'When you are in the bottom of a hole, you can't fight back': said, Maj. Gen. Raymond relating the capture of Saddam Hussein.
Pakistan is also in the bottom of a hole.
This about summarises the geopolitical situation with USA as the only super power calling the shots. The French, German, and Russian leaders have to sing the tune of praise and can only express their impotent rage about US high-handedness.
Tough luck, guys. The big bully is around. Uncle Sam can choose his dancing partner. But, in the case of Pakistan, the Uncle will have to think deeply again before he starts repenting in not denuking, in good time, the only islamic nuke in town. Remember, how USA justified dancing with the devil that is Pakistan after 9-11 stating that Pakistan is the only game in town.
Kalyanaraman
Chamber Beneath Mud Hut Leads to Hussein
1 hour, 5 minutes ago
By MARIAM FAM and ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writers
ADWAR, Iraq - When darkness fell, the Americans moved into position, 600 of them, from infantrymen to elite special forces. Their target: two houses in this rural village of orange, lemon and palm groves. Someone big was inside, they were told.
But when they struck, they found nothing.
Then they spotted two men running away from a small walled compound in the trees. Inside, in front of a mud-brick hut, the troops pulled back a carpet on the ground, cleared away the dirt and revealed a Styrofoam panel. Underneath, a hole led to a tiny chamber, just big enough for a single person to squeeze into.
At first they didn't recognize the man hiding inside, with his ratty hair, wild beard and a pistol cradled in his lap. But when they asked who he was, the bewildered-looking man gave a shocking answer.
He said he was Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
"He was just caught like a rat," said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of 4th Infantry Division, which led the hunt in the area for one of the world's most wanted men and conducted the raid that caught him. "When you're in the bottom of a hole, you can't fight back."
The farm is near the town of Adwar, nestled among palm trees along the Tigris River just a few miles from Saddam's birthplace of Uja. One of the many palaces built by the dictator is just across the Tigris, and Saddam used to come here to swim. Adwar is the hometown of one of his most trusted aides, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.
Saddam took refuge in the area in the 1960s before he came to power, conducting operations as an opposition party member against the Iraqi government that he later overthrew.
People in the area are fierce in their support for Saddam. "Saddam Hussein raised us. He's our father," neighbor Sohayb Abdul-Rahman said Sunday.
So U.S. forces had been watching the area for months. Odierno said forces had patrolled the dirt road running alongside the shack, and searched the area repeatedly.
Over the past few weeks, as U.S. intelligence agencies began to focus in on Saddam's extended family, prisoners captured in raids and intelligence tips began to lead to increasingly precise information, said a U.S. official said in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Gradually, CIA (news - web sites) and military analysts narrowed their list of potential sites where Saddam could be hiding, the official said. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq (news - web sites), said U.S. forces questioned "five to 10 members" of a branch of the extended family.
On Saturday, "we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals," Odierno said.
The soldiers waited for darkness Saturday, and at about 6 p.m., the forces launched what they called Operation Red Dawn, Sanchez said.
Commanders knew their target â "We thought it was Saddam," Odierno said â but the soldiers didn't.
"We were told that we would be looking for some really big fish â nothing more," said one soldier who participated in the raid and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
At 8 p.m., the soldiers attacked their two objectives but came up empty. Troops spotted two men fleeing from another house nearby, the soldier said, about 200 yards from the original target. The men were arrested.
The troops cordoned off a 1 1/2-square-mile area around the house and began a careful search, Odierno said.
What they found was a small walled compound with a metal lean-to and a mud hut, Sanchez said. Pulling back a rug, they dug down, finding a Styrofoam panel that covered a tiny tunnel, Odierno said. Sanchez called it a "spider-hole."
"The spider-hole is about 6 to 8 feet deep and allows enough space for a person to lie down inside of it," Sanchez said. He showed video images of an air duct and a ventilation fan.
Inside lay Saddam, wearing a long, salt-and-pepper beard and disheveled hair. He had a pistol on his lap, Odierno said, but didn't move to use it. When asked about his identity, the former dictator confirmed he was Saddam, Odierno said.
Soldiers searched the hut, made up of two rooms â a bedroom and a kitchen. No one else was found. The soldier who participated in the raid described it as "just two rooms and a sink, there was one bed and one chair and some clothes and that's about it." Soldiers seized two rifles, a pistol, a taxi and $750,000 in U.S. currency in a suitcase. They also found new clothes in unopened wrappers, which Odierno suggested meant Saddam had not been there long.
"We didn't stay there long. It smelled really bad," the soldier said. "It looked more like a garage than a proper house."
Within an hour â at about 9:15 p.m. â a helicopter whisked Saddam away, heading south toward Baghdad, Odierno said. There, former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz was one of the former regime officials who identified Saddam in custody, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Safa Saber al-Douri, a grocery store owner in Adwar, said he had heard that U.S. troops also arrested Qais al-Douri, the owner of the house where Saddam was captured, as well as Qais' family. It was not clear if those detentions were before or after the raid.
Sanchez, who saw Saddam in detention, described him as talkative and cooperative, but also as "a tired man, and also I think a man resigned to his fate."
Members of the Iraqi Governing Council visited as well, finding Saddam sitting on a bed in a white gown and dark jacket.
"He was subservient and broken," council member Mouwafak al-Rabii said. "He was speaking as if he did not know what was going on around him."
The council members peppered Saddam with questions about assassinations and massacres, asking him why he killed so many people. But al-Rabii said Saddam was unrepentant.
"Saddam appeared in his true face, using bad language and insults," he said. "Saddam looked like a thug or the leader of a mafia."
