From Rogue Nuclear Programs, Web of Trails Leads to Pakistan

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/international/04NUKE.html?hp

The Pakistani leaders who denied for years that scientists at the country's secret A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories were peddling advanced nuclear technology must have been averting their eyes from a most conspicuous piece of evidence: the laboratory's own sales brochure, quietly circulated to aspiring nuclear weapons states and a network of nuclear middlemen around the world.

The cover bears an official-looking seal that says "Government of Pakistan" and a photograph of the father of the Pakistani bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan. It promotes components that were spinoffs from Pakistan's three-decade-long project to build a nuclear stockpile of enriched uranium, set in a drawing that bears a striking resemblance to a mushroom cloud.

In other nations, such sales would be strictly controlled. But Pakistan has always played by its own rules.

As investigators unravel the mysteries of the North Korean, Iranian and now the Libyan nuclear projects, Pakistan — and those it empowered with knowledge and technology they are now selling on their own — has emerged as the intellectual and trading hub of a loose network of hidden nuclear proliferators.

Brochure pictured on NYTimes;

[varun]

1. Pakistan Plays Nuclear Footsie; Does Anyone Care?

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107300266639911800,00.html?mod=opinion%5Fasia%5Fcommentaries (subscription site)

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE, JANUARY 2, 2004

COMMENTARY

Pakistan Plays
Nuclear Footsie;
Does Anyone Care?

By GOPALASWAMI PARTHASARATHY

Writing his memoirs in his prison cell just before he was executed by General Zia-ul-Haq in 1979, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto stated that his aim as prime minister of Pakistan had been to put the "Islamic Civilization" at par with the "Christian, Jewish and Hindu Civilizations," by giving the Islamic world a "full nuclear capability." In a meeting of top scientists and advisers that he had convened on Jan. 20, 1972, just after assuming office, Bhutto made it clear that he was determined to achieve nuclear capability, not merely to neutralize India's inherent conventional superiority, but also to make his country a leader of the Islamic world.

But how was a cash-strapped Pakistan to get the financial resources to achieve these objectives? Bhutto's press adviser, Khalid Hasan, has since revealed how Bhutto sought and obtained financial assistance from Saudi Arabia and the mercurial Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to fulfill his ambitions. Bhutto also indicated in his prison memoirs that China under Mao's leadership had agreed to provide Pakistan the necessary assistance to build the bomb. Despite changes in leadership in China, there has been no dilution of its nuclear and missile assistance to Pakistan....

[papau]

2. Amazing lack of memory of US Atoms for Peace 20B to Pakistan in 58

"Bhutto sought and obtained financial assistance from Saudi Arabia and the mercurial Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to fulfill his ambitions. "

What Bull - while true as to Saudi and Libya liked the idea of a Muslim bomb - it was the US that funded the program and provided the training and made experts available to Pakistan - because we thought we were offsetting Russia and its game in India.

Hell - the game began in 1958 when under-Secretary of Commerce Olmstead was ordered by Ike to transfer the money to President/dictator/CIA buddy Zia in 1958 (who lost power a year later!)and to start the transfer of atomic knowledge to Pakistan.

Does the media really not know this? It is really not a secret - perhaps someone should ask the CIA for permission to publish this story!!!! The only "secret" (not well known but not a secret) is the fact that they had us - my company - United Services Life Insurance Company - put Zia on our payroll and had us send him a check to an address in the EU every month (Indeed Olmstead - who ran the company via his International Bank holding - lived in fear of the CIA sneaking an employee into our operation who might try to audit those funds!)

:-)


"I can assure you it's not Saddam who's threatening to bomb airplanes -It's al-Qaida. We've not paid attention to al-Qaida. We've spent $160 billion, lost over 400 servicemen, and wounded and permanently maimed over 2,000 people because we picked the wrong target." Howard Dean

[daleo]

3. Something about this doesn't seem right

I mean that brochure photo - it seems suspiciously like the start of "babies in incubators" and that sort of disinformation/demonization. I wonder if the bushies have plans for Pakistan.

[stickdog]

4. Bush made us safer. You are getting sleepy.

Bush made us safer. You are getting sleepy. Bush made us safer. You are getting sleepy. Bush made us safer. You are getting sleepy. Bush made us safer. You are getting sleepy. Bush made us safer. You are getting sleepy.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. Sorry, but the "trail" actually leads back to the U. S.

[0007]

6. This is one huge mind fuck!

[54anickel]

7. Me thinks this admin doesn't like the success at SAFTA

Only explanation I can come up with for them to dig this stuff out now. :shrug:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow/404145.cms

ISLAMABAD : The breakthrough has already taken place, but those covering the Summit are not quite seeing it right. The Indian media is focused on Prime Minister Vajpayee's meetings with President General Musharraf and Prime Minister Jamali while the Pakistani media is looking for signs of Indian concessions on Kashmir .

But the breakthrough lies in the framework agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) to be signed on Monday. Looked at any way, this will over the next decade, sharply boost economic cooperation between countries of the region, primarily, India and Pakistan . This in turn will lead to closer people-to-people ties and create a network of friendly relationships in which the Kashmir issue can be meaningfully addressed. There is no other option. India will simply not discuss the Kashmir issue in a substantive manner as long as it has a Pakistani-aided gun pointing at its head.

A focus on economic relations will also bring a healthy measure of realism in Pakistani thinking about India . Many in Pakistan worry about this. At the Saarc inaugural, Jamali, too, declared that economic union could not take off unless political disputes were settled in a just manner.

more...

[Just Me]

8. Examining a itsy bitsy part of that great big web,...huh,...

,...too bad "they" divert from that large part of the web involving U.S. arms dealers,...not surprising though,...