Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation

[ShauryaT]

I don't think they counted on the Chinese input. So if you like, China put a topi on Unkil's head over this, and Unkil has been scrambling ever since.

A cold test in 82 and 83 and a hot test in China in 84 and the US did not know about this? Unlikely. It was official policy to look the other way and indeed collaborate across multiple administrations. Careers of folks (Richard Barlow) who thought they were doing the right thing and doing their jobs were ruined in the process. US was a collaborator with AQ Khan along with China.

[Lalmohan]

not quite what i said - my hypothesis is that they didn't believe the chinese would actually proliferate, thinking they might be rational players in the soviet mold. i don't think for unkil considerations of india come/came first with respect to the islamic bomb, it is first and foremost about israel's safety - therefore they allowed pakistan to play on the assumption that they would not succeed. unkil is and was never keen on others to aquire the bomb (israel excepted). the chinese played an anti-india card since it was in their interest, unkil made a strategic mistake. when they found out khan was peddling, they started to get more interested.

in other words, we were not central to their policy

[ShauryaT]

not quite what i said - my hypothesis is that they didn't believe the chinese would actually proliferate, thinking they might be rational players in the soviet mold. i don't think for unkil considerations of india come/came first with respect to the islamic bomb, it is first and foremost about israel's safety - therefore they allowed pakistan to play on the assumption that they would not succeed. unkil is and was never keen on others to aquire the bomb (israel excepted). the chinese played an anti-india card since it was in their interest, unkil made a strategic mistake. when they found out khan was peddling, they started to get more interested.

in other words, we were not central to their policy

Being rational players in the soviet mold is exactly what the Chinese did. Passed on their most precious possessions by being narrow minded. The US had ample evidence that not only Pakistan was succeeding since 1979, when the first enrichment centrifuges came online, it has been a series of look the other way in spite of the mountains of evidence of the nuclear program , for the great strategic minds of the day did not think it will come to bite them. Also, they knew long time back that Khan was peddling. For crying sake, the had flyers at a conference advertising his material. Only when, the ring got a little out of hand and the materials reached the shores of Libya and the US regained a firm grip on Pakistan, did they choose to act. Even now, it is uncertain, if the ring has collapsed.

[Lalmohan]

you or i can't prove or disprove this, but my hypothesis remains that
1. reagan/brezinski trusted zia to play in the nuke sandpit and not get out of hand (anti india stance, anti soviet stance, india==soviets)
2. pakistan was enriching but not getting to weapons grade, nor getting the triggering right - hence further indulgence
3. china steps into the breach, supplies a working design (was not anticipated by unkil)
4. the other pak lab succeeds, KRL does not, in building a working prototype
5. strategically zia decides that KRL was fun, but it doesn't work, lets sell the crap off, focuses on the working lab which stays under wraps
6. xeroxbhai's ego gets the better of him and he goes on a selling spree...
7. ... leading to the unravelling of the ring as unkil starts to panic about smarter boys (e.g. iran - putting the brains and the resources together to get it working)
8. gadaffi spills the beans when he sees he's bought a pile of junk and the geopolitical winds shift

i am more than ready to believe that unkil played a duplicitous game here, i struggle to see unkil willing to let the genie out of the bottle, and that too with islamists. don't forget that the islamabad embassy almost went the way of the tehran embassy... unkil is not entirely foolish when it comes to sizing up pakistan.

either way a strategic error with grave consequences

[ramana]

Agree with most except uncle allowed PRC to transfer the maal. All that looking other way is all humbug. It was joint decison.

[svinayak]

you or i can't prove or disprove this, but my hypothesis remains that
1. reagan/brezinski trusted zia to play in the nuke sandpit and not get out of hand (anti india stance, anti soviet stance, india==soviets)
2. pakistan was enriching but not getting to weapons grade, nor getting the triggering right - hence further indulgence
3. china steps into the breach, supplies a working design (was not anticipated by unkil)
4. the other pak lab succeeds, KRL does not, in building a working prototype
5. strategically zia decides that KRL was fun, but it doesn't work, lets sell the crap off, focuses on the working lab which stays under wraps
6. xeroxbhai's ego gets the better of him and he goes on a selling spree...
7. ... leading to the unravelling of the ring as unkil starts to panic about smarter boys (e.g. iran - putting the brains and the resources together to get it working)
8. gadaffi spills the beans when he sees he's bought a pile of junk and the geopolitical winds shift

i am more than ready to believe that unkil played a duplicitous game here, i struggle to see unkil willing to let the genie out of the bottle, and that too with islamists. don't forget that the islamabad embassy almost went the way of the tehran embassy... unkil is not entirely foolish when it comes to sizing up pakistan.

either way a strategic error with grave consequences

Unkil created two streams of proliferation.