___
Aleksandar Vasovic reported from Tikrit. Niko Price, the AP's correspondent-at-large, contributed to this report from Baghdad. AP correspondent Scheherezade Faramarzi in Adwar also contributed to this story.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...id=540&ncid=716
<b>Saddam to be treated as per Geneva conventions: Rumsfeld</b>
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will be treated according to the Geneva conventions and under protections for prisoners of war, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said.
In an interview to CBS-60 Minutes, Rumsfeld said this when asked in the event Saddam did not cooperate during interrogation, he would be tortured or treated very harshly in order to get him to cooperate.
Rumsfeld replied that the use of the word "torture" in how the US military will treat this person "is unfortunate".
"We don't torture people," said Rumsfeld, adding that here is a man who has tortured to death tens of thousands of people and committed rape and brutality.
"A more vicious and brutal dictator, he said, would be difficult to find "in our lifetime. But "I just told you he would be treated according to the Geneva conventions and under the protections for prisoners of war."
Asked whether it was true that Iran helped in the capture of Saddam, Rumsfeld said, "Not to my knowledge. I have certainly not heard anything that even begins to suggest that".
<b>Nearly 100 Saddam supporters attack Baghdad police stations</b>
Some 100 supporters of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein attacked two police stations in northern Baghdad with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) this afternoon, an officer said on Monday.
Police Lieutenant Haidar Zuheir said the Saddam loyalists struck at the police stations in the Adhamiyeh district a day after US forces announced the capture of the deposed Iraqi dictator.
"About 100 assailants attacked two neighbourhood police stations with automatic weapons and RPGs from rooftops and the street," he said, without reporting any casualties.
Witnesses said the clashes broke out during a pro-Saddam demonstration.
Police opened fire to disperse the demonstrators who were firing in the air, witness Ali Abdul Jaber said.
Gunfire continued for several hours, but a US foot patrol was later seen headed for the centre of Adhamiyeh.
Tension has been running high in the Sunni district, which was the scene of Saddam's last public appearance before the April 9 fall of Baghdad, since the announcement of his capture.
Some 200 people held a pro-Saddam demonstration in Adhamiyeh last evening.
In deadly violence Monday targeting police, seen as collaborating with the US-led occupation forces, two nearly simultaneous car bombs killed at least eight people and wounded 17 at police stations to the west and north of Baghdad, police said.
> > Special SAT Report
> > http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec30_ja.../P1_Chashma.htm
This is very serious news.
Hope someone in the Pentagon or State Department is waking up. 9/11 will be like a walk in the park if USA does not realise the potential risks of leaving an Islamic nuke in Pakistan. It was tough going locating Saddam, remember how much tougher it will be to locate this gang of nine Pakis. CIA will have a jolly good and LONG hunt.
Kalyanaraman
Many Others Ready to Abscond: Pathetic Conditions Revealed at Chinese-aided CHASNUPP Power Plant
Nine Nuclear Scientists Slip Out of Pakistan
Special SAT Report
KARACHI: At least nine senior Pakistani Nuclear Scientists have secretly absconded from Pakistan, the latest defection taking place as late as in July 2002, documents from Pakistan's nuclear power plant CHASNUPP, built with Chinese assistance at Chashma in central Pakistan, have revealed.
Eight of the nine absconders were "Senior Engineers" at CHASNUPP and one was an Assistant Engineer. Four of them belonged to the Operations Division of the power plant, two to the Mechanical Maintenance Division and one each to Electrical, Technical and Training Divisions. Many of them are CNS Fellows while others got their fellowship from Karachi Nuclear Power Plant, KANUPP. Six disappeared between February to October 2000, one in April 1997 and two in 2002.
The details about these defections were revealed in an innocent looking memo sent by the engineers of CHASNUPP to their higher authorities warning them that âmany moreâ nuclear scientists were "planning to runâ from the country because they were not getting a fair deal in Pakistan.
The Memo which gave a list of the nine absconders only speculated that these engineers had gone to USA, Canada or Australia but in fact they could have gone to any country as they left without permission or informing the authorities. Click to View List
There are some 250 nuclear engineers and scientists working at CHASNUPP. Most of them are unhappy with their salaries and other benefits and are thus looking for openings to leave the country quietly, as the Government of Pakistan would never allow them to go and work for some other country.
âThe working conditions of these nuclear scientists should be a cause for grave concern to everyone as unhappy engineers at nuclear facilities could mean troubles of all kinds,â a retired Pakistani nuclear scientist told South Asia Tribune in Karachi.
The situation is ripe for any country needing their services to offer them a reasonable package and most will quietly disappear, traveling on passports which would not reveal their qualifications or experience. Pakistani passports normally do not mention the specific field of employment and it is easy to get replacement passports or even to conceal the real identity.
The engineers were getting so restless that some of them decided to write a detailed Memo pointing out the main problems being faced by them at the remote facility. Copies of the Memo were made available to the SA Tribune in Karachi by some of the relatives of the unhappy employees. Click to View Memo (copy quality not good) Page1 | Page2
A look at the Memo reveals that these engineers are being kept in Chashma as if they were in a âdetention campâ because they are required to work 11 hours a day, seven days a week. âThey work Monday to Sunday from 7.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. and sometimes many of them are called for emergency duty,â a concerned relative said, handing over a copy of the Office Order issued late in September this year. It confirmed that every one was required to work for 77 hours a week. Click to View Office Order
They are not allowed to keep their families in Chashma and scientists who are below Grade-20 are not being allowed even telephone facilities, the Memo reveals. Almost 90 per cent of the engineers fall in grades lower than 20.
