Pakistan rules out nuclear freeze

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3078746.stm

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says the country's nuclear weapons programme is being given top national priority in order to consolidate the need for minimum deterrence.

He was speaking at a meeting of the National Command Authority, which oversees Pakistan's strategic forces armed forces.

General Musharraf described reports of a possible freeze or rollback of the country's nuclear programme as "irrelevant, outdated and totally false".

On Monday Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee presided over the inaugural meeting of his country's Nuclear Command authority.

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[LittleApple81]

1. Wasn't Pakistan the one that sold the technology to the North Koreans? n/t

[htuttle]

2. I believe the hypothesis is...

...that they traded with NK for long-range missile technology.

[NNN0LHI]

3. Yes, but the US does not seem to care

http://www.iht.com/articles/93839.html

WASHINGTON Despite clear evidence that Pakistan provided North Korea with nuclear technology, the United States is doing nothing either to punish Islamabad or to prevent it from continuing to help Pyongyang - and, equally important, from selling nuclear technology to other would-be nuclear powers, like Saudi Arabia.

After a six-month internal policy battle, the Bush administration decided in late March not to impose sanctions against Pakistan for helping the North Korean nuclear program. Opponents of sanctions had argued that punishing Islamabad would jeopardize cooperation with President Pervez Musharraf in combating Al Qaeda. But this argument underestimates Musharraf's deep dependence on his U.S. connection both for Pakistan's economic stability and for his personal political survival.

The United States need not make an either-or choice between keeping Pakistan as an ally against Al Qaeda and making sure that it stops transferring nuclear technology. Both critical objectives can be achieved with a determined carrot-and-stick diplomacy.

Washington should insist on the intrusive inspections necessary to guard against nuclear transfers and the leakage of fissile material to terrorist groups. In return, the United States should offer Islamabad economic incentives, including access to the U.S. textile market, which Islamabad has been seeking in vain. If Musharraf balks, the administration should make clear that it will go ahead with sanctions and, if necessary, suspend all U.S. economic aid.

Evidence abounds that Pakistan supplied enrichment technology to North Korea beginning in 1998 in exchange for missiles. A Department of Energy report in 1999 and a CIA report in June 2001, recently revealed by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker, spell out this collaboration. But Secretary of State Colin Powell has implied that Pakistani help for the North Korean nuclear effort stopped after Musharraf's military coup in late 1999. Musharraf had assured him, Powell said, that "there is no interchange of any kind taking place now. We didn't talk about the past."

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[oneighty]

4. Us textile market

That ought to please the folks in North and South Carolina.

At least they will not have to worry over Unions and right to work laws anymore.

Another problem solved by Bush*, soon.

180

[NNN0LHI]

5. Kick