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Author Topic:   war on terror
Petron
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posted December 19, 2004 02:04 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Hunt for bin Laden is stymied in the wilds of Pakistan
By James Risen and David Rohde The New York Times
Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Prodded by the United States, Pakistan began an offensive along its northwest border this spring to flush out Qaeda forces that had escaped from Afghanistan and to help find bin Laden.
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But after suffering heavy casualties and causing civilian deaths that stirred opposition, the Pakistani Army declared victory two weeks ago and announced that bin Laden was not in Pakistan. Many U.S. intelligence officials are confident that he is, however - and that he is as dangerous as ever.
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The war in Afghanistan inflicted severe damage on Al Qaeda, forcing it to adapt to survive, intelligence specialists agree. Today, they say it largely functions as a loose network of local franchises linked by a militant Islamist ideology.
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But bin Laden remains much more than just an iconic figurehead of Islamic militancy, most U.S. intelligence officials now say. From a presumed hiding place on the Pakistani side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, he controls an elite terrorist cell devoted to attacking in the United States, the officials suspect. They contend that he personally oversees the group of operatives, which he hopes to use for another "spectacular" event, like the Sept. 11 attacks.
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U.S. counterterrorism analysts say this special Qaeda unit probably is dispersed, though they do not know where. This "external planning group" can communicate with regional affiliates around the world when needed, one senior intelligence official said.
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"There is a strong desire by bin Laden to attack the continental United States, and he wants to use the external planning mode to do it," the official said.
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But the United States has failed to penetrate the group and has no idea when or where it will try to strike, the officials acknowledged.
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The contention of intelligence officials that such a group poses grave danger helps explain why the administration of George W. Bush continues to respond so strongly to reported terrorist threats; officials cannot tell which ones to take most seriously.
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Many analysts are convinced that he is being protected by a well-financed network of Pakistani tribesmen and foreign militants who operate in the impoverished border region, and that they have helped him communicate with major figures in his network.
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"Bin Laden is getting his logistical support from the tribes," an intelligence official said. "He still has operational communications with the outside."
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The place suspected of being bin Laden's hideout, in the shadow of the Hindu Kush mountain range, is in one of the most isolated and backward corners of the world. Pakistan's frontier is a barren terrain of mountains and mud. The fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun who inhabit the region are farmers and smugglers, most of them poor and illiterate. Local mullahs preach a radical Islamic ideology that portrays the United States as bent on enslaving Muslims.
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Sympathetic to the Taliban, many of whom attended madrassas, or religious schools, in the region, militant young tribesmen perceive U.S. soldiers as aggressors and occupiers, and they view bin Laden as an avenging hero.
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The seven semiautonomous tribal areas in the region have been a virtual no man's land for U.S. forces since the Sept. 11 attacks, making them a natural haven for Qaeda figures who fled Afghanistan after the battle of Tora Bora in 2001.
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Pakistan does not permit U.S. military and intelligence forces in Afghanistan to cross the border to go after militants. This prohibition on cross-border "hot pursuit" makes it relatively easy for Taliban and Qaeda fighters to initiate attacks on U.S. bases in Afghanistan, and then quickly escape to the safety of Pakistan. U.S. soldiers have complained about being fired on from inside Pakistan by foreign militants while Pakistani border guards sat and watched.
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As a result of the restrictions, U.S. military and intelligence personnel in Afghanistan are no longer really hunting for bin Laden, an intelligence official said. They are instead trying to provide stability for Afghanistan's new government while battling a local Taliban insurgency and a scattering of Qaeda fighters.
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Electronic surveillance of the region by the National Security Agency has proved frustrating, U.S. intelligence officials say. Bin Laden is believed to avoid using electronic devices that could be monitored, and probably communicates through trusted couriers, they say.
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The Afghan-Pakistan border is also a traditional drug-smuggling route, so it is common for U.S. eavesdroppers to hear coded conversations that may have nothing to do with Al Qaeda.
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The CIA opened secret bases with small numbers of operatives in Pakistan in late 2003, but it has been unable to use them for aggressive counterterrorism operations, intelligence officials say. The operatives depended on local Pakistani Army commanders, whose views on cooperation with the CIA vary widely, U.S. officials say.
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Pakistani officials said that the Americans are instantly identifiable to tribesmen and unlikely to succeed working alone. They say the Americans are escorted to stop them being killed, or have their presence exposed, which would be damaging to the Pakistani government.
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The decision to allow the bases is one of President Pervez Musharraf's most significant steps to help the United States, intelligence officials say. He is trying to balance the competing interests of his alliance with the United States with his need to avoid setting off a broader insurgency in the border region, where the central government is widely resented for its long neglect.
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U.S. counterterrorism officials, meanwhile, also cite the critical role that Pakistani security services have played in capturing key Qaeda figures.
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.
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James Risen reported from Washington and David Rohde from Peshawar, Pakistan, for this article; Mohammed Khan contributed reporting from Peshawar.
.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/13/news/search.html