The Memo of the Engineers warns that taking such heavy duty at such a sensitive facility could result in a major catastrophe. âAs per IAEA, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and CHASNUPP regulations, (authorities) are bound to implement the 40 hours limit ⦠Engineers are called for emergency duty and working hours easily touch 90 hours a week,â the Memo complains.
âDue to these extra abnormal working hours, the safety of the plant is in a dangerous position,â it warns reminding the authorities of the Chernobyl and Three-Mile Nuclear disasters in Soviet Union and USA.
There has been no immediate improvement in their working conditions, despite the Memo which shows that Pakistanâs nuclear manpower is now almost ready to disperse throughout the world, even to rogue nations needing their expertise.
The list of senior engineers who left the country for greener pastures mostly includes scientists who had at least two years of training from China and were highly qualified to run the power plant.
The cost of training such an engineer, as estimated by the CHASNUPP scientists themselves is Rs. 9 million per engineer in a 7 to 8 year period. Each person lost is a huge blow to the Pakistani nuclear establishment but working conditions and salaries are not being improved to keep them engaged.
For the rest of the world this is a scary situation as Pakistan could easily become the feeding ground for nuclear activities any where as Pakistani official wage structures are far less than any rich country with nuclear ambitions may offer, specially oil-rich states or organizations like Al Qaeda.
âThe scientists of CHASNUPP have sounded the warning bell for the Pakistani authorities. They have to look after this sensitive resource and not push it to the edge. Otherwise it could mean disaster for the country,â the retired nuclear scientist warned.
Let the US worry about them doc. From India's point of view, what difference does it make?
Whether a nuke is dropped on India from Osama nation or CEO's nation, the response will be the same, annihalation of Pakistan.
Serious news yes, but lets sit and watch what Uncle Bush does about this. Afterall, CEO is his chamcha.
Can Pakistan under a military dictator who on every chance begs US for more aid and $$$ stop the US from accessing Pakistani nuke assets and put them under US scrutiny?
Think about it. If it is done by CEO, who is going to stop him? Whatever Pakis may say their armed forces top brass is a dollar hungry ragtags. If indeed any commander does challenge CEO, either US will buy him out or dispose of him.
As for ISI etc. They are all product of the same crap.
CEO's last statement regarding his nukes were when he said, "I warned Indian PM that if they think of any adventure in Kashmir or anywhere else, it will not be a conventional war". Later he said he meant every Paki will fight, not that he was referring to nukes.
After that, to this day, no reference has been made by CEO and his peons about his nukes or their capabilities. I seriously think US has control over these devices and India has picked on this. The current policy towards Paki and the world as matter of fact is "Strong" to say the least.
I dont think I have seen Indians in this bravado mood, could be Agarkar? <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rolleyes.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Pak <b>nexus in Iran's nuke programme revealed</b>
New evidence in a probe of Iranâs secret nuclear programme âpoints overwhelminglyâ to Pakistan as the source of crucial technology, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.
The incriminating evidence and the subtle pressures in its wake from the US and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) prompted Islamabad to detain three of its top nuclear scientists recently for several days of questioning. American intelligence experts reportedly participated in the questioning session.
Quoting US and European officials, the paper says that documents provided by Iran to UN nuclear inspectors since early November have exposed the outlines of a vast, secret procurement network that successfully acquired thousands of sensitive parts and tools from many countries over a 17-year period.
Iran has not directly identified Pakistan as a supplier, but Pakistani individuals and companies have been strongly implicated as sources of key blueprints, technical guidance and equipment for a pilot uranium enrichment plant.
The three Pakistani scientists have not been charged with any crime, and Islamabad itself continues to insist that it never wittingly provided nuclear assistance to Iran or anyone else. Yet, the alleged transfers years ago have complicated the relationship between the US and Pakistan, the Post noted.
Some experts reportedly see the detention of senior scientist Farooq Mohammed and two of his colleagues as a hopeful sign, suggesting that Pakistan is preparing to increase its cooperation with IAEA investigators.
Apart from Pakistan, the Iranian programme is said to have received significant contributions from China and Russia.
The Iranian blueprints reviewed by the IAEA reportedly depict a type of centrifuge that is nearly identical to what Pakistan had used in the early phase of its nuclear programme.
According to David Albright, a former IAEA inspector and now president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based research group, the Iranian centrifuge is a modified version of the one built decades ago by Urenco, a consortium of the British, Dutch and German governments.
A draft report by Albrightâs group, quoted by the Post, says the design was âone of several known to have been stolen in the 1970s by Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khanâ. Pakistan, says the report, modified the Urenco design and manufactured a number of the machines before abandoning the centrifuge for a sturdier model.
<b>Inquiry Suggests Pakistanis Sold Nuclear Secrets</b>
his article is by William J. Broad, David Rohde and David E. Sanger.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 â A lengthy investigation of the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, by American and European intelligence agencies and international nuclear inspectors has forced Pakistani officials to question his aides and openly confront evidence that the country was the source of crucial technology to enrich uranium for Iran, North Korea and other nations.
Until the past few weeks, Pakistani officials had denied evidence that the A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, named for the man considered a national hero, had ever been a source of weapons technology to countries aspiring to acquire fissile material. Now they are backing away from those denials, while insisting that there has been no transfer of nuclear technology since President Pervez Musharraf took power four years ago.
