiative," he said, "to interdict lethal materials transported by land, sea or air. We have shown our willingness to use force when force is required. No one can now doubt the determination of America to oppose and to end these threats to our security."

Bush said the nation also is aggressively pursuing another dangerous source of proliferation: "black-market operatives who sell equipment and expertise related to weapons of mass destruction."

He noted that the world recently learned of the network led by A.Q. Khan, the former head of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. "Khan and his associates sold nuclear technology and know-how to rogue regimes around the world, such as Iran and North Korea," Bush said. He said the Khan network is being dismantled as a result of work by intelligence officers from the United States, the United Kingdom and other nations.

Bush said he has proposed a series of new, ambitious steps to build on the nation's recent success against proliferation. This includes expanding international cooperation of law enforcement organizations to act against proliferation networks, shutting down their labs, seizing their materials, freezing their assets and bringing their members to justice.

"We must strengthen laws and international controls that fight proliferation," Bush said.

Last fall, Bush suggested that the United Nations establish a new Security Council resolution requiring all states to criminalize proliferation, enact strict export controls and secure all sensitive materials within their borders.

"I urge the council to pass these measures quickly," he said in today's radio address.

Calling the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty one of the most important tools for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, Bush said a loophole that allows countries to seek nuclear weapons under the cover of civilian nuclear power programs is undermining the treaty.

He encouraged the world's leading nuclear exporters to close the loophole. And, he said, the Nuclear Suppliers Group should refuse to sell enrichment and reprocessing equipment and technologies to any state that does not already possess full-scale, functioning enrichment and reprocessing plants.

Enforcing the international rules and laws is the only way for them to be effective, the president noted. "We must ensure that the International Atomic Energy Agency is fully capable of exposing and reporting banned nuclear activity," Bush said.

Every nation should sign the Additional Protocol, which would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to make broader inspections of nuclear sites, he said.

The president also called for establishing a special International Atomic Energy Agency committee to focus on safeguards and verification.

"No nation under investigation for proliferation violations should be able to serve on this committee or on the governing board of the IAEA," Bush said. "Governments breaking the rules should not be trusted with enforcing the rules."

Noting that terrorists and terrorist states are in a race for weapons of mass murder, Bush said, "(it's) a race they must lose. They are resourceful -- we must be more resourceful. They are determined -- we must be more determined. We will never lose focus or resolve. We will be unrelenting in the defense of free nations, and rise to the hard demands of our dangerous time."
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Prateek »

No wonder it comes from a rat ...

The 'Islamic Bomb' spreads over globe
Posted: February 14, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Muazzam Gill
WorldNetDaily.com


http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37111

The father of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and the creator of the "Islamic Bomb," Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, has confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. The nuclear black market that he headed sold blueprints, hardware and know-how during the late 1980s at least through the mid-1990s through middlemen on three continents for covert nuclear programs.

The revelation confirms long-held suspicions but is unlikely to lead to an outright divorce between Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and the United States. Other interests are at stake.

As the story unraveled, Dr. Khan at first implied that the generals, including President Musharraf, knew of and were party to the transfers of nuclear technology. There were reports that he had sent his daughter out of the country with a tape that named his military accomplices. The government claims it was never involved in or aware of the illicit activities of Dr. Khan and his cohorts, and that he did it for the money.

After initially implicating the political-military establishment, Dr. Khan requested forgiveness in a "mercy petition" to President Musharraf, who "forgave" him following a recommendation from his Cabinet. In an emotional speech on television, Dr. Khan then confessed to his global nuclear-arms activities and absolved the government and the military from any culpability.

Washington certainly knows that the Pakistani government is implicated in the illicit commerce. But it will neither sanction Pakistan for pardoning its top nuclear scientist nor demand an independent inquiry into the affair. Gen. Musharraf is considered far too valuable an ally at the moment to compromise. The United States needs the general-turned-president to help curb the Taliban and try to capture Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida remnants hiding in the Pakistan-Afghan border area.

However, U.S. acquiescence to Pakistan's decision to pardon Dr. Khan may send a wrong message to other nuclear aspirants. It also poses a moral hazard for an administration that toppled Saddam Hussein because of alleged offenses involving weapons of mass destruction that were arguably less severe than Dr. Khan's.