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Petron
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posted December 24, 2004 02:29 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

Musharraf thrives on US support
By Aamer Ahmed Khan
BBC News, Karachi

Pakistani leader Gen Pervez Musharraf is concluding an extensive tour of the Americas and Europe in circumstances vastly different from his first official visit to a Western nation about five years ago.

Then, Western governments widely saw him as a military dictator following his 1999 coup

The general's opponents, it seems, now have no option but to concede that their adversary has returned from the US as a powerful military leader who will remain in control despite what it may mean for the future of democracy in Pakistan.

Now, he is seen more as a constitutional president who is a trusted ally and a close personal friend of many Western leaders.

The transition has been anything but smooth, especially in the context of US-Pakistan relations.

From concerted attacks against US installations and Western citizens based in Pakistan to nuclear proliferation concerns to deep-rooted suspicions between intelligence officials of the two countries, the evolution in Gen Musharraf's status has weathered many storms.

'Out of control'

Many observers feel the only thing that has carried this relationship through is the Musharraf government's success in containing what was a developing relationship between militant sectarian outfits operating out of Pakistan and senior figures within al-Qaeda.

Gen Musharraf's role in the US-led war on terror was the only area that earned him unqualified praise from President Bush during his recent visit to Washington

"There was a time when the situation could have spiralled out of control," a senior police official deeply involved in anti-terror investigations told BBC News.

"We were shocked at the lateral as well as vertical spread of Pakistani terrorist outfits."

According to these officials, Pakistani authorities had little knowledge of the links that Pakistan's sectarian organisations such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had established with al-Qaeda members slipping down from Afghanistan until the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

The extent and nature of these links came to light during investigations into Pearl's killing.

Officials say that soon after Pearl's death, Pakistani authorities found themselves confronted with a spectre of an alliance between al-Qaeda and local sectarian organisations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4079559.stm

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Petron
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posted December 24, 2004 02:31 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Stable Pakistan policy eyed in meeting with Bush
By Victoria Burnett, Globe Correspondent | December 4, 2004

ISLAMABAD -- When Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, meets with President Bush in Washington today, both leaders will have reason to thank the other: Musharraf for the $1.2 billion arms package announced by the United States last month; Bush for Musharraf's struggle against Islamic militants and his role in ensuring peaceful elections in Afghanistan.

But as Bush prepares for his second term, Pakistani officials and political analysts are searching for signs that the marriage of convenience between the two countries that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is growing into a stable partnership. Although that remains to be seen, the analysts say they believe that battling terrorism will continue to top the agenda in US relations with Pakistan.

Pakistan ''wants to see a policy that's sustainable, not just determined on a case-by-case basis," said Talat Masood, a retired army general and a prominent political analyst in Islamabad.