One was with the P5 - "legitimate" proliferation and create a monopoly with NPT

Second was the PRC route for the rogue countries. This created TSP/KRL , NK, Iran, etc as the link for tested weapon. This was already penetrated by Unkil and Unkil got deep connections/info inside all these rogue regimes including Iraq of Saddam Hussein. This went on for 20 years until OBL/AQ became one of the customers. THey pulled the plug on the nuke walmart but they have kept the PRC state proliferation under wraps.
When in future after 2012 they want to put pressure on PRC they will open the archives. PRC gained weapon design from Uncle which unkil gave willingly.
PRC TSP is a special relationship dating back from 1962 when Ayub went to PRC to see if they can join together against India.

[Gerard]

Why would the US provide nuclear weapons to a country with which they had fought a very bloody war just a few years before?

SAC General Curtis LeMay had various plans for military strikes against the PRC to prevent them going nuclear. Who in the US could proliferate nukes to China over the objections of its own military?

This doesn't make sense.

[John Snow]

It is an operation that went wong like the case of W(h) en Ho Lee , the inconvienient Spy.

[Lalmohan]

i believe Gen. MacArthur was sacked primarily because he was actively proposing a nuclear attack against Chinese forces north of the Yalu river and in China proper during the Korean War. a war which had shaken the US military to the core after the Chinese routed them before the bitter fight back.

Chinese-American detente follows the Sino-Soviet clash on the Amur in the late 60's and then the Pakistan brokered Kissinger meeting in 1970. All this is way after China acquired nuclear weapons, possibly with Soviet help

as for official proliferation, except for britain and france... weaponisation was not encouraged at all (Israel was given a nod and a wink ofcourse)

the soviets tried to capture the german scientists first, and had mixed success. they got a few key breakthroughs from communist sympathising spies in britian who passed on key secrets to them

[Gerard]

Soviet help only went so far. There is a reason the Chinese named their first test "596"

Project 596 was named after the month of June 1959 in which it was initiated, immediately after Nikita Khrushchev decided to stop helping the Chinese with their nuclear program 20 Jun 1959.

No US help would have been forthcoming in 1964.

"Whether to "Strangle the Baby in the Cradle": The United States and the Chinese Nuclear Program, 1960-64"

[svinayak]

Why would the US provide nuclear weapons to a country with which they had fought a very bloody war just a few years before?

This doesn't make sense.

Kissinger books will tell you that HK and other Americans were in contact with PRC from 1960 itself. What is not open is the underground network of all the communist and western academics and officials from the WWII. Chou EnLai was in commie academic world of France before the PRC revolution.

After the 1962 Cuban crisis US needed a leverage and deterrence against SU. Small force dont deter SU military and vast huge size. A comparable size country with Nuclear weapon only will show result.
It took them 8 years from 1964 before SU leadership sat down with Anglo American power to negotiate arms control talks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_ ... tion_Talks

Chinese-American detente follows the Sino-Soviet clash on the Amur in the late 60's and then the Pakistan brokered Kissinger meeting in 1970. All this is way after China acquired nuclear weapons, possibly with Soviet help

US was already in touch with PRC in the 1960s. Pakistan brokered Kissinger meeting in 1970 was a show to bring PRC and Pakistan together - another psyops of Unkil geopolitics containment.

[Gerard]

Governments always maintain secret unofficial contacts with adversaries. That is the way they operate.

There is an impossible leap from these contacts to providing nuclear weapons.

[svinayak]

Governments always maintain secret unofficial contacts with adversaries. That is the way they operate.

There is an impossible leap from these contacts to providing nuclear weapons.

This is true. But similar weapons design got leaked to Soviet Union in the 1940s from the US. It is mostly the designs which could have been passed along since most of the capability was already there for the first generation weapon from SU.

There is a high probability of this. But events in 1980s showed that after the US-China nuclear agreement many designs were available to PRC. Cox commision report has lot more details on this.
http://www.house.gov/coxreport/
http://www.heritage.org/research/asiaan ... /em602.cfm
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articl ... rtid=33984

[Gerard]

These were no leaks. They were the product of espionage by the NKVD/MGB. The US did not intend to transfer such knowledge to the USSR.