On the other hand, if the U.S. is too hard on Gen. Musharraf, who has been the target of two recent assassination attempts, he could lose his fragile hold on power, triggering a change that could lead to a nuclear-armed Islamist government. It could also make Pakistan Washington's biggest foreign-policy problem.

A deal has obviously been cut. A few lesser scientists will be tried, and the Pakistani military's role in the nuclear bazaar will remain (officially) a secret. This outcome will appease many in Pakistan who resented Dr. Khan's "humiliation." A devout Muslim, he is revered as a hero and is the only Pakistani to have twice received his country's highest civilian honor.

The implications are troubling to the West. We now know that nuclear-weapons technology can be stolen from the West and reassembled elsewhere. As an employee of Urenco, a Dutch-German-British nuclear engineering consortium in Holland, Dr. Khan spent years procuring design features of the centrifuge needed to convert uranium into weapons-grade material. While developing missiles to carry nuclear warheads, he named them after Muslim generals like Ghauri, Abdali and Shaheen, who had invaded medieval India. Some observers say that naming the missiles was a statement to Pakistan's then-arch-enemy India that Muslims were ready to defeat Hindus.

Dr. Khan has a long history. In 1975, when Zufiquar Ali Bhutto was prime minister of Pakistan, Dr. Khan wrote to him, claiming to have the knowledge and technology to create a nuclear deterrent for his country. The letter arrived at a historic moment. Pakistan was still agonizing over its 1971 defeat by India in the war over East Pakistan that created the nation of Bangladesh. Bhutto had promised his countrymen he would "eat grass" in order to have nuclear weapons of war. The rest, as they say, is history.

As Dr. Khan worked on the Pakistani nuclear program, successive Pakistani regimes tolerated (if not encouraged) a culture where top scientists felt free to peddle nuclear secrets to some of the world's most problematic countries. Dr. Khan could not have sold nuclear technology without the consent of Pakistan's security agencies, controlled by the military, which guard its nuclear facilities and personnel. Khan and company could not have removed entire centrifuges to deliver to Iran and Libya without prior clearance from the military. The deals with North Korea – nuclear know-how for missiles – appear to have been official barters.

So far, India is maintaining an uncharacteristic silence on the latest disclosures. Privately, many Indian diplomats and strategic analysts are gloating over Pakistan's predicament. But they will not go public. Underscoring Pakistan's culpability in nuclear matters could also show India in an uncomplimentary light. Like Pakistan, India does not want world attention focused on its nuclear weapons. Both countries, having not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, could be viewed as rogues. :o :whine:

The world is no safer now than it was five years ago, when India and Pakistan openly tested nuclear bombs. Tolerance for nukes is growing. The nuclear-armed Big Five – the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China – have gone back on previous agreements to pursue negotiations leading to complete nuclear disarmament.

News of Pakistan's black-market dealings complicates matters and makes the world potentially more dangerous. We know now that there is a factory making centrifuge components in Malaysia, run by a Sri Lankan, using middlemen from Germany and the Netherlands, with hardware shipments routed through Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Pakistan's role in this shady yet sophisticated enterprise has been confirmed. What other networks are out there? When it finally emerges, the full truth is likely to be even darker.

Dr. Muazzam Gill was senior news producer with state-run Pakistan television, where he covered Presidents Bhutto and Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, and anchored the nightly news in English. A naturalized U.S. citizen, he is a frequent guest on radio and television. Based in California, Gill is vice president of the American Leadership Institute and a commentator for UPI.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by RajeshG »

Originally posted by Frodo:
http://www.tanzeem.org/tanzeemeislami/radio/conference/03.ra his audio
anyone who can translate the below link would be gr8
http://www.albalagh.net/current_affairs/hamid_gul.shtml
I dont know how to read Urdu so cant read the albalagh link. The audio link is interesting - kinda long 27 mins. However it seems old ? From 2001 Khilafah conference ? Is Hamid Gul still as important as he was back then ? Do his words carry as much weight now ? Regards..
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by SubRao »