Pakistan's role in the war on terrorism since September 2001 has transformed its status from that of virtual pariah state to an indispensable US ally. Security forces have arrested more than 500 Al Qaeda suspects in Pakistan.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2004/12/04/stable_pakistan_policy_eyed_in_meeting_with_bush/

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Petron
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posted December 24, 2004 02:33 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Pakistan's Musharraf says won't quit as army chief
18 Dec 2004 13:46:28 GMT
Reuters

By Faisal Aziz

KARACHI, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said he will stay on as army chief, reneging on a pledge to quit the powerful post by the end of the year.

"I will remain in uniform even after Dec 31. I am telling you this for the first time," Musharraf said in an interview with the private Kawish Television Network late on Friday.

Musharraf pledged last year to shed his military uniform by the end of 2004 in return for support for constitutional changes validating his rule and giving him extensive power under a deal with an alliance of Islamist parties.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18171781.htm

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Petron
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posted December 26, 2004 01:13 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Two Officers Convicted in Attacks on Pakistan President
One is sentenced to die, the other to 10 years in prison for role in assassination attempts.
From Times Wires Services

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A military court convicted two low-ranking army officers on charges of involvement in an assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf last year, a military spokesman said Friday.
Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said one of the officers was given the death penalty and the other was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

"They were tried under the military law and they can go into appeal," he said.

Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has angered Islamic militants with his support for the Bush administration's war on terrorism. He stopped backing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after it came under fire for harboring Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

He survived two assassination attempts last December in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near the capital.

Sultan said the officers were involved in the first assassination attempt Dec. 14, 2003, when a bomb blew up a bridge minutes after Musharraf's motorcade had passed it. The trial of four other junior army officers and six air force officers was still underway, Sultan said.

The announcement of the verdicts came on the first anniversary of the second attempt, when suicide car bombers attacked Musharraf's motorcade. Fifteen people were killed in that attack. Pakistani officials say militants linked to Al Qaeda masterminded the assassination attempts.

Musharraf has said that junior military officials were involved in the assassination attempts on him but dismissed suggestions that senior officials were involved. He also has said that a Libyan linked to Bin Laden's network was a prime suspect.

Intelligence officials have identified the man as Abu Faraj Farj. In August authorities offered nearly $350,000 for information leading to Farj's arrest.

Police said they had arrested four militants linked to Farj last week, foiling planned attacks in the eastern city of Lahore.

Farj is accused of working with Pakistani militant, Amjad Hussain Farooqi, who was killed Sept. 26 in a shootout with security forces in southern Pakistan. Farooqi was implicated in the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Authorities have said they are also holding an unspecified number of militants suspected of having ties to the masterminds in the attacks on Musharraf, but haven't identified them.

---------------
Associated Press and Reuters were used in compiling this report. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan25dec25,1,3178226.story?coll=la-headlines-world

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Petron
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posted January 09, 2005 11:10 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

Musharraf plotter escapes
09/01/2005 21:49 - (SA)

New York - An alleged conspirator in a plot to kill Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has escaped, Time Magazine reported on its website on Sunday.

The suspect escaped sometime around New Year's Day from state security in the port city of Karachi, the US magazine reported.

A nationwide manhunt has failed to yield any leads in the whereabouts of the suspect, who has been identified as Mushtaq Ahmad, one of the ringleaders in the Decemeber 14 plot on Musharraf's life.

Authorities reportedly have sent security alerts to air and seaports and have beefed up security at Pakistan's land borders to prevent Ahmad from fleeing the country.

A military court last month sentenced a Pakistani soldier to death for his involvement in the plot on the president's life.

Musharraf has survived at least three attempts assassination attempts. His military-controlled regime is expected to launch a probe into whether Ahmad's escape was an inside job, Time wrote.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1644942,00.html

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MonkeyMagic
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posted January 10, 2005 06:51 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Petron ,
Have you done any homework on this ?

I would like to see what your point is from your own thoughts ,I don't follow the individuals point when they are just news articles . .

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TINK
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posted January 10, 2005 09:54 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm guessing the point is Musharraf is an untrustworthy SOB. Why anyone in their right mind would back the little f#cker is beyond me. I suppose the answer is somewhere in that all-important phrase, "in their right mind".

petron?

