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| India-Pakistan | |
| Pakistan 'still doing illicit nuke deals' | |
| 2007-05-04 | |
| THE clandestine nuclear "arms bazaar" network established bydisgraced Pakistani scientist A.Q.Khan remains intact and actively involved in the business of proliferating nuclear secrets, according to a major new report. The 170-page report, released yesterday by the prestigious, London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies, raises as many questions as it answers. But as the most up-to-date account of the continuing fallout from Dr Khan's activities, it seems to go a long way towards confirming the most doleful assessments of the continuing impact of the wholesale proliferation of nuclear secrets by the rogue scientist and his cohorts. The report - Nuclear Black Markets: Pakistan, AQKhan and the rise of proliferation networks - concludes Pakistan may still be involved in "illicit trading and smuggling" to procure equipment from black markets to run its nuclear program. It also warns that, having escaped law enforcement attention, the scientists could have resumed their black market business. There was no immediate official response from Pakistan.
The report reiterates Dr Khan's insistence that "every army chief since General Zia ul-Haq" knew of his activities - an assertion disputed by General Musharraf, who has insisted he took decisive action the moment he was given evidence by the Americans that Dr Khan was involved in nuclear proliferation. A senior security official in New Delhi said: "What these researchers appear to have concluded is that, far from the whole thing having ended when Khan was dismissed by Musharraf and forced to appear on television three years ago, the network he created remains intact and involved in the same sort of business. "The damage that the Khan network did to global security in proliferating nuclear know-how to North Korea and Libya and Iran is bad in itself. "Given the report's conclusion, there must be a chance ofthem continuing to purvey nuclear secrets to all and sundry who want them, possibly even al-Qa'ida." Yesterday, an author of the report told a London news conference that Dr Khan "may have been the deal-maker, but many of his contacts have been able to organise their own deals". IISS director-general John Chipman said yesterday the question of whether the Khan network had other customers was of "intense interest". Similarly, what happened to the rest of the nuclear equipment that the Khan network had but did not send to Libya "is another major question remaining to be answered after the network was broken up, along with what other countries or non-state actors may also have received copies of nuclear weapon designs". According to Pakistani media reports yesterday, Dr Chipman said bomb designs were digitalised and copied on to computer disks at one of the Khan network offices in Dubai. The report says Iran is now the most active customer in the international nuclear black market and has built a network that may be larger than Dr Khan's. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #9 SPACEWAR/US INFOWIRE/OTHER > IRAN WILL HAVE MISSLE THAT STRIKE USA AND EUROPE IN LESS THAN EIGHT YEARS [Year 2015 or sooner]. Long Range ICBM highly likely/capable of carrying a nuclear payload. North Korea mentioned as already having TAEPONGDONG that can hit [western only?] USA. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-05-04 22:51 |
| #8 Former Pak Army chief threatened to transfer nuke tech to Iran: Dossier Former Pakistani Army Chief Gen Aslam Beg had threatened to transfer nuclear technology to Iran in 1989 if Washington cut off arms sales to Pakistan, the just released dossier on the Dr AQ Khan network has revealed. The dossier quoted former US ambassador to Pakistan, Robert Oakley and Assistant Secretary of Defence Henry Rown about the threat made by Gen Beg. The dossier on "Nuclear black markets: the AQ Khan network" was prepared by International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). Oakley claimed that Beg agreed to abandon the deal at his urging and that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan told Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani that the deal had not been approved by the President or Parliament and that Pakistan would not implement it. The dossier said Rafsanjani had sought the consent of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to execute a $6 billion deal for the purchase of nuclear weapons technology that Gen Beg had negotiated with Tehran in 1989. It also revealed that after departure of Gen Beg, a new deal was also concluded between the then Army chief Gen Asif Nawaz, Rafsanjani and Gen Mohsen Rezai, Head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, in exchange for Iranian oil. The dossier said after the death of Gen Zia in 1988 and Khomeini in 1989, new leaderships emerged in each country that were much more inclined towards mutual cooperation on a wide range of issues. In Pakistan, the dossier said Gen Beg, the new Army chief, openly supported the Iran cause and suggested that Pakistan cooperate with Iran, Afghanistan and any new Islamic republic that emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in an alliance of sorts organised around "strategic defiance" of the US and its western allies. The dossier said Beg also has been an ardent supporter of Iran's bid to acquire nuclear weapons. Although, the dossier said, Gen Beg's direct involvement is unconfirmed and he denies this, he is widely suspected of having been an accomplice, if not encouragement or even outright direction. The dossier also said that two unnamed former high-level Pakistani officials were reported as saying that in 1989, President Rafsanjani sought Benazir Bhutto's consent regarding a deal for nuclear weapons technology that Beg had initiated. The two officials said she told both Rafsajani and Beg that she did not approve of it. Beg was quoted as saying that by Bhutto's own account it was she who had been approached by the Iranians with a similar proposition for a USD 4 billion transfer. Beg also said Iran was ready to pay USD 6 billion or more. This price, according to the dossier, however, seems exaggerated, as it is very much higher than Khan's 1987 and 1993 enrichment deals with Iran. Although, the dossier said, Beg denies having authorised any onward proliferation from Pakistan to Iran, he has confirmed that serious nuclear discussions took place between the two nations at the time. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-05-04 19:48 |
| #7 Pakistan simply lacks the industrial base to sustain a nuclear weapons program. Pakistan, is yet to manufacture a tractor, or a high speed lathe. Smuggling of components is necessary to keep the weapons program operational. Likewise it lacks the ability to design weapons. It is Chinese designed warheads that they assemble. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-05-04 19:43 |
| #6 Through the release of atomic energy, our generation has brought into the world the most revolutionary force since prehistoric man's discovery of fire. This basic force of the universe cannot be fitted into the outmoded concept of narrow nationalisms. For there is no secret and there is no defense; there is no possibility of control except through the aroused understanding and insistence of the peoples of the world. We scientists recognise our inescapable responsibility to carry to our fellow citizens an understanding of atomic energy and its implication for society. In this lies our only security and our only hope - we believe that an informed citizenry will act for life and not for death. -- Albert Einstein Gotta get the word out to them towel heads, Albert. I don't think they understand how badly one nuke could screw up their day. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-05-04 14:58 |
| #5 Word, M.M. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-04 10:46 |
| #4 It's all (paki, saudi, iran, and their proxies)one big criminal enterprise that has nothing less than the murder of the other two thirds of the human race as its only goal. That's why "we win, they lose" is the only game in town... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2007-05-04 10:44 |
| #3 Zenster Pakistan is the just the opeational arm of Saudi whilst Hezbollah/Hamas operational arm of Iran. |
| Posted by: Paul 2007-05-04 10:26 |
| #2 If there is one country in the entire MME (Muslim Middle East) that has earned, a nuclear first strike against it, that nation is Pakistan. While Saudi Arabia and Iran both struggle desperately to outdo each other with their proxy attacks on the West, it is Pakistan's ownership and proliferation of nuclear weaponry that pose the greatest danger of all. Such unrepentent propagation of international terrorism continues to erode what was once my staunch opposition to first use of nuclear weapons against Islam. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-04 10:14 |
| #1 Where's the surprise meter? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-05-04 07:59 |