Originally posted by Rajesh_G:
Originally posted by Frodo:
http://www.tanzeem.org/tanzeemeislami/radio/conference/03.ra his audio
anyone who can translate the below link would be gr8
http://www.albalagh.net/current_affairs/hamid_gul.shtml
I dont know how to read Urdu so cant read the albalagh link. The audio link is interesting - kinda long 27 mins. However it seems old ? From 2001 Khilafah conference ? Is Hamid Gul still as important as he was back then ? Do his words carry as much weight now ? Regards..
This guy was recently interviewed by Sheela Bhatt (http://us.rediff.com/news/2004/feb/13inter.htm)and he has some very kewl ideas abt amrika,israel and indoo's
He is violently anti-american but he is a very important figure for JI(the political wing).He could be sitting on a table opposite advani someday.I pray to god i am wrong.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Calvin »

Suleiman Asad and Ali Mukhtar in China from Myanmar?

Pioneer Feb 15, 2004
For, if Pakistan had not been "told earlier", why then in January 2002 did the ISI whisk away two nuclear scientists Dr Sulaiman Asad and Dr Ali Mukhtar to Myanmar? Then CIA chief George Tenet had visited Islamabad that month to provide clinching proof that Dr Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood, a Sitara-e-Imtiaz awardee, headed a thriving racket supplying nuclear knowhow to Osama-bin-Laden's Al Qaeda in 1999. The Tenet visit had led to Musharraf ordering the arrest of Dr Mehmood and Chaudhury Abdul Majid. The CIA chief supplied copies of bank statements of the two Pakistani nuclear establishment personalities, proving they were receiving funds from Al Qaeda's front organisations.

Under interrogation, the two admitted to having met bin Laden and discussing with him designs of nuclear and chemical weapons. Four other scientists, Azfar Hasan Zaidi, Kishwar Ali, Taha Hussain and Jabbar Khan, were subsequently booked.
... Have Bashiruddin Mehmood and his group been persecuted in a Pakistani court? No. Sure, they were put under "house arrest" for a while. Their bank accounts, presumably the known ones, were "frozen" on the UN Security Council's recommendation which included their names in an old list of individuals and entities linked to Al-Qaeda. ...

And where are those two - Asad and Mukhtar - who were sneaked out to Myanmar the moment the FBI team landed in Islamabad to interrogate the group. Well, New Delhi followed their fortunes for a while and applied pressure on Myanmaar to evict them. South Block sources reveal that by mid-2002 they had moved out, possibly to China. Very little is known about these two have answers to a lot of questions.
...
In January 2003, the lid was blown off another controversy. Many nuclear scientists, most of them trained in China and attached to the country's nuclear power plant - CHASNUPP - had emigrated without official permission. Some had simply vanished into thin air. A memo sent from CHASNUPP to higher authorities, leaked to the Karachi-based web newspaper South Asia Tribune, listed nine absconders. It only speculated where they could have gone, for the absconders had not left a forwarding address. ... The memo stated that the defections began in April 1997. Between February and October 2000, six more scientists had walked away into the fog.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Mudy »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Frodo:
http://www.tanzeem.org/tanzeemeislami/radio/conference/03.ra his audio
anyone who can translate the below link would be gr8
http://www.albalagh.net/current_affairs/hamid_gul.shtml
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After hearing above audio, he is a good orator. Excellent liar. And start of this audio was interesting, especially reference to his brutal ancestors just to gain credibility
Gerard
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Gerard »

The centrifuge connection

Images of queer khan's sales brochures
He wears the paki beauty queen sash.. :D

For sale: Pakistani centrifuge technology
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Calvin »

OK folks, could we please get our heads together and see if we can figure out if something is in the works in Pakistan.

2/11 - Special meeting of Joint Chiefs of Staff
2/11 - 24-member US team makes "secret" visit to Pakistan, reportedly led by Tenet. They arrive at 7pm Wed evening and leave by Thu afternoon.
2/12 am - Musharraf (at National Defence College, Islamabad) makes admission that forces withing
2/12 (noon in Pakistan) - Bush makes presenation on WMD proliferation
2/12 - Musharraf makes surprise visit to Karachi. Roads etc on high alert
2/13 - Rocca makes appearance in New Delhi, meets Sashank and Singh. Nancy Powell also in New Delhi.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Calvin »

What did Tenet tell Musharraf that led to his speech at the NDC and then followed up by the unscheduled dash to Karachi. Who of note is based in Karachi that necessitated a direct tete-a-tete with Musharraf? Dawood?