Neither the USSR not the USA was comfortable with a nuclear armed PRC. Both Kings and Hegemons attempt to strangle babies in their crib.

[svinayak]

These were no leaks. They were the product of espionage by the NKVD/MGB. The US did not intend to transfer such knowledge to the USSR.

Neither the USSR not the USA was comfortable with a nuclear armed PRC. Both Kings and Hegemons attempt to strangle babies in their crib.

They may have let the espionage happen. It is possible but these are too sensitive to be allowed to go to the rogue nations. They both USA/USSR needed to deter each other for a long time. China is still a good third party for their chess games.

[ramana]

It may be good idea to sccour the web to find out the complete list of stuff that TSP was charged with trying to smuggle right from AQK time.

[svinayak]

These were no leaks. They were the product of espionage by the NKVD/MGB. The US did not intend to transfer such knowledge to the USSR.

Neither the USSR not the USA was comfortable with a nuclear armed PRC. Both Kings and Hegemons attempt to strangle babies in their crib.

As ramana pointed out - look for the parts being sourced for these weapons design. They are all western parts and western source point of manufacturing. It means even the 1966 design has western parts and components.

[Lalmohan]

ramana - gordon corera's book has most of the details on the khan brochure

[Gerard]

They are all western parts and western source point of manufacturing. It means even the 1966 design has western parts and components.

Not necessarily. This was an updated design. Also in the 1980s, could TSP readily buy sensitive equipment from the Soviet bloc? Would not the western technology be superior anyway?

The Chinese themselves would have needed to import parts and machinery in the 1960s after the Soviets cut them off. They quite likely obtained equipment in the west.

None of this indicates any deliberate transfer of US weapon designs to China.

[svinayak]

None of this indicates any deliberate transfer of US weapon designs to China.

Deliberate would be a wrong word but made it easier for state to acquire the tech and components. NPA have different level of enforcement for different countries.

The Chinese themselves would have needed to import parts and machinery in the 1960s after the Soviets cut them off. They quite likely obtained equipment in the west.

Yes but for what design. For most likely a western design.

[shiv]

you or i can't prove or disprove this, but my hypothesis remains that
1. reagan/brezinski trusted zia to play in the nuke sandpit and not get out of hand (anti india stance, anti soviet stance, india==soviets)
2. pakistan was enriching but not getting to weapons grade, nor getting the triggering right - hence further indulgence
3. china steps into the breach, supplies a working design (was not anticipated by unkil)
4. the other pak lab succeeds, KRL does not, in building a working prototype
5. strategically zia decides that KRL was fun, but it doesn't work, lets sell the crap off, focuses on the working lab which stays under wraps
6. xeroxbhai's ego gets the better of him and he goes on a selling spree...
7. ... leading to the unravelling of the ring as unkil starts to panic about smarter boys (e.g. iran - putting the brains and the resources together to get it working)
8. gadaffi spills the beans when he sees he's bought a pile of junk and the geopolitical winds shift

i am more than ready to believe that unkil played a duplicitous game here, i struggle to see unkil willing to let the genie out of the bottle, and that too with islamists. don't forget that the islamabad embassy almost went the way of the tehran embassy... unkil is not entirely foolish when it comes to sizing up pakistan.

either way a strategic error with grave consequences

From this story (which is credible to me)

1) Which nations emerge as the real "rogue" nations?
2) Which nations do we normally associate with the words "rogue nation"?
3) How far down the road are we in blindly swallowing the biased names/descriptions that we are fed with?
4) How dishonest are we to ourselves in not openly calling a spade a spade?

Are North Korea and Iran wrong in recognizing fellow rogues in this game?

[ShauryaT]

you or i can't prove or disprove this, but my hypothesis remains that
1. reagan/brezinski trusted zia to play in the nuke sandpit and not get out of hand (anti india stance, anti soviet stance, india==soviets)
2. pakistan was enriching but not getting to weapons grade, nor getting the triggering right - hence further indulgence
3. china steps into the breach, supplies a working design (was not anticipated by unkil)
4. the other pak lab succeeds, KRL does not, in building a working prototype
5. strategically zia decides that KRL was fun, but it doesn't work, lets sell the crap off, focuses on the working lab which stays under wraps
6. xeroxbhai's ego gets the better of him and he goes on a selling spree...
7. ... leading to the unravelling of the ring as unkil starts to panic about smarter boys (e.g. iran - putting the brains and the resources together to get it working)
8. gadaffi spills the beans when he sees he's bought a pile of junk and the geopolitical winds shift

i am more than ready to believe that unkil played a duplicitous game here, i struggle to see unkil willing to let the genie out of the bottle, and that too with islamists. don't forget that the islamabad embassy almost went the way of the tehran embassy... unkil is not entirely foolish when it comes to sizing up pakistan.

either way a strategic error with grave consequences

I will have to dig into my references, as my perspective is different to the above, cannot do this from memory alone, will reply later.