Dr. Khan, a metallurgist who was charged with stealing European designs for enriching uranium a quarter century ago, has not yet been questioned. American and European officials say he is the centerpiece of their investigation, but that General Musharraf's government has been reluctant to take him on because of his status and deep ties to the country's military and intelligence services. A senior Pakistani official said in an interview that "any individual who is found associated with anything suspicious would be under investigation," and promised a sweeping inquiry.
Pakistan's role in providing centrifuge designs to Iran, and the possible involvement of Dr. Khan in such a transfer, was reported Sunday by The Washington Post. Other suspected nuclear links between Pakistan and Iran have been reported in previous weeks by other news organizations.
<b>An investigation conducted by The New York Times during the past two months, in Washington, Europe and Pakistan, showed that American and European investigators are interested in what they describe as Iran's purchase of nuclear centrifuge designs from Pakistan 16 years ago, largely to force the Pakistani government to face up to a pattern of clandestine sales by its nuclear engineers and to investigate much more recent transfers</b>.
Those include shipments in the late 1990's to facilities in North Korea that American intelligence agencies are still trying to locate, in hopes of gaining access to them.
<b>New questions about Pakistan's role have also been raised by Libya's decision on Friday to reveal and dismantle its unconventional weapons, including centrifuges and thousands of centrifuge parts. A senior American official said this weekend that Libya had shown visiting American and British intelligence officials "a relatively sophisticated model of centrifuge," which can be used to enrich uranium for bomb fuel.</b>
A<b> senior European diplomat with access to detailed intelligence said Sunday that the Libyan program had "certain common elements" with the Iranian program and with the pattern of technology leakage from Pakistan to Iran. The C.I.A. declined to say over the weekend what country appeared to be Libya's primary source. "It looks like an indirect transfer," said one official. "It will take a while to trace it back."</b>
The Pakistani action to question Dr. Khan's associates was prompted by information Iran turned over two months ago to the International Atomic Energy Agency, under pressure to reveal the details of a long-hidden nuclear program. But even before Iran listed its suppliers to the I.A.E.A. â five individuals and a number of companies from around the world â <b>a British expert who accompanied I.A.E.A. inspectors into Iran earlier this year identified Iranian centrifuges as being identical to the early models that the Khan laboratories had modified from European designs. "They were Pak-1's," said one senior official who later joined the investigation, saying that they were transferred to Iran in 1987.</b>
Pakistani officials said the sales to Iran might have occurred in the 1980's during the rule of the last American-backed military ruler, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq. They acknowledge questioning three scientists: <b>Mohammed Farooq, Yasin Chohan and a man believed to be named Sayeed Ahmad, all close aides to Dr. Khan</b>.
<b>Father of Pakistan bomb questioned over Iran link</b>
ISLAMABAD, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, is being questioned about reports of possible links between the Pakistani and Iranian nuclear programmes, the government said on Monday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told Reuters that A.Q. Khan was being questioned in connection with "debriefings" of several scientists working at his Khan Research Laboratories.
"He is too eminent a scientist to undergo a normal debriefing session," he said. "However, some questions have been raised with him in relation to the ongoing debriefing sessions."
<b>Pakistan's nuclear history under scrutiny</b>
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Pakistan's pre-eminent authority on nuclear arms has been implicated in Iran's acquisition of nuclear technology, the New York Times reported Monday.
Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, a metallurgist who was charged with stealing European designs for enriching uranium a quarter century ago, has not yet been questioned by U.S. and European officials.
Until the last few weeks, Pakistani officials denied evidence the A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories had ever been a source of weapons technology to countries, such as Iran and North Korea, aspiring to acquire fissionable material. Now they are backing away from those denials, while insisting there has been no transfer of nuclear technology since President Pervez Musharraf took power four years ago.
New questions about Pakistan's role have also been raised by Libya's decision Friday to reveal and dismantle its unconventional weapons program, including centrifuges and thousands of centrifuge parts.
A senior European diplomat with access to detailed intelligence said Sunday the Libyan program had "certain common elements" with the Iranian program and with the pattern of technology leakage from Pakistan to Iran.
<b>Walker's World: Libya and new world order</b>
By Martin Walker
UPI Editor
Published 12/22/2003 9:05 AM
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- It was an extraordinarily well-kept secret. It is remarkable that British and American officials have been quietly inspecting Libya's nuclear and chemical warfare plants for months, and not a word leaked out. And it striking that the usually garrulous Moammar Gadhafi could hold his tongue for so long about this stunning reversal of policy that sees the Arab world's most inveterate state sponsor of terrorism claiming to have seen the light.
But the real prize for strategic discretion must go to President George W. Bush and perhaps even more to Britain's Tony Blair. It must have been so tempting for Blair, with his back against the wall in recent months as the British opinion polls soured, to tell his tormentors in Parliament that the bad boy of the Middle East was about to turn himself in to the authorities.
Bush and Blair must not continue that silence now. They should stress and stress again that theirs is not simply a policy of military might and precision bombing, but that while they hold the cruise missiles in one hand, they offer an olive branch in the other.
Countries that play by the rules, even if they have a record of rogue nationhood as long as your arm, will be treated as responsible members of the international system. Regimes that continue to behave like rogues will be firmly dealt with until they see the error of their ways, or until they are replaced.
Those are the rules of the new world order. They are simple. And in a world that has already known one 9/11, and watches a North Korean sociopath selling missiles and nuclear technology to all comers to keep himself in French burgundy and Hollywood movies, the new rules are eminently reasonable.
Nuclear weapons cannot be dis-invented. But they can, with intelligent policies by the great powers, be reserved for grown-ups; that is to say, reserved for nations that are prepared to guard their nuclear arsenals carefully, to refrain from brandishing them as routine diplomatic assets, and to understand the awesome responsibility that comes with such awesome weaponry.