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Petron
unregistered
posted January 11, 2005 05:42 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Greetings MonkeyMagic

no, i dont really have a point i guess i was just copying and pasting seemingly related bits of info, hoping someone could make sense of it ....any ideas?


TINK it actually seems to me like musharef might be the ONLY 1 in pakistan to be working for the u.s. , thats what scares me...

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TINK
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posted January 11, 2005 06:16 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A good point. But a USA I want nothing to do with. Why our obsession with pyscho strong-arm, military dictator types? Tempting at first, no doubt, but surely someone in the pentagon has figured out by now that these monsters come back to bite us in the a$$ at most inopportune times.

Petron, I think you are the type who always has a point.

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Isis
Newflake

Posts: 1
From: Brisbane, Australia
Registered: May 2009

posted January 11, 2005 06:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Isis     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Why our obsession with pyscho strong-arm, military dictator types

It is my opinion that we have no "obsession w/ psycho strong-arm military dictator types". Put into the proper historical context, it appears that most if not all alliances made with certain individuals were made because the regimes in question opposed Russia/Communism, which at the time was our A#1 concern...not because Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton or GWB (or their administrations) had an "obsession" with allying the US w/ "psycho strong arm military dictator types". Strategic alliances. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Access to markets and resources. That sort of thing.

I was under the impression that any affiliation between the US and Pakistan was a strategic alliance borne of the need to access Afganistan post-9/11. Prior to 9/11, we were not allied with Pakistan and in fact, we were not allied to the point at which the US refused to deliver on an order of F-16s? (F-18s? can't recall exactly which type of fighter it was) that had already been paid for, in response to their nuclear testing in the late 90s.

Is Musharraf trustworthy? In my opinion, no. But it makes life easier if we are not at odds with both Pakistan and Afganistan, not to mention the strategic advantages of having Pakistan work with us rather than against us...well, politics (and war) make strange bedfellows...

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Petron
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posted January 11, 2005 08:14 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
hey there Isis thanx for the info i'll look into that too....

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Petron
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posted January 11, 2005 09:23 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

Pakistan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan (??????? in Urdu), or Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia. Pakistan borders India, Iran, Afghanistan, China and the Arabian Sea. With over 150 million inhabitants it is the sixth most populous country in the world. It also happens to be the second largest Muslim country in the world (after Indonesia) and an important member of the OIC. Culturally and geographically rich, Pakistan has endless tourists attractions throughout its vast scenic lands and many of the highest mountains and mountain ranges in the world.

Pakistan movement
The country that is now Pakistan was part of British India until August 14, 1947. The first proponents of an independent Muslim nation began to appear during the times of British colonial India. Among the first of these proponents was the writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who felt that a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated subcontinent. The cause found a leader in Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who became known as the Father of the Nation and eventually persuaded the British to partition the region into Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. Upon independence, Pakistan became an independent member of the British Commonwealth.


Origin of Name
The name was coined by Cambridge student and Muslim nationalist Choudhary Rahmat Ali. He devised the word and first published it on January 28, 1933 in the pamphlet Now or Never (http://www.zyworld.com/slam33/non.htm). He saw it as an acronym formed from the names of the "homelands" of Muslims in South Asia. (P for Punjab, A for the Afghan areas of the region, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Baluchistan, thus forming 'Pakstan.' An 'i' was later added to the English rendition of the name to ease pronunciation, producing Pakistan.) The word also captured in the Persian language the concepts of "Pak" meaning "Pure" and "stan" for "land" or "home" (as in the names of Central Asian countries in the region; Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, etc), thus giving it the meaning "Land of the Pure".

Front-line state in the anti-Soviet Afghan war
During the 1980s, Pakistan received substantial aid from the United States and took in millions of Afghan (mostly Pashtun) refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The influx of so many refugees - the largest refugee population in the world - has had a heavy impact on Pakistan. The dictatorship of General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq also saw an expansion of Islamic law, as well as an influx of weaponry and drugs from Afghanistan. In 1988, the general died in an aircraft crash and Pakistan returned to an elected government, ushered in with the election of Benazir Bhutto.