[Gagan]

you or i can't prove or disprove this, but my hypothesis remains that
1. reagan/brezinski trusted zia to play in the nuke sandpit and not get out of hand (anti india stance, anti soviet stance, india==soviets)
2. pakistan was enriching but not getting to weapons grade, nor getting the triggering right - hence further indulgence
3. china steps into the breach, supplies a working design (was not anticipated by unkil)
4. the other pak lab succeeds, KRL does not, in building a working prototype
5. strategically zia decides that KRL was fun, but it doesn't work, lets sell the crap off, focuses on the working lab which stays under wraps
6. xeroxbhai's ego gets the better of him and he goes on a selling spree...
7. ... leading to the unravelling of the ring as unkil starts to panic about smarter boys (e.g. iran - putting the brains and the resources together to get it working)
8. gadaffi spills the beans when he sees he's bought a pile of junk and the geopolitical winds shift

i am more than ready to believe that unkil played a duplicitous game here, i struggle to see unkil willing to let the genie out of the bottle, and that too with islamists. don't forget that the islamabad embassy almost went the way of the tehran embassy... unkil is not entirely foolish when it comes to sizing up pakistan.

either way a strategic error with grave consequences

1. Zia did come down to Jaipur for the cricket match, when relations were at a low ebb. Zia was seen as someone who was pragmatic enough to do what the US wanted on pakistan's western borders, while keeping the eastern border cold, even reaching out to the Indians.
5 & 6: Somewhere along the way, the powers that be in pakistan realized that the centrifuges could not churn out weapons grade uranium, (more likely when the chinese told them so) and pakistan had to go the plutonium way and that too entirely under Chinese tutelage. This resulted in pakistani scientists going off to work in Chinese weapons lab to co-develop a plutonium based weapon for pakistan that would be air delivered.
The CHIC-4 design that was found in Xerox khan's suitcase by the CIA was fine, except that the amount of weapons grade uranium that it needed was way beyond what a centrifuge could ever deliver.

All the sweat, blood and money that pakistan had put into the centrifuge route lay waste, and the Generals then put the onus back on Xerox khan to recover that money back for them by selling off that stuff to anyone who would care to buy it. This was sold off to the Iranians and the Libiyans. The Iranians immediately realized that the maal was fake, the libyians did too soon enough. Saddam Hussein refused the offer because he was suspicious of a CIA plot to involve Iraq and him in the quest for nuclear weapons.

Although the chinese knew that the centrifuge story was a dud, they used the Khan network to peddle their maal, also used it to supply North Korea with the plutonium design they had co-developed with pakistan. The CD that Benazir Bhutto carried to pyongyang on her visit there was probably the plutonium weapon design and the detailed engineering that would be needed to build it. So China used Pakistan - its AQ Khan network even its Prime Minister to smuggle N-weapon tech to N Korea. This was played off as a 'barter' deal. Barter indeed neither nation had tech they could call their own. They were both sharing what China had given each of them, with full chinese knowledge and patronage. China could not show that N Korea 'developed' the tech on its own, because South Korea, Japan and the Big Khan would yell bloody murder, it had to be those dirty pakistanis 'bartered' tech with those dirty north koreans.

Now the probability is, even if the big khan knew what was going on, they were powerless to stop the real deal. The centrifuge joke they had quitely watched, perhaps because they knew it was a false mirage, but now they were out of Afghanistan, and their leverage had diminished wrt pakistan. They did allow Israel to go to India to bomb pakistan's plutonium manufacturing reactor at Khusab. Rajiv Gandhi considered this with the israelis even arriving at Bhuj apparently. But India soon realized that merely bombing Chashma was not going to stop the pakistanis because the chinese would simply give them a few weapons from their stock.
Besides the pakistanis lacked the means to deliver these weapons deep into india. The number of IAF bases in Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat meant that pakistan's F-16s or C-130s they had jerry rigged to carry nukes could just not penetrate the 100 km belt along the Indo-Pak border.

The arrival of MRBM missiles with pakistan changed this equation, and India went ahead with the Agni-2 TD test. This was after Rajiv Gandhi had been forced to order weaponization after pakistan's nuclear scientists conducted a cold test in lop nor.