The five long-standing nuclear powers of the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China, have all long since passed these basic tests. So has Israel, even while its governments try to maintain some shred of strategic ambiguity about their possession. India is heading in the right direction, cooperating with U.S. experts to strengthen their strategic locks and command and control system over the nukes.
After North Korea, Pakistan remains the nearest country to a nuclear-armed rogue, largely because of the frightening readiness of some of its nuclear scientists to share technologies with real rogues. Pakistan's technological fingerprints are all over the Iranian nuclear program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors found that Iran was using Pakistan's basic design and its modifications in the gas centrifuges that were producing Iran's weapon's grade uranium. One of the Pakistani scientists supposedly involved was arrested three weeks ago. It is not clear whether he was guilty, or if he were, whether the lure was cash or Islamist ideology, or indeed whether he was acting with the quiet approval of his political and military masters.
But the bottom line is clear. Pakistan is not a comforting custodian of nuclear weapons, even under its current regime. And as the failed assassination attempt demonstrated last week, the current government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf is not a reassuringly stable place.
If Osama bin Laden has a coherent strategy, beyond taking the Islamic world back to some 7th century theme park of noble Bedouin warriors sweeping out from the desert to convert a heretic world at the point of a sword, it is to take over two countries. His most prized targets, beyond the American civilians he has already slaughtered, are Saudi Arabia with its oil and Pakistan with its nukes. At once the richest, the most potent and the most charismatic of jihadis, he would become -- unless stopped -- the most dire strategic menace to civilization since Josef Stalin got the atom bomb.
That is why Bush and Blair have been right to draft and to impose the new rules of the world after 9/11. The combination of terrorism, rogue states and weapons of mass destruction is unconscionable.
And now, in the wake of Libya's strategic surrender, it is plain that the Bush-Blair new world order offers carrots as well as the kind of stick that finally found Saddam Hussein cowering in his rat hole. It is not only Gadhafi who has been offered the carrot. The Iranian ayatollahs have agreed, after some impressive diplomacy by the British, French and German foreign ministers, to cooperate with the IAEA and open their research centers to snap inspections.
Iran, and Libya, are still on probation. There is no get-out-of-jail-free card under the new rules, but a constant monitoring of compliance, with rewards carefully calibrated against performance. It must be so.
But the world is starting to look like a slightly safer place, now that the carrots and sticks of the Bush-Blair rules have demonstrated their usefulness, and now that at least one inveterate rogue has seen and understood the writing on the wall. Any more conversions like Gadhafi's, and even Bush's most appeasement-minded critics and Blair's enemies on the British Left might have to acknowledge that the two men who kept the Libyan secret these past nine months are clearly doing something right
THE NEW YORK TIMES, EDITORIAL
Pakistan's Nuclear Commerce
Published: December 23, 2003
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The United States has again been given good reason to wonder whether Pakistan is the trustworthy ally it claims to be. <b>Fresh evidence indicates that it has sold nuclear-weapons secrets to Iran, North Korea and perhaps other countries over the years</b>. Pakistan's military ruler, , insists that he stopped such sales after seizing power four years ago (he was 400% sure <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> ). Yet just last year, American spy satellites detected a Pakistani plane picking up North Korean missile parts thought to be part of a swap for Pakistani nuclear technology. The Bush administration must demand stronger controls over Pakistan's nuclear labs, which seem to have been central to the transfers.
General Musharraf, who narrowly escaped assassination last week, is a key to American policy in south-central Asia. The general supported America's war in Afghanistan and has helped arrest Al Qaeda fugitives in Pakistan. Yet it is not clear how fully he shares American objectives on fighting nuclear proliferation and international terrorism.
During the 1980's and 90's, Pakistan, although closely allied with Washington, was virtually a rogue state. It shared nuclear bomb technology with Iran and North Korea, sponsored terrorism in Indian-ruled Kashmir and backed the Taliban government that sheltered Osama bin Laden. General Musharraf has changed some of these policies. But Washington must pressure him to do more.
The latest evidence on nuclear exports came to light when Iran recently shared with international regulators information about its nuclear suppliers. Earlier this year, international inspectors found uranium enrichment centrifuges in Iran that were identical to early Pakistani designs. The technology trail points to Pakistan's A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, and several of its leading scientists have now been questioned. Three years ago, at Washington's urging, General Musharraf removed Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's own nuclear weapons program, as the laboratories' director. It is possible that nuclear technology exports continued, as the intercepted North Korean missile shipment suggests. The laboratories have allies in Pakistan's army and its powerful military intelligence agency. To ensure that nuclear exports are truly halted, General Musharraf must tighten government control over the laboratories.
Washington should demand changes in other policies as well. General Musharraf's undermining of mainstream opposition parties has helped strengthen the Islamic parties that now rule areas along the Afghan border where Taliban recruiters openly operate. Containing Islamic extremism in Pakistan requires allowing mainstream opposition parties to function freely.
General Musharraf is again pledging to stop terrorists crossing into Indian-controlled Kashmir. Such vows are easily made in December, when infiltration routes are blocked with snow. An effective crackdown requires reining in army leaders who use the Kashmir issue to win higher military budgets than Pakistan can afford and local commanders who wink at border-crossing militants.