Dawood was reported to have to moved to Islamabad (11/5) following his designation as "global terrorist" (10/15).

Rocca's appearance in New Delhi on 2/13 suggests that she was part of Tenet's visit to I'bad. Also, why is Nancy Powell in ND?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Rangudu »

Mush's Karachi visit - Osama hiding place?

What else could be in Karachi? B.H.Levy said that Osama took refuge at Binor after 9-11 for a while. What if he is still there under ISI supervision?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Vivek_A »

Khalid hassan sees more GUBO..

Postcard USA: The worst not over: it just began —Khalid Hasan

Anyone in Pakistan who thinks the worst is over after Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s confession on state television and President Pervez Musharraf’s press conference some days later is living in cuckooland. Pakistan’s troubles are not over: they may have just begun.

I am not in the business of making predictions but let me make one for a change. Once the United States is through with its war on terrorism, it will turn towards Pakistan and there will be no dearth of people here screaming that the country that actually has weapons of mass destruction and a country that has failed to ensure their safety, is a country that must be deprived of those dangerous toys. :D Our nuclear assets will either be neutralised — much to the glee of India and Israel, among others — or they will be placed under such draconian regulations that we will have been denied both their use and their flaunting. And who would have brought all that about? None other than we ourselves.

But I want to end this Postcard on a lighter note. After Chaghi, Syed Mushahid Hussain suggested at a meeting held at the Information Ministry in Islamabad that small models of Mount Chaghi should be placed at every arrivals/departure lounge at Pakistan’s international airports to be given out as free gifts to foreign tourists. Why this imaginative suggestion that would have quadrupled our sagging tourism industry overnight was not given a run, only the Senator can say.

First things first. No one, but no one, is prepared to believe that what has been said on Pakistan television — which has less than a shimmering reputation for telling the truth — is no more than a donkey’s tail with the rest of the said donkey well out of sight in the barn, and a radioactive barn at that.

I am not sure if the functionaries of the government back home read American newspapers or listen to American television news shows with the same attention that the Embassy of Pakistan pays to them, which is to say, not a heck of a lot. But in case anyone is reading or listening, here or there, he should be under no illusion that anyone believes for a minute that Dr Khan was solely and singly responsible for the sale, stealth or smuggling of lethal nuclear materials and how-to-make-a-bomb primers.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Mudy »

Mulla Omar is in Gujaranwalla according to 2 days back news report. OBL may be in Hyderabad. Egyptian doctor Ayman Al-Zawahiri may be in Karachi. Mushy can deliver him at this moment, as a nuclear pardon payment.
Mushy will keep OBL trump card for now.
For D-company, mushy will prefer road side bomb. D-company knows too much about Pak army and ISI.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Rangudu »

The other shoe drops.

China link exposed in detail!

Libyan Arms Papers Are Linked to China

Nuclear Secrets Passed Through Pakistan


By Joby Warrick and Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 15, 2004; Page A01

Investigators have identified China as the origin of nuclear weapons designs found in Libya last year, exposing yet another link in a chain of proliferation that passed nuclear secrets through Pakistan to other countries in Asia and the Middle East, according to government officials and arms experts.

The bomb designs and other papers turned over by Libya have yielded dramatic evidence of China's long-suspected role in transferring nuclear know-how to Pakistan in the early 1980s, they said. The designs were later resold to Libya by a Pakistani-led trading network through a nuclear trading network that is now the focus of an expanding international probe, added the officials and experts, who are based in the United States and Europe.

The packet of documents, some of which included text in Chinese, contained detailed, step-by-step instructions for assembling an implosion-type nuclear bomb that could fit atop a large ballistic missile. They also included technical instructions for manufacturing components for the device, the officials and experts said.

"It was just what you'd have on the factory floor. It tells you what torque to use on the bolts and what glue to use on the parts," one weapons expert who had reviewed the blueprints said in an interview. He described the designs as "very, very old" but "very well engineered."


U.S. intelligence officials concluded years ago that China provided early assistance to Pakistan in building its first nuclear weapon -- assistance that appeared to have ended in the 1980s. Still, weapons experts familiar with the blueprints expressed surprise at what they described as a wholesale transfer of sensitive nuclear technology to another country. Notes included in the package of documents suggest that China continued to mentor Pakistani scientists on the finer points of bomb-building over a period of several years, the officials said.

