whenever Amritrage is around.Pakistani military officials and scientists approached Benazir Bhutto several times while she was prime minister seeking permission to export nuclear technology, she said yesterday.
In an interview, the exiled prime minister, who served two terms from 1988-90 and 1993-96, said she denied them permission.
"It certainly was their belief that they could earn tons of money if they did this," she said.
"It was something that I was disabusing them of, that they could not get it. If they chose to sell it, only three countries would buy it, because it wasn't like McDonald's hamburgers that would have a huge consumer market."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0224/p01s02-woap.htmlIn semiofficial publications, in a little noticed white paper on nonproliferation late last year, and in interviews with senior Beijing sources conducted for this report, sources say the old policy of indifference, or tacit official acquiescence of sensitive technology sales by Chinese firms to states desiring a nuclear card, are ending.
An unusually full treatment in a magazine called Oriental Outlook - published by Xinhua, China's official news service - describes how the Chinese people have been ignoring the fact that China is now "surrounded by nuclear states," including Russia, India, and Pakistan. Taiwan has long held blueprints for nuclear weapons, and should North Korea collapse and unify, there would be a substantially stronger regional rival right on China's border. Japanese military leaders have in recent years broken an old taboo on discussing the possibility of nuclear accession.
Some Chinese strategists worry about nuclear terrorism, with the potential of an Al Qaeda-like cell showing up, for example, in the far west Xinjiang region.
Actually you may be onto something here. Libya was pretty desperate to get out of the straitjacket of sanctions. And there is an additional motivation: Gaddafi has no love for the Pakistani military establishment, which had hanged his friend Bhutto.Originally posted by Daulat:
if the libyans did their purchasing this late, do you think that gadaffi was working undercover for unkil in order to sting mushy/xerox to expose their dirty dealings? after all, the lockerbie negotiations and hague trials have been on for roughly the same time frame?
so unkil's deal with libya goes something like this... give us some cash for the grieving families, but thats not enough - cos we be real mad and we is real bad, you see this whole WMD thingy, well... lets sting mushy.....my paranoid conspiracy theories are getting more vivid...
As early as 1992, Pakistani officials visited North Korea to view a No-dong prototype, and, in May 1993, Pakistani engineers and scientists attended the No-dong test-launch at Musudan-ri. When then-Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto visited Pyongyang in December 1993, analysts speculated that a missile deal featured on her agenda. Subsequently, in late 1995, Marshal Ch'oe Gwang, the former vice-chairman of North Korea's National Defense Commission, visited Pakistan and brokered a missile deal.
Details of Pakistan and North Korea's missile cooperation efforts surfaced in open source literature throughout the 1990s. In 1996, Taiwanese officials seized 15-tons of ammonium perchlorate - an oxidizing agent used in most modern solid-propellant formulas - an a freighter bound from North Korea to Paskistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Committee.
http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/nkorea/nuke-miss-chron.htmOriginally posted by Sandeep Kaul:
Benazir, it's about kim chi, not hamburgers!
Seems Benazir was in N. Korea in 1993, according to this article published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, published November, 2002:
Pakistan and North Korea - Dangerous Counter Trades
As early as 1992, Pakistani officials visited North Korea to view a No-dong prototype, and, in May 1993, Pakistani engineers and scientists attended the No-dong test-launch at Musudan-ri. When then-Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto visited Pyongyang in December 1993, analysts speculated that a missile deal featured on her agenda. Subsequently, in late 1995, Marshal Ch'oe Gwang, the former vice-chairman of North Korea's National Defense Commission, visited Pakistan and brokered a missile deal.
Details of Pakistan and North Korea's missile cooperation efforts surfaced in open source literature throughout the 1990s. In 1996, Taiwanese officials seized 15-tons of ammonium perchlorate - an oxidizing agent used in most modern solid-propellant formulas - an a freighter bound from North Korea to Paskistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Committee.
So who is this Kishore Kuchibhotla, I wonder.It also warns that although India and Pakistan 'have established regulatory bodies to deal with the safety and security of their nuclear materials,' these may not be sufficient to protect against every potential threat.
The report, authored by Kishore Kuchibhotla, currently a PhD student in biophysics at Harvard, and Matthew McKinzie, a nuclear physicist, currently a staff scientist with the Nuclear Program at
i remain intrigued by the lateness of the libyan deal, the apparent extent of it, and the coincidental timing of the lockerbie trials, and ofcourse the volumes of information coming out of tripoliOriginally posted by Ananda:
Actually you may be onto something here. Libya was pretty desperate to get out of the straitjacket of sanctions. And there is an additional motivation: Gaddafi has no love for the Pakistani military establishment, which had hanged his friend Bhutto.Originally posted by Daulat:
my paranoid conspiracy theories are getting more vivid...
no saar, i am hypothesising based on no data other than what i have read on this thread. you have to wonder why lockerbie is settled now after so many years? i heard quotes that muammar-bhai has sensed the winds of change, etc. - what were they? given TSP's centrality in the global market for the two things that muammar is accused of... you have to wonderOriginally posted by narayanan:
Daulat:
Are you saying that the Lockerbie issue got settled BECAUSE Gaddafi agreed to nail the Pakis?
Now mush can wonder: When Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Terroristi came to visit Kahuta, heh-heh, was that a Culinary Institite of American delegation too???