Civilian Democracy
From 1988 to 1998, Pakistan was ruled by civilian governments, alternately headed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who were each elected twice and removed from office on charges of corruption. Economic growth declined towards the end of this period, hurt by erratic economic policies associated with political corruption, cronyism, and patronage. Other adverse factors were the Asian financial crisis, and economic sanctions imposed on Pakistan after its first tests of nuclear devices in 1998. The Pakistani testing came shortly after India tested nuclear devices and increased fears of a nuclear arms race in South Asia. The next year, the Kargil Conflict in Kashmir threatened to escalate to a full-scale war.

In the election that returned Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister in 1997, his party received a heavy majority of the vote, obtaining enough seats in parliament to change the constitution, which Sharif amended to eliminate the formal checks and balances that restrained the Prime Minister's power. Institutional challenges to Sharif's authority, by the Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and military chief Jehangir Karamat were put down, in the former case by a storming of the Supreme Court by party goons. The increasing authoritarianism and corruption of the Sharif government led to severe public dissatisfaction and culminated in a military coup by General Pervez Musharraf.


Recent history
As of 2004, Musharraf had begun steps to return the nation to a democracy of sorts, having made a public pledge to step down as military chief by the end of 2004. Though he is widely expected to remain in effective control of Pakistan as its president until 2007 given the support of the Pakistani Army and the United States, his authority will be significantly diminished once he does doff the mantle of army chief. In fact, as the December 31 deadline approaches, Musharraf appears increasingly unwilling to shed his uniform.

While economic reforms undertaken during his regime have yielded some results, social reform programmes appear to have met with resistance. Musharraf's power is threatened by extremists who have grown in strength since the September 11, 2001 attacks and who are particularly angered by Musharraf's close political and military alliance with the United States

Political Parties
Pakistan's two largest mainstream parties are the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan_Muslim_League_(Q), which obtained a plurality in the October 2002 elections. In those elections, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a coalition of six religious muslim parties, emerged as the third largest party, with 11% of the popular vote. In one province, NWFP, it obtained 48 out of 96 Provincial Assembly seats. It formed a government in that province and in the Balochistan, in coalition with other parties.


Form of Government
Officially a federal republic, and intermittently democratic, Pakistan has had a long history of military dictatorships including General Ayub Khan in the 1960s, General Zia ul Haq in the 1980s, and General Pervez Musharraf from 1999. General elections were held in October 2002. On May 22, 2004, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group re-admitted Pakistan into the Commonwealth, formally acknowledging its progress in returning to democracy.


Recent Political History
In October 1999, General Pervez Musharraf overthrew the civilian government after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif allegedly hijacked the commercial airliner on which Musharraf was travelling, and attempted to thwart its landing at Karachi. Musharraf assumed executive authority. Local government elections were held in 2000. Musharraf declared himself president in 2001. An April 2002 national referendum approved Musharraf's role as president but the vote was tainted by allegations of rigging and the opposition stridently questioned the legitimacy of Musharraf's presidency until his electoral college victory in January 2004.

Nation-wide parliamentary elections were held in 2002 with Zafarullah Khan Jamali of the Pakistan Muslim League party emerging as Prime Minister. After over a year of political wrangling in the bicameral legislature, Musharraf struck a compromise with some of his parliamentary opponents, giving his supporters the two-thirds majority vote required to amend the constitution in December 2003, retroactively legalizing his 1999 coup and permitting him to remain president if he met certain conditions. A parliamentary electoral college - consisting of the National Assembly and Senate and the provincial assemblies - gave Musharraf a vote of confidence[1] (http://www.dawn.com/2004/01/02/top1.htm) on January 1, 2004, thereby legitimizing his presidency until 2007.