[shyamd]

IOL: The Swiss government remains determined to destroy all the papers of the Tinner family which formed part of the nuclear proliferation ring of Pakistan’s Abdul Qadeer Khan. The CIA, which used the Tinners as informers and then as agents, is demanding that the documents be destroyed, but the Swiss Parliament is opposed to the move. The U.S. Justice Department, which is currently negotiating with the UBS bank for access to the list of its American customers, could well be in a position to put pressure on the Swiss in the Tinner affair

[Philip]

Right.We now now from Pak's chief sugar-daddy,Uncle Sam,that it is spouting a load of bovine faecaes regarding its secretive N-programme and has embarked upon the plutonium route also in manufacturing N-weapons.With approx. "90" warheads,plus a "first use" policy,Pak is actually ramping up its N-warhead and delivery capability (2 new missiles) for a future massive first strike with enough warheads to take out India with multiple strikes all across the country! Of what use will a "second strike" capability be when Pak wastes India with so many nukes? Pak and China are pooling their intelligence ,with Pak also getting intel. from the US,regarding the location of India's deterrent.As of now,we have no third leg of the triad and even when Arihant enters servcie it will possess a small arsenal of just 12 warheads.Imagine a combined first strike N-attack by both China and Pak against India! How many centuries will it take for us to recover?

At this point of time,we do not even have a land based missile capable of covering all of China.We also do not have any strategic bombers,barring the IN's TU-142 Bears,which can be used in a crisis.The situ is urgent and some hard thinking and quick decisions need to be made.

[Satya_anveshi]

Here's an interview with Xerox Khan

Contains explicit statements that Pak engagement with North Korea, Iran, and Libya.

Clearly he is going at pains to hide the Uncle linkage in all this.

I say that, given the North Korean explosions in the recent past and its ship carrying some "stuff" found recently near Indian shores, the security situation in India is already changed for us to review our position.

[arun]

The US medias rather delayed reaction to A.Q.Khan’s August 31 interview by Pakistan’s Aaj TV the video recording of which you had posted.

The article views A.Q. Khan’s interview as “an unusually direct claim of broad, official Pakistani support for an Iranian nuclear weapon” :

Pakistani Scientist Cites Help to Iran

Official Aid for Nuclear Program Claimed

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The creator of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program boasted in a recent television interview that he and other senior Pakistani officials, eager to see Iran develop nuclear weapons, years ago guided that country to a proven network of suppliers and helped advance its covert efforts.

A.Q. Khan, whom Washington considers the world's most ambitious proliferator of nuclear weapons technology, told a television interviewer in Karachi, Pakistan, that if Iran succeeds in "acquiring nuclear technology, we will be a strong bloc in the region to counter international pressure. Iran's nuclear capability will neutralize Israel's power."

Although Khan has previously claimed nationalist and religious justifications for helping to spread sensitive technology, several experts said his latest statement was an unusually direct claim of broad, official Pakistani support for an Iranian nuclear weapon. …………………

The Pakistani government has repeatedly asserted that Khan acted alone in illicitly spreading nuclear weapons technology, and it has denied that there was official support for helping either Iran's nuclear program or North Korea's. But Khan, who has spent the past several years under a form of house arrest, has long insisted privately that his contacts with both countries were approved by top military officials.

In the interview, Khan was less direct about his contacts with North Korea. He confirmed that Pakistan obtained critical missile technology from the country but refused to comment "at the moment" on aiding its nuclear program…………..

Washington Post

The FAS website has the complete text , translated from Urdu to English, of the Aaj TV interview:

Pakistan: Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan Discusses Nuclear Program in TV Talk Show

[Satya_anveshi]

I am sure they are referring the same interview posted earlier. Folks who can understand Hindi/Urdu must watch the video I posted above (2 posts).

Added later: Yes, I see that you refer to this in Paki thread.

[Satya_anveshi]

Conspiracy Theory:

I find it very convenient that this mofo gets released from house arrest after Noko does explosions. I think the whole house arrest is a ploy to keep a dummy AQK at home and send this mofo AQK to NoKo to partner in the explosions.

Sometimes I wonder who should be worried more about Noko nuke: US or China? IMO the latter due to US influence on NoKo Nukes via Paki actors.

[SSridhar]

The FAS website has the complete text , translated from Urdu to English, of the Aaj TV interview:

Pakistan: Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan Discusses Nuclear Program in TV Talk Show

Immediately after the Indian nuclear tests in 1974, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto summoned a meeting of scientists in Multan to ask them to make a nuclear bomb.