China's actions "were irresponsible and short-sighted, and raise questions about what else China provided to Pakistan's nuclear program," said David Albright, a nuclear physicist and former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq. "These documents also raise questions about whether Iran, North Korea and perhaps others received these documents from Pakistanis or their agents."

The package of documents was turned over to U.S. officials in November following Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi's decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction and open his weapons laboratories to international inspection. The blueprints, which were flown to Washington last month, have been analyzed by experts from the United States, Britain and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Weapons experts in Libya also found large amounts of equipment used in making enriched uranium, the essential ingredient in nuclear weapons. That discovery helped expose a rogue nuclear trading network that officials say funneled technology and parts to Libya as well as Iran and North Korea. A central figure in the network, Pakistani metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan, acknowledged in a televised confession last month that he had passed nuclear secrets to others. Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, then pardoned Khan.

Of the many proliferation activities linked to Khan's network, the selling of weapon designs is viewed as the most serious. The documents found in Libya contained most of the information needed to assemble a bomb, assuming the builder could acquire the plutonium or highly enriched uranium needed for a nuclear explosion, according to U.S. and European weapons experts familiar with the blueprints. At the same time, one of the chief difficulties for countries trying to build nuclear weapons has been obtaining the plutonium or uranium.

Libya appeared to have made minimal progress toward building a weapon, and had no missile in its arsenal capable of carrying the 1,000-pound nuclear device depicted in the drawings, the officials said. However, weapons experts noted, the blueprints would have been far more valuable to the other known customers of Khan's network.

"This design would be highly useful to countries such as Iran and North Korea," said Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security has studied the nonconventional weapons programs of both states. The design "appears deliverable by North Korea's Nodong missile, Iran's Shahab-3 missile and ballistic missiles Iraq was pursuing just prior to the 1991 Persian Gulf War," he said.

Such a relatively simple design also might be coveted by terrorist groups who seek nuclear weapons but lack the technical sophistication or infrastructure to build a modern weapon, said one Europe-based weapons expert familiar with the blueprints. While such a bomb would be difficult to deliver by air, "you could drive it away in a pickup truck," the expert said.

The device depicted in the blueprints appears similar to a weapon known to have been tested by China in the 1960s, officials familiar with the documents said. Although of an older design, the bomb is an implosion device that is smaller and more sophisticated than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Implosion bombs use precision-timed conventional explosives to squeeze a sphere of fissile material and trigger a nuclear chain reaction.

Pakistan's first nuclear test in 1998 involved a more modern design than the one sold to Libya. Albright said the Libyan documents "do not appear to contain any information about the nuclear weapons Pakistan has built."

The documents at the center of the investigation were handed over to IAEA inspectors in two white plastic shopping bags from a Pakistani clothing shop. The shop's name -- Good Looks Tailor -- and Islamabad address were printed on the bags in red letters. One of the bags contained drawings and blueprints of different sizes; the other contained a stack of instructions on how to build not only a bomb but also its essential components.

The documents themselves seemed a hodgepodge -- some in good condition, others smudged and dirty; some professionally printed, others handwritten. Many of the papers were "copies of copies of copies," said one person familiar with them. The primary documents were entirely in English, while a few ancillary papers contained Chinese text. The package also included open-literature articles on nuclear weapons from U.S. weapons laboratories, officials familiar with the documents said.

Strikingly, although most of the essential design elements were included, a few key parts were missing, the officials and experts said. Some investigators have speculated that the missing papers could have been lost, or hadn't 't yet been provided -- possibly they were being withheld pending additional payments. Others suggested that the drawings were simply thrown in as a bonus with the purchase of uranium-enrichment equipment -- "the cherry on the sundae," one knowledgeable official said.

Libyan scientists interviewed by international inspectors about the designs said they had not seriously studied them and were unaware that anything was missing. As Libya had no suitable missile or delivery system for a nuclear weapon, the scientists might have decided to delay work on bomb designs until other parts of their weapons program were further advanced, one knowledgeable U.S. official said.

U.S. and European investigators said there were many similarities among the other nuclear-related designs and components found in Libya and Iran, suggesting they were provided by the same network.