The Bush administration, which sees General Musharraf as a valuable ally against terrorism, has not pressured him to restore democracy. Betting American security on one man in a troubled country of 150 million is risky. <b>A wiser course would be to hold General Musharraf to all of his promises, on nuclear exports, terrorist infiltration and restoring democracy.</b> (all being tried for past 4 years onleee <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It seem this is Paki Govt leak
<b>Who passed our nuclear secrets to Iran?</b>
If at all some Pakistani scientists were involved on their own in the transfer of sensitive nuclear technology to Iran for money, then the question is when did they do it and how?
If one goes by the position taken by the present government, it certainly did not happen during the last four years. And it did not even happen during the 1990s when elected governments were in the saddle in Islamabad as, according to knowledgeable sources, by the early 1990s the world had started suspecting Iran of having acquired material capability to build a couple of nuclear devices.
And reports of Israel's plans to take out this capability were being widely discussed in the western media at about that time. So, we reach the 1980s by following this process of elimination. But then we ourselves were still engaged in acquiring the capability in the early 1980s.
And it was only in 1986 that we succeeded in enriching uranium to weapons grade level. And we all remember the famous interview of Dr A.Q. Khan given to the Indian journalist Kuldip Nayar in which Dr Khan claimed that he had successfully conducted a cold test.
And in the same year on October 1, 1986, Bob Woodword of The Washington Post in a banner headline story under his byline reported that Pakistan had conducted a hot test as well by then.
And it was not until 1989 that the world was convinced that we had acquired the capability of putting together a few nuclear bombs. The US did accuse us in early 1990 of violating the Pressler amendment and then in September 1990 it invoked the amendment to stop all our bilateral assistance.
However, since it was only in the early 1990s that the world began pointing fingers at Iran, it is safe to assume that what took place had happened between 1986 and 1987.
And how did this happen? Well, all the Pakistani scientists associated with our nuclear programme, including Dr A.Q. Khan, had remained under 24-hour strict military surveillance all through the years since the programme was started. One in-service brigadier had always remained at the side of Dr Khan during his waking hours.
This was done to protect these valuable human assets from being kidnapped or harmed by those who were opposed to our becoming a nuclear weapon country rather than to keep them from indulging in any irresponsible activities.
As a matter of fact, Dr Khan was wanted by the Dutch government which had alleged that the doctor who before coming back to Pakistan in early 1970s was working in one of its nuclear facilities had purloined the country's nuclear secrets.
He was, therefore, always under the threat of being kidnapped by his accusers. So, for this reason as well the doctor was kept under several layers of protection. <b>One recalls that in mid-1979 the then French ambassador to Pakistan was beaten up by presumably the protectors of the doctor when the ambassador was found loitering near the fast upcoming KRL, known then as Kahuta Research Laboratories (later renamed as Khan Research Laboratories to honour Dr Khan). </b>
So, with all that protection, it appears rather impossible for these scientists to have branched out on their own to set up their individual nuclear shops. They must have had help from some of their own protectors.
It would be unfair and wrong to speculate further on this matter. But if NAB were to try to find out who among the scientists and their protectors have assets beyond their known incomes, then perhaps we could narrow the probe to a couple of people.
One must at the same time remember that a lot of money from official secret funds was available to the KRL management, part of which is said to have been siphoned off by some members of the management as they were not required to account for such funds.
So, NAB should try to make a distinction between the money some may have siphoned off from the KRL secret funds and made into assets and the money which some of them are alleged to have received from Iran in return for nuclear technology transfer.
<b>The cat is said to have jumped out of the bag when the Iranian authorities on being asked by the IAEA how they had enriched uranium up to 73 per cent (weapons grade) confessed that they did not have such capability but were helped by five Pakistani scientists and a Sri Lankan Muslim scientist and three German businessmen. </b>
And then the Iranians being friends of Pakistan are said to have informed Islamabad about what they had told the IAEA and also given the names of the five Pakistani scientists involved in the deal.
Following this the government picked up all those who were named and also pushed up even higher the security walls for <b>Dr A.Q. Khan who is not seen in public these days in Islamabad. </b>
Pakistan, it is believed, has no intention of being declared a nuclear rogue state. Therefore, it is said to have decided to make its programme as transparent as possible and take all its friends (namely the US, UK and Europe) into confidence.
It is said to have found complete understanding on this matter in various capitals of the world. <b>Informed circles said the government was likely to consider rather seriously in the next couple of days a proposal to sign the CTBT</b>.
The Washington Post in its published report on Sunday claimed that documents provided by Iran to UN nuclear inspectors since early November had exposed the outlines of a vast secret procurement network that successfully acquired thousands of sensitive parts and tools from numerous countries over a 17-year period.
It adds that while Iran has not directly identified Pakistan as a supplier, Pakistani individuals and companies are strongly implicated as sources of key blueprints, technical guidance and equipment for a pilot uranium-enrichment plant.
The Post further said that "other (US) officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US government was aware of the incident (arrest of Pakistani scientists) and had been allowed to participate in the questioning".
IRAN, Libya, Syria, North Korea and Saudi Arabia must have paid some one to transfer technology and I can bet it is not Xerox Khan who is sitting on hefty bank balance. How long US govt will protect Paki Army and Mushy for tranfer of goodies to prize countries?
My gut feeling, after getting all information from Pakisatan, Pakistan will loose it prize jewel for good for ever.
is there any air-links between pakistan,saudi-arabia and iran?
if yes,is those flights are operated by paki-airlince and saudi airlines?..
i mean its easy to import a dirty bomb into US if thats true.
what are other ways to do it?...through france?
one thing is very sure.G-7 are not united as they were before.I suspect there is france/germany ....someone from G-7 is helping in this mess of nukes or they can?...its possile..huh? 