Prime Minister Jamali resigned on June 26, 2004. PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain became interim PM, and was succeeded by Finance minister and former Citibank Vice President Shaukat Aziz, who became Prime Minister on August 28, 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan

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TINK
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posted January 11, 2005 10:18 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Hey there Isis. How are you doing?

The enemy of my enemy is my friend is an old maxim to be sure, but a dangerous one, I think. We've gotton ourselves into a considerable amount of trouble making deals with assorted devils. I would also go so far to say that, more often then not, communism was our A1 excuse.

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Randall
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Posts: 4782
From: The Goober Galaxy
Registered: Apr 2009

posted January 12, 2005 11:31 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

------------------
"Never mentally imagine for another that which you would not want to experience for yourself, since the mental image you send out inevitably comes back to you." Rebecca Clark

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Petron
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posted January 16, 2005 03:43 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

Ashcroft: Intel foiled Qaeda plots, but the organization is 'morphing'

Jan. 24 issue - Last May, Attorney General John Ashcroft made headlines when he declared the Feds had "credible intelligence" that Al Qaeda was planning a major attack inside the United States "in the next few months." But no attack materialized. So what happened? Last week, in a NEWSWEEK interview, the departing A.G. took credit for tough actions that disrupted plots, "significantly damaged" Al Qaeda and "made it far more difficult" for the terrorists to operate. He pointed in particular to the obscure arrest of a New York taxi-driver student who, Ashcroft aides say, was ensnared with the help of one of the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act: the section giving the Feds new powers to obtain records of public-library users.

Ashcroft's claims may be impossible to prove; some counterterror officials insist the original intel about a Qaeda plot was both hyped and misinterpreted. The real strike, it now appears, was being planned for Great Britain, not the United States. Still, the case of Qaeda sympathizer Mohammed Junaid Babar may have been a key part of the story. A 29-year-old former student at New York's St. John's University, Babar was tracked flying off last winter to South Waziristan in Pakistan, where he attended what some analysts believe was a terror summit that included the notorious Qaeda pilot Adnan Shukrijumah and Dhiren Barot, the operative suspected of casing New York financial institutions a few years earlier.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6831937/site/newsweek/

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Petron
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posted January 16, 2005 05:43 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Report: U.S. Conducting Secret Missions Inside Iran
Jan 16, 12:33 PM (ET)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to help identify potential nuclear, chemical and missile targets, The New Yorker magazine reported Sunday.

The article, by award-winning reporter Seymour Hersh, said the secret missions have been going on at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for three dozen or more suspected sites.

Hersh quotes one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon as saying, "The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible."

One former high-level intelligence official told The New Yorker, "This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next, we're going to have the Iranian campaign."

The White House said Iran is a concern and a threat that needs to be taken seriously. But it disputed the report by Hersh, who last year exposed the extent of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

"We obviously have a concern about Iran. The whole world has a concern about Iran," Dan Bartlett, a top aide to President Bush, told CNN's "Late Edition."

Of The New Yorker report, he said: "I think it's riddled with inaccuracies, and I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing are based on fact."

Bartlett said the administration "will continue to work through the diplomatic initiatives" to convince Iran -- which Bush once called part of an "axis of evil" -- not to pursue nuclear weapons.

"No president, at any juncture in history, has ever taken military options off the table," Bartlett added. "But what President Bush has shown is that he believes we can emphasize the diplomatic initiatives that are underway right now."

COMMANDO TASK FORCE

Bush has warned Iran in recent weeks against meddling in Iraqi elections.

The former intelligence official told Hersh that an American commando task force in South Asia is working closely with a group of Pakistani scientists who had dealt with their Iranian counterparts.

The New Yorker reports that this task force, aided by information from Pakistan, has been penetrating into eastern Iran in a hunt for underground nuclear-weapons installations.

In exchange for this cooperation, the official told Hersh, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has received assurances that his government will not have to turn over Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, to face questioning about his role in selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Hersh reported that Bush has already "signed a series of top-secret findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia."