As for who delivered the material to the Libyans, a European official who has studied the question said the connection to the Khan network was indirect. "The middleman is quite invisible. The middleman has covered his tracks very well."

The evidence of China's transfer of nuclear plans to Pakistan confirms something that U.S. officials have believed since at least the early 1980s. A declassified State Department report on Pakistan's nuclear program written in 1983 concluded that China had "provided assistance" to Pakistan's bombmaking program. "We now believe cooperation has taken place in the area of fissile material production and possibly nuclear device design," the report said.

While the discovery of direct evidence of such cooperation was disturbing, it was noteworthy that China's views on proliferation have changed dramatically since the 1980s, and its leaders now generally cooperate with the United States and other countries in stopping the leaking of sensitive weapons technology, said Jonathan Wolfsthal, a nonproliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"Did the Chinese make a huge mistake in sharing technology with Pakistan? Sure. Did we make a mistake by looking the other way in the 1980s when Pakistan was developing the bomb? Yes," Wolfsthal said. "But none of that should get in the way of dealing with the real threats we face today. Our priority must be to drain the swamp created by the action of these nuclear suppliers and businessmen over the past 10 years.
:roll: :roll:
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Sarma »

Thanks a lot R, for bringing that article to notice.
The packet of documents, some of which included text in Chinese, contained detailed, step-by-step instructions for assembling an implosion-type nuclear bomb that could fit atop a large ballistic missile. They also included technical instructions for manufacturing components for the device, the officials and experts said.
Didn't BR mandarins predict this right before the Paki nuke tests, when it was reported that some PAEC scientists rushed to China days before the tests? :lol: The Pakis suddenly realized that their nuclear packages contained untranlated Chinese text and had to go to China to seek their help in understanding the text.

The other skeleton in the closet is now coming out slowly.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Gerard »

So the weapon designs, which were wrapped in a plastic bag from a store in Islamabad, still had the original Chinese notes?

Stupid pakis... :D
I can just imagine the cursing going on in Beijing right now...

<img src="http://india-forum.com/forums/html/emoticons/pakee.gif" alt="" />
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Kuttan »

So much for the NPT (Nukes to Pakistan Treaty). PRC is a signatory to both NPT and the CTBT (China Transfers Bombs to Terrorists), hey?

Also proves our contention that there were no weapons developed at Kahuta / Xerox Khan Labs. Just stuff for "dirty shoe bombs". Everything was Chinese.

NOW I hope the rest can come out - how the Chinese took their toys back home in June 2002.

Because, at this point in the story, that is the only way for PRC to save face - show that they were "responsible".
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Prateek »

CTBT (China Transfers Bombs to Terrorists) is hillarious :)

How Not to Curb Nuclear Proliferation
http://antiwar.com/bidwai/?articleid=1969
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Sridhar »

There is a need for a full-fledged article linking together all the open-source material on the China links - both in terms of nukes and missiles.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by kgoan »

Now this *is* interesting:
http://www.satribune.com/archives/feb15_21_04/opinion_amirmir.htm

[/quote]Though Dr Khan has taken complete responsibility for nuclear proliferation to Iran, Libya and North Korea, diplomatic sources close to the US embassy in Islamabad claim the US intelligence has acquired irrefutable documentary evidence of a trilateral nuclear cooperation involving Pakistan, Iran and North Korea.

The evidence, sources say, was extracted from a group of 20 senior scientists from North Korea who had defected to the US and its allies in March 2003, through a smuggling operation involving the tiny Pacific island of Nauru. The defections involved 11 countries which provided consular protection to smuggle the scientists from neighboring China.

Among those debriefed in Washington was the father of North Korea's nuclear program, Dr Kyong Won-ha. Their debriefing convinced the US about the existence of a nuke-for-missile deal between North Korea and Pakistan, proving indubitably that Islamabad had been sharing sophisticated nuclear technology with Pyongyang since 1997, under then PM Nawaz Sharif.

A relationship between the two countries was put in place under Gen Zia-ul-Haq's rule. It was then that Pakistan began buying missiles from North Korea. This relationship continued until the mid-'90s, when the Pakistani economy began to falter. Cash-strapped, then Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto began bartering for North Korean missiles, giving in return high-speed centrifuge machines and blueprints for the production of nuclear weapons. [/quote]
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by SaiK »

Vivek_A
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Vivek_A »

Father of the Islamic bomb barters papers for his future

The Pakistani scientist behind a worldwide black market in nuclear technology is involved in high-stakes brinksmanship, refusing to hand over potentially incriminating documents demanded by the Pakistani authorities.