Vishu,
The US is fully aware of these tacts. There biggest concern in 2002 was a PIA plane hovering over US with a nuke or semi-nuke. This led the FBI to station its teams at all Pakistani airports.
Also in NY there are radioactive detectors all over installed by FBI and NYPD. The only problem is, what about cargo planes, and in case of a hijack, and the plane is required to land in NY, what would be the executive decision then?
The biggest concern for US is, in case of a hijack, should the plane be allowed to enter US for humantarian assistance, whether or not US national are aboard or not.
Lets see if Sammy can find the answer.
B)
Axis of evidence
G. PARTHASARATHY
Barely a few weeks after Pakistanâs humiliating defeat in the Bangladesh conflict of December 1971, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto convened a meeting in Multan with close aides and nuclear experts. Bhutto announced he was determined never to allow India to repeat what it had done in Bangladesh. He said that given the immense conventional superiority India would continue to wield, Pakistan had no option but to develop nuclear weapons. But Pakistanâs nuclear programme never had an exclusively Indian dimension. Writing his memoirs in his prison cell while awaiting the gallows, Bhutto stated that if he had not been overthrown he would have put the âIslamic Civilisationâ at par with the âHindu, Christian and Jewish Civilisationsâ by giving the âIslamic Civilisationâ a âfull nuclear capabilityâ.
But Bhutto avoided any reference to Chinaâs nuclear capabilities. After Indiaâs nuclear test in May 1974, China sent its first batch of 12 scientists to assist Pakistan in developing nuclear capabilities. Bhutto alluded to this cooperation in his memoirs where he spoke of a âhistoric agreementâ in 1976 with China that would be âmy greatest contribution to the survival of our people and our nationâ. By the early 1980s, China had supplied Pakistan with enriched uranium to build a few weapons along with designs for these weapons. Even after China acceded to the NPT, it supplied Pakistan with 5000 crucial ring magnets to assist its nuclear enrichment programme. It is currently providing unsafeguarded plutonium processing facilities to enable Pakistan to miniaturise nuclear and thermonuclear warheads. Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin project of arms control, noted: âIf you subtract Chinaâs help from the Pakistani nuclear programme, there is no Pakistani nuclear programme.â
While Chinaâs support for Pakistanâs nuclear and missile programmes is evidently part of its effort to âcontainâ India, Bhuttoâs references to the Islamic dimensions of Pakistanâs nuclear ambitions are now coming under closer international scrutiny. His political adviser, Khalid Hassan, has revealed how Bhutto solicited and obtained funding for Pakistanâs nuclear programme from Libya and Saudi Arabia. Around the same time, the then Indian prime minister, Morarji Desai, rejected a Libyan request for nuclear assistance in 1978. UN weapons inspectors are reported to have evidence about offers from Pakistanâs A.Q. Khan to provide nuclear know-how to Iraq. Iran is also reported to have acknowledged obtaining âsecond hand nuclear equipmentâ from Pakistan for uranium enrichment. But, given the antagonism and suspicions that prevail between Iran and Pakistan, it appears that any equipment supplied by Pakistan to Iran would have been given primarily to enable Pakistan to retain some leverage and goodwill in Tehran.
While the Americans have predictably been making a song and dance about Iranâs quest for nuclear weapons capabilities, they are remarkably reticent about growing evidence of Pakistan-Saudi Arabia collaboration in nuclear and missile development. The Petroleum Intelligence Weekly reported in July 2000 that Saudi Arabia was providing Pakistan and the Taliban 150,000 barrels of oil per day as undocumented economic assistance. Referring to this aid amounting to $1.4 billion annually, former CIA analyst Robert Baer notes: âBeginning in the 1970s Saudi Arabia poured over $1 billion into Pakistan to help Pakistan develop an âIslamicâ nuclear bomb to help it counter the âHinduâ nuclear threat.â Saudi Arabia also provided nearly $1 billion to enable Pakistan to buy nuclear capable F-16s from the US in the 1980s.
Saudi Arabia emerged as Pakistanâs closest economic patron in the aftermath of the international sanctions Pakistan faced following its May 1998 nuclear tests. A year later, in May 1999, Nawaz Sharif escorted Saudi Arabiaâs defence minister, Prince Sultan, on a visit to Pakistanâs nuclear and missile facilities in Kahuta. This was the first ever visit of a foreign dignitary and only the third by a Pakistani prime minister to these facilities controlled and administered by Pakistanâs military. US analysts say the visit laid the basis for closer Pakistan-Saudi Arabia links in missile and nuclear related matters. In September 2000, a Pakistani delegation led by A.Q. Khan visited Saudi Arabia as guests of Prince Sultan.
The Saudi-Pak nexus is being documented by those in the US not as sanguine as Colin Powell about its implications. Anthony Cordeman, author of a State Department study entitled âWeapons of Mass Destruction: The New Strategic Frameworkâ, remarked that very senior Saudi officials have held conversations with officials involved in Pakistanâs nuclear programme. A former official of the US Defence Intelligence Agency, Thomas Woodrow, said: âSaudi Arabia has been involved in funding Pakistanâs nuclear and missile purchases from China.â He added Saudi Arabia was âbuying nuclear capability from China through a proxy state, with Pakistan serving as the cut-outâ.
There are also now a number of reports by well informed analysts indicating that following the recent hurried visit of Crown Prince Abdallah to Islamabad, Pakistan has reached a âdefinitive agreementâ to station nuclear weapons on Saudi soil, fitted with a new generation of Chinese supplied ballistic missiles, which would be under Pakistani command. These missiles would replace the aging CSS 2 missiles with a 2800-km range that China supplied to Saudi Arabia in 1987. Pakistan evidently intends to compensate the âstrategic depthâ it lost following the ouster of the Taliban in Afghanistan, by positioning missiles and nuclear weapons in Saudi Arabia.