Defining these as military rather than intelligence operations, Hersh reported, will enable the Bush administration to evade legal restrictions imposed on the CIA's covert activities overseas.
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050116/2005-01-16T173311Z_01_N16248289_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-IRAN-USA-NEWYORKER-DC.html

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Atlantic Myst
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posted January 19, 2005 08:06 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I think everyone should check out this thread

http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/004201.html


------------------
Cusp: Gemini/Cancer, Cancer rising, Taurus moon

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Petron
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posted January 19, 2005 09:37 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
yup i wouldnt consider deceptions by the government as "farfetched".....

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Petron
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posted January 19, 2005 09:38 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Saturday, October 23, 2004
International

‘Osama’s whereabouts known to US’

Reuters

CLAREMONT (CALIFORNIA), OCTOBER 22 The Pentagon knows exactly where Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan ,but is unable to get to him, John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission said on Wednesday.
Commissioner John Lehman’s remarks echoed those made on Tuesday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who asserted that bin Laden was in western Pakistan. bin Laden is living in South Waziristan in the Baluchistan region, Lehman told The San Bernardino Sun.

He added, ‘‘There is an American presence in the area, but we can’t just send in troops. If we did, we could have another Vietnam.’’

He said the region was filled with militant fundamentalists who did not recognise the legitimacy of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
http://www.indianexpress.com/print.php?content_id=57519

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Saffron
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posted January 20, 2005 04:12 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
oh very interesting.....what's an 'american presence'?

thanks for keeping us up to date.

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Petron
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posted January 20, 2005 11:33 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
well i suppose they mean the u.s. military who are just a few miles from there .....Pakistan does not permit U.S. military forces in Afghanistan to cross the border.... we must respect their " sovereignty" like saudi arabia......

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Atlantic Myst
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posted January 21, 2005 06:21 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
We've gotton ourselves into a considerable amount of trouble making deals with assorted devils.


I'd say we've gotten ourselves into trouble by not minding our own damn business and getting into other countries problems.


I'm pretty sure they see US if anyhting as devils anyways.

I say US because we are the ones who pay for it half the time.


Good day

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~*~ Cusp: Gemini/Cancer, Cancer rising, Taurus moon ~*~


Let's go...

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Petron
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posted March 13, 2005 01:00 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Turning a Blind Eye Again?
The Khan Network's History and Lessons for U.S. Policy
Leonard Weiss

Alittle more than one year ago, the world learned that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had provided nuclear-weapons-related technology to a number of countries, including North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Yet, the revelations could hardly have come as a surprise: the supply network was used by Pakistan over the past 25 years to obtain technology, components, and materials for its own nuclear weapons.

Far more remarkable was that, although Khan’s activities had been tracked by U.S. intelligence for more than two decades, little attempt had been made to roll up the network he created. Rather than focusing on this profound long-term strategic danger to national security, the United States had chosen to pursue short-term, tactical foreign policy gains with Pakistan.

This misguided policy approach continues today as the Bush administration has chosen to subordinate nonproliferation goals, including fully breaking apart the Khan network, to the short-term goal of building a relationship with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The president has also not proposed a long-term strategy to prevent a similar network from popping up in the future.

A Checkered History
The U.S.-Pakistani relationship has a checkered history: U.S. interests for most of Pakistan’s history have been driven by Cold War considerations, while Pakistan’s interests have been driven by fear of India and the fate of the contested province of Kashmir.

For the United States, Pakistan’s strategic geographical position in South Asia was an obstacle to Soviet access to the Arabian Sea and Moscow’s political designs in the Middle East generally. India, on the other hand, was more sympathetic to Moscow as India’s ruling party was ideologically oriented toward a socialist model of economic development. In 1954, the United States and Pakistan signed a mutual defense agreement. A year later, Pakistan acceded to the U.S.-backed South East Asia Treaty Organization as well as the Central Treaty Organization, formerly known as the Baghdad Pact. In 1959, a U.S.-Pakistani military cooperation agreement took effect.