The documents and a tape-recorded statement, which are said to demonstrate that senior Pakistani army officials - including President Pervez Musharraf - were aware of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear-proliferation activities, are believed to have been smuggled out of the country for safekeeping by the scientist's daughter, Dina.

Pakistani intelligence officials said that Dr Khan first agreed to surrender the documents in return for a blanket pardon, but has failed to do so. They believe that his daughter is prepared to disclose their contents if legal action is brought against him by the country's military government. Last night Dr Khan, 68 - a national hero in Pakistan - remained under house arrest in Islamabad.

More than a week after President Musharraf granted the scientist clemency after he confessed to selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, he is still in legal limbo. Pakistani officials said that he faced 24-hour surveillance for the rest of his life.

The country's foreign office confirmed that the pardon granted to Dr Khan was conditional. "It is not a blanket pardon. It relates only to his television confession," said Massoud Khan, a spokesman.

The pardon was granted on the grounds that Dr Khan "had co-operated with the investigation begun by the government in November last year, and that he will continue to co-operate".

It would not extend to any activities that may yet be revealed as the investigation into Dr Khan's actions continues. The spokesman said that the scientist should accept that the security restrictions would continue "indefinitely".

He added: "What we have ensured is that he and his network of associates would never again be able to operate. They have effectively been demobilised."

Intelligence officers, however, said that the scientist remained resistant. "The government has been trying to retrieve the documents since Dr Khan was offered a presidential pardon last week but they are yet to receive them, even though he promised," one official said.

The official said the government had decided to negotiate a deal with Dr Khan only after it found out his daughter had left Pakistan with the potentially incriminating material.

The scientist is said to claim that all the chiefs of army staff since 1977, including the then Gen Musharraf, were aware of his actions.

The discovery derailed plans to put the scientist, and a number of his associates, on trial over their role.

Last month three senior government officials, including the head of the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency, held meetings with Dr Khan in which they convinced him to apologise unconditionally and surrender the documents in return for a pardon.

"The government's concern was genuine," said one intelligence official. "First because they were unaware of the exact nature and details of these documents, and second, because of Dr Khan's knowledge of all the secret nuclear dealings.

"If his daughter reveals this secret information in retaliation, it could create problems both for the country and its nuclear programme," he said.

Meanwhile, relatives of six scientists who worked with Dr Khan, and are being detained at undisclosed locations without access to lawyers, yesterday accused the Pakistani government of indulging in a cover-up to protect the country's military from scandal.

They said that they would present evidence tomorrow to show that the scientists could not have smuggled plans or components from nuclear research laboratories without being detected by soldiers or by the ISI.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by ArunK »

No wonder we have profound silence from BB & NS.

Our guys are wisely playing this one close to their chest and keeping their mouths tightly shut.

Now do y'all think that this is a good time to be "negotiating" Kashmir with them evil-yindoos? Or do you think that some one is getting reamed without vaseline?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by pran »

NOW I hope the rest can come out - how the Chinese took their toys back home in June 2002.
N^3 your Hypothesis is becoming a reality. Now one thing that has been on the news is that bench-press was in I'bad to read the riot act. Who read the riot act to the real toys-r-us or how it was conveyed if conveyed at all ? Or simply the toys-r-us management actually did mid-course policy change and out comes kim with his toys.Seems to me as a street side gambling game to find the right card or dice under the bowl which usually throws off the onlooker to the wrong one.IOW Paks seemed to be the bluff while the real deal is somewhere else.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by jrjrao »

NY Times - Week in Review:

Dr. Khan Got What He Wanted, and He Explains How
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/weekinreview/15word.html
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by jrjrao »

Editorial in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Islamic bomb
..the hair-raising confession by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, has spooked the international community. The sudden chill in the air means the ghost of terrorism has returned yet again to haunt us, and this time with a radioactive glow.