Shortly after the visit of former Chinese prime minister Zhu Rongji to Pakistan in 2001, General Musharraf made it clear that he would not hesitate to provide the Chinese navy a base in the Gwadar port at the mouth of the Persian Gulf which is being built with massive Chinese assistance. Saudi Arabia has also reportedly agreed to provide financial assistance for Gwadar. Given its growing demand for imported energy, it makes sense for China to forge closer strategic ties with Saudi Arabia, sing Pakistan as a âcut-outâ. Are we seeing the emergence of a Beijing-Islamabad-Riyadh missile and nuclear axis that could fulfill Bhuttoâs vision for Pakistanâs self-styled âIslamic Bombâ?
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story....t_id=35269
12-24-2003, 10:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-24-2003, 10:43 PM by rhytha.)
WTF, saudi and pak all along were just slaves of US.
US draws a bead on Pakistan, Saudi Arabia
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - With the United States facing the prospect of continuing difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan in the new year, there are signs that it will adopt an aggressive policy to cut all kinds of supply lines to the guerrilla movements in these countries, starting with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and making no concessions.
Pakistan
A well-placed source in the Pakistani strategic community tells Asia Times Online that Pakistan has been given a clear message that although Islamabad has pledged its full commitment to the "war on terror", Washington is not entirely pleased with its efforts to date and still considers the country the "naughty boy" of the region and indirectly considers it a catalyst for support of anti-US forces.
The row over a possible Pakistan link to Iran's nuclear program is a case in point, in which the US has lost patience with Islamabad. The Pakistani government has confirmed that the father of its nuclear bomb program, Abd al-Qadir Khan, was being questioned in connection with "debriefings" of several scientists working at his Khan Research Laboratories. This follows a report by The New York Times that information Iran turned over to the International Atomic Energy Agency two months ago has strengthened suspicions that Pakistan sold key nuclear secrets to Iran.
"American and European investigators are interested in what they describe as Iran's purchase of nuclear centrifuge designs from Pakistan 16 years ago, largely to force the Pakistani government to face up to a pattern of clandestine sales by its nuclear engineers and to investigate much more recent transfers," including ones to North Korea in the late 1990s, The Times said.
Although Pakistan claims that some of its nuclear scientists may have been motivated by "personal ambition and greed" to share sensitive nuclear technology with Iran, and that the Pakistan government never authorized the transfer of such information, the US remains unconvinced.
Accordingly, Washington is now placing heavy pressure on Pakistan to abandon its nuclear program. Pakistan and India are believed to be ready next week to exchange lists of their nuclear installations and facilities, and members of the international nuclear club want them to create a South Asian nuclear-free zone by signing a bilateral agreement along the lines of the Treaty of Tlatelolco in which two nuclear rivals in South America - Argentine and Brazil - in the 1990s declared the region a weapons-free zone and abandoned their long-range missile programs, as well as nuclear plants.
Another bone of contention between Pakistan and the US is Pakistan's remote, mountainous and volatile tribal areas that border Afghanistan and which are acknowledged as a base for the resurgent Taliban. Pakistan has repeatedly promised to control the area, but without any significant results. Indeed, sectors within the Pakistani security apparatus are suspected of actively aiding the Taliban in maintaining their supply lines.
To deal with Pakistan, the Washington response in the first stage is to control its nuclear power, and then to create more US bases in Pakistan. This strategy would take Pakistan back to the 1960s, when Pakistan had very limited military and strategic interests in the region, and what there were, were linked to agreements with the US.
Saudi Arabia
Despite half a century of friendship, in the post-September 11 period the kingdom is now seen in Washington as a hotbed of US antagonism. As a result, the US has drawn up a strategy to combat this, with a heavy accent on education.
According to a source at the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia, under strict US State Department directives, the Saudi government prepared a new educational reform package, a copy of which was handed to Washington. It was rejected, with Saudi authorities asked to prepare another one which removes any teachings about jihad and anti-Christian and Jewish sentiment. Saudi Arabia has also been directed to stop its institutional support of various charity organizations that are suspected of channeling funds to jihad, or Islamic struggle, organizations.
On the political front, local people are to be given broader participation, while in business, strict conditions limiting foreign investment will be lifted, and foreigners will be allowed to operate in the kingdom without a local partner.
By clamping down on Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the US hopes to stem support for terrorism at its roots.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EL25Df01.html
<!--QuoteBegin-rhytha+Dec 24 2003, 10:26 PM-->QUOTE(rhytha @ Dec 24 2003, 10:26 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> Axis of evidence
G. PARTHASARATHY
Barely a few weeks after Pakistanâs humiliating defeat in the Bangladesh conflict of December 1971, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto convened a meeting in Multan with close aides and nuclear experts. Bhutto announced he was determined never to allow India to repeat what it had done in Bangladesh. He said that given the immense conventional superiority India would continue to wield, Pakistan had no option but to develop nuclear weapons. <b>But Pakistanâs nuclear programme never had an exclusively Indian dimension. Writing his memoirs in his prison cell while awaiting the gallows, Bhutto stated that if he had not been overthrown he would have put the âIslamic Civilisationâ at par with the âHindu, Christian and Jewish Civilisationsâ by giving the âIslamic Civilisationâ a âfull nuclear capabilityâ. </b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I never heard this before! <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
why this information is not made public in india?
whats do important about it?
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