I could be wrong, but they seem to have a huge grip on the Indian DIE and DDM. Thankfully, the english mediain total in India caters to a small part of the population, so in that sense they cannot do much damage even if they employ every pro-proliferation crook like Milholin or Krepon to write monthly columns. Krepon has been writing a periodic column in Outlook India since pokharan II, and the indian leftists and commies suck up all that this american has to say.Originally posted by sunil s:
Nobody listens to them and with good reason - these guys are completely irrelevant.
"North Korea which is North of India, is still receiving Nuclear material from AQ.Khan who was born in India and Pakistani President Musharraf who was also born in India, said he still has no idea but gave 1billion% assurance that the army and the government are not involved"Originally posted by Bhai George:
I'm half expecting to read headlines like this in future:
"Nuke proliferation by erstwhile part of India"
"India-born Dr. Khan is rogue scientist"
"New Delhi-born Musharaff, encouraged nuke madness"
"Al Queda receive support from India-bordering country"
and so on...
CIA chief debriefs Dr Khan?
From Absar Alam
ISLAMABAD—A top US intelligence official interrogated Dr A. Q. Khan during his recent visit to Islamabad early this month to verify the authenticity of the information supplied by Pakistan to the US on nuclear proliferation, reliable sources told The Nation Tuesday.
The US embassy neither denied nor confirmed the information, but Pakistani officials dismissed it summarily.
George Tenet, the CIA chief, had a debriefing session with Dr Khan on February 12 in Islamabad, sources said. The debriefing session was arranged following Bush administration’s assertion to have a direct contact with Dr Khan.
Within 48 hours after the debriefing session Dr Khan went through, what a Pakistani spokesman termed “routine,” medical check-up on February 14 for cardiac stress.
A US embassy spokesman neither denied nor confirmed the debriefing session between Khan and Tenet. “I cannot confirm this information,” the spokesman said when approached by phone for his comments. Asked specifically if he would deny that Tenet had interviewed Khan he said he would not confirm.
Unlike US embassy spokesman, Shaukat Sultan, the Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) was quick to deny this report. “Absurd,” Sultan curtly said when contacted to seek his side of the story.
Saying there is nothing of this sort (meeting between Khan and Tenet) Sultan said the cooperation about investigation into nuclear proliferation was at the government-to-government level. He said Pakistan was providing information only to International Atomic Energy Agency.
However, the US embassy spokesman answering a question whether Islamabad was cooperating well to meet the expectations of Washington said consultations, meetings and dialogues were going on. “This is an ongoing process,” he said.
Asked if the investigations into worldwide nuclear proliferation had come to a conclusion, he said: “It’s far from over. Everyone is continuing to learn more.”
Well-placed diplomatic sources confirmed to The Nation that Musharraf regime had turned over tons of information acquired from the scientists to the United States. “It will take several months to go through the results of the investigations and the contents of the statements given by Dr Khan, and his Pakistani and foreign associates,” sources said.
The data and documents were made available to the CIA officials to allay US apprehensions that Islamabad might not be telling the whole truth. “The US wanted to double-check the information provided by Pakistan,” diplomatic sources said. In addition to answering CIA chief’s questions this month, Dr Khan was also quizzed by a few more US officials in earlier sessions as well.
General Musharraf had announced pardon for Dr Khan on February 5 proclaiming that he would stand between the Dr Khan and the international community. Two days later, February 7, US Secretary of State made a telephone call to Musharraf. On February 9, the Foreign Office issued statement saying Dr Khan was not given a blanket pardon.
The FO spokesman said the pardon was granted for what Dr Khan had confessed meaning if there was information about Dr Khan’s involvement in anymore proliferation activity, the pardon would be withdrawn.
“The US officials are sifting through the statements and information supplied by Islamabad to establish whether Khan had provided nuclear technology only to Iran, Libya, and North Korea or there are other countries too,” sources claimed.
The US investigation team, it was learnt, was trying to locate a link between Dubai-based firms, being accused of trading nuclear equipment, and front companies set up by Saddam Hussain and one Asian country to acquire centrifuges.
Dismissing the common perception in Pakistan that the whole affair was timed to force Islamabad rollback its nuclear programme, the diplomatic sources said, “The American objective is have complete information about the so-called underworld of nuclear proliferators and uproot their network once for all.”
The sources claimed that the US was most concerned about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the information from Pakistan would help improve the existing system that failed to stop nuclear proliferation.
That's "nothing because there ain't nothing"The lack of US reaction to AXK's shenanigans is "Much Ado About Nothing"
To lie, or not to lie, is never the question. To debrief, or not to brief, THAT is the question
A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
From google he is a graduate of MIT class of 2002 - astrophysics?. He has particpated in many seminars on intl relations etc while at MIT. He appears to have written stuff for Henry Stimson Center. From what I can make out he is an intellectual kid deeply worried about nuke war.So who is this Kishore Kuchibhotla, I wonder.
IMHO, It is these people that the pro-proliferation mullahs in MIIS and Millholin-types aim to influence. Smart as KK might be, he is not going to figure out a damn thing if the pro-prolif crowd is the main source of disinformation.Originally posted by ramana:
From what I can make out he is an intellectual kid deeply worried about nuke war.
He laid strong emphasis on drawing appropriate lesions :p from the unfortunate proliferation in the past.