The nuclear proliferation issue is a diplomatic minefield; the Philippines, now a member of the UN Security Council, must tread carefully....
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by arun »

Someone mentioned that BB was silent. So here goes an article from Washington Times by Desikan Thirunarayanapuram :

Bhutto skeptical military innocent in nuke ring .
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by vijayk »

Originally posted by narayanan:
So much for the NPT (Nukes to Pakistan Treaty). PRC is a signatory to both NPT and the CTBT (China Transfers Bombs to Terrorists), hey?

Also proves our contention that there were no weapons developed at Kahuta / Xerox Khan Labs. Just stuff for "dirty shoe bombs". Everything was Chinese.

NOW I hope the rest can come out - how the Chinese took their toys back home in June 2002.

Because, at this point in the story, that is the only way for PRC to save face - show that they were "responsible".
N^3

How did you come up with the date June 2002? What are you referring to?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Anantha »

Pak nukes have Chinese prints

In fact, long before Americans discovered that much of their manufactured goods are 'Made in China', the Pakistanis took Chinese help, expertise, and design, in making their 'bum'. :D ("bum"? where have we heard it before?
Not that Washington -- which suspected the Chinese transfers to Pakistan but continued to wink at or sleep on the reports -– was particularly perturbed by it. But now that it turns out that its long-coddled ally passed on the same Chinese nuclear bomb design to Libya , Uncle Sam is having seizures .
------------
What does this mean? A Pak bomb was OK for US because it would be used agaist (only) India?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by Kuttan »

Vijayk:

Article in The ONLY Prestigious foreign affairs journal:

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE5-1/narayanan.html

Pran:
Who read the riot act to the real toys-r-us or how it was conveyed if conveyed at all ? Or simply the toys-r-us management actually did mid-course policy change and out comes kim with his toys.
You got it. Quite possibly, the "yindoo nationalist" George Fernandes passed on a memo to "Wrong Way Wong Wei"'s buddies attaching a copy of the Yindoo Strategic Deterrence Doctrine - u know, the one where it says: "...and against those who provide nuclear weapons which are used against India.." Maybe leaked a document saying that if Dilli / Mumbai go "boom", so do, say, Beijing / Hangchow / Shanghai.

IOW, "vely vely vely vely glave consequences".

That's one of the downsides of having put so much $$ into building skyscrapers: much harder to rebuild than yindoo mud huts.

Even without that, I believe the ToysRUs mgmt would have decided that it was not in their interest to have PRC-origin isotopes floating in the mushroom clouds over Dilli and Mumbai. Bad for business.

The other side of your conclusion is also right on target. The weapons were simply shifted to NoKo, with new target being to humiliate DupleeCity even further than was done by Wrong Way Wong Wei (pbuh). And you have to agree that it was done vely vely effectively. NoKo, if u notice, SUDDENLY woke up after the June 2002 events and happily declared that they now had dozens of ready nukes. Really???

You may also have provided one of the answers to the BIG question: "WHY NOW???"

The reveleation sequence was aimed as retaliation for the NoKo humiliation. Look how it came out. The Americans KNEW quite well, when they first got Gaddafi to GUBO, that the Libyan stuff came from China. So how did this come out sooooo sloooow - lee?
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by John_Doe »

Originally posted by A.Ananth:
[QBWhat does this mean? A Pak bomb was OK for US because it would be used agaist (only) India?[/QB]
Yes. Remember that to white people all non-whites are second class citizens and that we are expendable in the games these people play.
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Re: Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation - 11 Feb 2004

Post by NRao »

The delivery of nuclear blue prints by China via Pakistan I hope has been brought to the attention of the European Union's Irish president D*ck Roche. What neat timing for the President.

Clearly there is an urgent need to make two categories: responsible NPT members and irresponsible NPT members.

Someone needs to also tell him that India has exploded a nuke and is a declared nuclear state - thus it cannot sign under the non-nuclear category. (The logic follows that if they expect India to roll back, then so can the rest of the declared states. And, that actually is THE ONLY solution.)

Also, Kerry too needs to speak frankly on this issue if he wants to lead this charge. Bush who having brought in Libiya and Iran and exposed TSP and now China, can always claim himself to be the true leader in thsi field.

I think India should just sit tight and ignore all this halla-balloo. Election year politiking going on. Just enjoy the ride.

And just incase, the article appeared in the Chicago Tribune too: China is source of bomb designs
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