That's incorrect. The meeting in Multan was in Jan. 1972. Pakistan has been trying to propagate the myth that its n-weapons were a direct consequence of Indian weaponization. Some Indian political leaders also say the same thing, but, Pakistani efforts well & truly predate the Indian PNE. As early as circa 1965, Pakistan had concluded a secretive agreement with China wherein China had rumoured to help Pakistan acquire nuclear capabilities. Z.A. Bhutto’s papers from his death cell confirm this.

[SSridhar]

. . . I think the whole house arrest is a ploy to keep a dummy AQK at home and send this mofo AQK to NoKo to partner in the explosions.

AQK is a metallurgist, not a nuclear scientist. He simply 'possessed' the centrifuge designs and the contacts. He could not have been of much use in Noko explosions. Even in c. 1998, it was Samir Mubarakmand who oversaw the explosions and a considerably miffed AQK was inserted at Chagai just for photo-op by Nawaz Sharif.

[Satya_anveshi]

well...never mind...my theory then is not worth the musharraf's musharraf

[SSridhar]

The above interview, as usual, is full of self-aggrandisement.

. . . no one could do it for Pakistan but me.

The credit goes to me and my team, because it was a very difficult task, which was next to impossible.

He also facetiously dismisses the nuke-for-missile Noko deal.

A North Korean team would visit the Kahuta plant during the same period, as our
missile deal was taking place {so, that was a barter deal}, and it was no secret. Gen Kakar knew about it; everyone knew about it. They would stay at a guest house in the vicinity of Kahuta plant, because we did not have any other nuclear facility and our missiles were also being manufactured there. We did not spend any additional amount on the missile program.{Missiles are so simple to make with discarded toys that nobody incurs any expenses} The expense that was incurred on the missile program was that of the construction of prefabricated shades {sheds, sic}, which we would use in those missiles, and purchase of a few machines {all simple machines only, for vacuum painting}. The North Korean engineers would visit our director generals in their departments to observe different operations. But nuclear technology cannot be learned by visiting a nuclear site and observing a few machines.

[ramana]

SSridahr the underlined part is very interesting. Is he pointing to the know-how being acquired from elsewhere like PRC?

[Lalmohan]

xeroxbhai is the decoy, always wheeled out to distract attention

[arun]

Completely misses the point that the best way to have A.Q.Khan punished is to punish the Islamic Republic of Pakistan till it ceases protecting Khan and instead gets down to punishing him:

Punishing A.Q. Khan

How the world can make Pakistan's notorious nuclear smuggler pay for his crimes -- since Islamabad isn't going to.

BY LEONARD S. SPECTOR | SEPTEMBER 10, 2009 ………………..

Foreign Policy

[ramana]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 66,00.html

Iran Sanctions: Why Pakistan Won't Help
By Omar Waraich / Islamabad Monday, Sep. 14, 2009

Mi Lords, point note kiya jaye ... 'Time' journalism is now bordering on gutter press.

Partial text listed below...

But Pakistan's response to Iran will ultimately be determined by the all-powerful military establishment. And, analysts say, the army is a great deal more wary of Iran's regional aspirations. "They are not really allies," says Christine Fair of the RAND Corp. in Washington. "There is a misguided assumption that just because Pakistan gave Iran nuclear technology that they have some kind of strategic alliance." That deal, analysts say, arose out of former army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg's wish to "create problems for the U.S."

"Since then," says Fair, "Iran and Pakistan have been at loggerheads over a range of issues." The Pakistani security establishment is wary of Tehran's relationship with India, and it suspects Iran of allowing its territory to be used by Indian-backed Baluch separatist fighters in southwestern Pakistan.

OTOH, thank you MMS. Thank you very much for this nonsense.

[Atri]

AQ Khan blows the whistle on Pakistan

[Gerard]

Investigation: Nuclear scandal - Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan

The Pakistani scientist who passed nuclear secrets to the world’s rogue states has been muzzled by his government. In a smuggled letter, AQ Khan reveals his side of the story

[Sanku]

Investigation: Nuclear scandal - Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan

The Pakistani scientist who passed nuclear secrets to the world’s rogue states has been muzzled by his government. In a smuggled letter, AQ Khan reveals his side of the story

Seems like open season for Govt Scientists to let out the worst kept secrets, first India and now Pakistan. Who says Pakistan is not obsessed with equal equal onlee.