Article

2004-02-07 India-Pakistan

US hopes Qadeer Khan pardon yields results

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Posted by Dan Darling 2004-02-07 1:36:31 AM|| || Front Page|| [11135 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I can't get over the fact that I have read articles and reports on Pakistan's nuke deals with North Korea and Iran years ago in various places, and yet Washington is acting as if all this came from nowhere.
If you do an internet search for Pakistan's Ghauri missile, you'll find plenty of articles from the late 90's stating that it was a repainted NoDong missile gotten in exhange for nuke assistance.
I guess that nothing could be done about it until Libya decided to play ball. It makes me wonder what the next 'open secret' in the region will be publically aired.

Posted by Paul Moloney 2004-2-7 6:15:32 AM|| 2004-2-7 6:15:32 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 All countries that are nuclear or NOOKLEAR (as GWB would say), how did they get this technology? Even the yankees stole the technology from the Germans. And they act like they developed it 'in-house' with their own intelligence. Read the history guys.

Posted by Faisal 2004-2-7 7:13:25 AM|| 2004-2-7 7:13:25 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Faisal,
Either you're as dumb as a box of rocks, or ...
you are the WORST TROLL EVER.

Posted by Scott 2004-2-7 7:28:10 AM|| 2004-2-7 7:28:10 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 There is a grain of almost-truth in "Faisal's" comment. Not a big grain, and not a truth, but a tiny grain of almost-truth.

The US didn't 'steal' "this nuclear technology" from the Germans during or after WWII because the Germans hadn't developed it as far as a working device.

What we did do was to uncover the fact that there was a nuclear bomb program under Hitler (whose scientists misled him about how far along they were - sound familiar??). And then we hired Werner von Braun to work the delivery system (missile) side after the war.

The debate within the US nuclear program about weaponizing fission (fusion was entirely a US development originally) was intense and there were what later became very public fights about it.

As a side note, my father-in-law missed being sent to Anzio when he got pulled to finish his engineering degree and was sent to work on the Manhattan project. But he wasn't privvy to the top level debates - that can be gleaned from the detailed accounts of that project and of the decision to complete a fission bomb.

Posted by rkb 2004-2-7 7:52:22 AM|| 2004-2-7 7:52:22 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 #3: chill man.

#4: rkb so now what's wrong with Dr Khan being 'hired' by someone :-)....

Posted by Faisal 2004-2-7 9:08:42 AM|| 2004-2-7 9:08:42 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 Wait, something just happened here. I think Faisal just experienced learning. Can there yet be hope?

Posted by whitecollar redneck 2004-2-7 10:26:40 AM|| 2004-2-7 10:26:40 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 Hi NMM! North Carolina Tarheels making a big comeback this year... new coach is doing a damn fine job.

Posted by Shipman 2004-2-7 11:05:38 AM|| 2004-2-7 11:05:38 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 You got it wrong, Osama. He says NOO-KYA-LER.

Posted by Anonymous 2004-2-7 11:18:06 AM|| 2004-2-7 11:18:06 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 Paul - I guess my main question has been who exactly is the driver of this whole proliferation scheme? Is it just Khan or somebody higher up? I'll admit that I don't understand the first thing about the byzantine nature of Pakistani internal politics, but this stuff seems to predate Musharraf by years, going all the way back to Sharif and Bhutto and maybe even to General Zia. So just who was actually running this black market and why?

Posted by Dan Darling 2004-2-7 11:52:56 AM|| [http://www.regnumcrucis.blogspot.com] 2004-2-7 11:52:56 AM|| Front Page Top

#10 Who was running it?

Who do you think has the free cash to build the plants and buy the ships/pay the bribes necessary to move everything around?

My cash is on the Saudis. With the exception of North Korea, all the players are Muslim. The Norks were either used as a shell or as a convenient place to do some work where the civilized world could never chance upon it.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2004-2-7 12:20:16 PM|| [http://www.kloognome.com/] 2004-2-7 12:20:16 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 I see Faisal musta got his room clean already and his mom is letting him use the family computer.
Now, if she can only get him to clean up his thinking.
#6 RCRN, even a blind pig finds an acorn now and then.

Posted by GK 2004-2-7 1:02:34 PM|| 2004-2-7 1:02:34 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 Faisal

The Yankees stole that technology from the Joooooooooos. BTW how about answering my questions when I ask you to prove you speak Arabic?

Posted by JFM 2004-2-7 2:04:13 PM|| 2004-2-7 2:04:13 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 So just who was actually running this black market and why?

I think it was probably a joint effort with the various dictators of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya and UAE providing the cash. While the actual proliferating was done under the direct orders of successive Chiefs of the Armed Services right back to General Zia.

But IMO there is a China angle that has been completely overlooked by the media, with China using the Islamic Bomb as a way of keeping the Americans offbalanced, while also keeping deniability, because all the proliferating was done by China's allies in Pakistan and Nth Korea, rather than by China herself.

Posted by Paul Moloney 2004-2-7 6:26:07 PM|| 2004-2-7 6:26:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 Its' ironic that Hitler's persecution of the Jews almost certainly stopped him getting the A-bomb before the Americans.

Posted by phil_b 2004-2-7 7:43:03 PM|| 2004-2-7 7:43:03 PM|| Front Page Top

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