Article

2005-11-06 Afghanistan-Pak-India

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Posted by john 2005-11-06 07:25|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Question: all the lethal toys we've been selling to Pakistan over the years -- and Saudi Arabia, Khazhakstan,and wherever else our products may end up -- how much tricky and regular maintenance do they need to remain useful? I was pondering the quandary of suitcase nukes: the ones that, if they ever existed at all, would need monthly breakdown and rebuilding to remain operational, something a group of jihadi wannabes aren't likely capable of. How likely, O Rantburg Experts, is it that many of the toys we are worried about have rusted to the point of being more dangerous to the user than to the target?

Posted by trailing wife 2005-11-06 09:49|| 2005-11-06 09:49|| Front Page Top

#2 Not too many will have rusted I would guess. But a) many of them do take maintenance, b) they require training and practice to be used effectively and c) they don't necessarily get upgraded with the latest guidance etc. capabilities.

Posted by lotp 2005-11-06 09:57|| 2005-11-06 09:57|| Front Page Top

#3 They may not rust, but how many of us are visiting the net on computers built before 2000?

Posted by Ebbineting Sluting2438 2005-11-06 10:33|| 2005-11-06 10:33|| Front Page Top

#4 This is the only advanced technology I'd sell the Pakis for naval defense.

Yep, it's the worlds largest BB gun.

Posted by Shipman 2005-11-06 10:38|| 2005-11-06 10:38|| Front Page Top

#5 I don't have a problem with sale of Harpoons to Pakistan. I don't see much chance that an ASuW weapon of that size would be transferable or useable by terrorists. If Pakistan became hostile to us, I don't think it would be very hard to take these toys away from them via airstrikes or by rendering the software unuseable through removal of tech support (like the Iranian F-14's.) The Harpoon would also serve as a cost-effective force multiplier for the Pakistanis to deter Indian naval agression.

Posted by Super Hose 2005-11-06 13:48|| 2005-11-06 13:48|| Front Page Top

#6 Which gives the Pakistanis all the cover they need to continue the jihad terror war against India (which they started in 1987).

And this WILL spill over.

Need I remind you, it was Pak ISI Lieutenant General Mahmood Ahmed who wired 100,000 dollars to lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta...

Posted by john 2005-11-06 17:40|| 2005-11-06 17:40|| Front Page Top

#7 Need I remind you, it was Pak ISI Lieutenant General Mahmood Ahmed who wired 100,000 dollars to lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta...

I don't remember knowing that, john, so I'm glad you did.

Posted by trailing wife 2005-11-06 17:54|| 2005-11-06 17:54|| Front Page Top

#8 Why do you think WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl was killed?

Link

This is all the more remarkable when this is the same Omar Sheikh who, at the behest of General Mahmood Ahmed, head of the ISI, wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta, the leading 9/11 hijacker, before the New York attacks, as confirmed by Dennis Lormel, director of FBI's financial crimes unit.

Posted by john 2005-11-06 18:22|| 2005-11-06 18:22|| Front Page Top

#9

On Oct. 9, 2001, the Pakistani daily Dawn reported the ISI director-general, Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed, was fired after FBI investigators established a link between him and a $100,000 wire transfer to 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta in the summer of 2000. This report was also carried by the Wall Street Journal.

Paul Sperry, Washington bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.com, wrote in his Jan. 30, 2002, column that Dennis Lormel, who until the end of 2003 led the FBI's terrorist finance investigations, confirmed this transaction.

Posted by john 2005-11-06 18:32|| 2005-11-06 18:32|| Front Page Top

#10 link for above

Posted by john 2005-11-06 18:33|| 2005-11-06 18:33|| Front Page Top

#11 Omar Sheikh, 27, was born in London, attended the London School of Economics and was a close associate of Maulana Azhar Masood - founder of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) group, which India blames for an attack on its parliament in December 2001. His father, Saeed Ahmed, was a Pakistani clothes merchant from Wanstead in east London. Omar Sheikh was reportedly a contemporary of England cricket captain Nasser Hussain at the private Forest School, in Snaresbrook. Photos of Pearl were e-mailed by the kidnappers He moved to Lahore and studied at the elite Aitchison College for three years before returning to Forest School in the Sixth Form. After passing four A-levels with good grades, Omar Sheikh enrolled at LSE in October 1992. But he left before the end of his first year of an undergraduate degree in statistics.
Reports suggest he visited Bosnia as an aid worker and soon after, he moved to Pakistan. BBC News, 16 July 2002

Kind of kicks the poor, desperate, under-privileged theory in the arsss.

Posted by Besoeker 2005-11-06 18:39|| 2005-11-06 18:39|| Front Page Top

#12 On 9/11 there was a fight among UN peacekeepers in Africa (reported by the WSJ). News reports of the trade center attacks had just come in and the Pakistani contingent were celebrating, giving each other high fives. This angered European peacekeepers and there was a brawl.

Remember, the official motto of the Pakistani army is "Jihad and Piety in the name of Allah"

Posted by john 2005-11-06 18:56|| 2005-11-06 18:56|| Front Page Top

#13 I don't have a problem with sale of Harpoons to Pakistan. I don't see much chance that an ASuW weapon of that size would be transferable or useable by terrorists. ... The Harpoon would also serve as a cost-effective force multiplier for the Pakistanis to deter Indian naval agression.

I fail to see where Pakistan deserves the least sort of enhanced leverage against any putative Indian threat. Democratic India opened the LoC (Line of Control) to help lost Pakistani soldiers return to their units, India sent material aid to Pakistani disaster victims and continues to make the most conciliatory gestures towards abating hostilities between these two nations.

Meanwhile non-democratic Pakistan has done nothing but deliver repeated kicks in the teeth to India in the form of the parliment attack and Diwali bombings not to mention constant incitement in Kashmir.

Pakistan may have recently lost significant nuclear capability in the form of cracked missile silos. America is insane to deliver any sort of insurance policy to Pakistan in light of their dismal failure at attempts to contain terrorism, the continued existence of their Islamist madrasahs and their hopelessly compromised ISI network.

We have coddled Musharraf and his cronies way too much for far too little in return. It is time for Pakistan to make some significant gestures towards the fight against terrorism and improvement of its relations with India.

Consider that India recently risked incurring Iran's wrath amidst a $5 billion natural gas pipeline deal in order to side with America regarding the IAEA's referral of Iran to the UN security council. While America offered many rewards to India for that gesture, the subcontinent has demonstrated a lot more good faith than Pakistan has to date. Why we are risking any compromise of our relationship with stable and democratic India in order to assist a viper like Pakistan is beyond me.

Posted by Zenster 2005-11-06 20:47|| 2005-11-06 20:47|| Front Page Top

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