By 1959, the Pakistani government had effectively ceded remote areas of its northern provinces to the CIA and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for the collection of intelligence on Soviet activities. From these facilities, the United States eavesdropped on Soviet nuclear facilities in Kazakhstan.[1] Secret bases in the Peshawar area were used for U-2 flights over the Soviet Union.[2] Despite this, U.S. relations with Pakistan were not stable. During and immediately after the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistani wars, the United States suspended military assistance to both sides, causing a cooling of the Pakistani-U.S. relationship.

Meanwhile, the USSR-China split and the Sino-Indo border war of 1962 created conditions for China and Pakistan to pursue a closer relationship, which flourished despite U.S. concerns. The relationship deepened as China provided assistance to Pakistan during the U.S. military embargo.[3]

U.S. assistance to Pakistan was restored in 1975 but was cut off again in 1979 when Pakistan imported nuclear enrichment and reprocessing technology following enactment of the Symington[4] and Glenn[5] amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act.

This cutoff did not last long. The mujahideen, a group of Islamic warriors, or jihadists, had taken up arms in revolt against the Soviet-backed Afghanistan government that was attempting to bring some secularization to Afghan society (via, e.g., a literacy campaign for girls, the banning of dowries for brides, and legislated freedom of choice in marriage). The United States saw this as an opportunity to destabilize the Communist government by covertly assisting the mujahideen through the Pakistani Intelligence Service (ISI). The presidential “finding” approving the covert program was signed in July 1979, and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December, rendering prescient a prediction made in writing by then-national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski to President Jimmy Carter that the Soviets would react in this way to the U.S. aid.[6] Once the invasion began, Brzezinski sent Carter another message on December 26, 1979, saying, “This will require a review of our policy toward Pakistan, more guarantees to it, and, alas, a decision that our security policy toward Pakistan cannot be dictated by our nonproliferation policy.”[7]

In addition to undercutting a key U.S. nonproliferation pillar, the assistance to the mujahideen also boosted Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, including the rise of the Taliban and al Qaeda. It was not the last time that an overemphasis on short-term, tactical foreign policy considerations would lead to long-term damage to U.S. national security.

Still, in the context of the Cold War, Carter’s policy was backed by much of the foreign policy establishment, including by President Ronald Reagan when he took office in 1981. The Reagan administration pushed through a $3.2 billion economic and military assistance package for Pakistan with a legislated six-year waiver of the sanctions against Pakistan for its nuclear violations. Such waivers were extended, and assistance for the mujahideen via Pakistan continued until the Soviets began to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1988.

The Origins of the Khan Network
During all of that time, the policy of assistance to the mujahideen was accompanied by a consciously adopted “blind eye” to the Pakistani nuclear program that allowed Khan to obtain all the technology, materials, and equipment needed to build nuclear weapons. In 1984, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Dean Hinton wrote in a classified evaluation letter on the work of CIA station chief Howard Hart, “Collection efforts on the Pakistani effort to develop nuclear weapons is amazingly resourceful and disturbing. I would sleep better if he and his people did not find out so much about what is really going on in secret and contrary to President Zia’s assurances to us.”[8]

The passage of laws in 1985 designed to sanction Pakistan if it was found either to possess the bomb (the Pressler amendment)[9] or attempt to export nuclear-weapon-related materials or equipment from the United States illegally (the Solarz amendment)[10] were rendered ineffective.[11]

To build his bomb, Khan initially stole centrifuge designs and a list of about 100 suppliers of centrifuge parts and materials from the URENCO uranium-enrichment facility in the Netherlands. From Pakistan, he began his shopping spree. He received materials from Africa and components and advanced machinery from Europe, with shipments and payments directed through the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The trade involved firms or agents in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa, Switzerland, and Turkey, among others. “They literally begged us to buy their equipment,” Khan said in a 2001 publication celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Kahuta laboratory that now bears his name.[12] Businessmen flocked to Pakistan to offer high-tech equipment for what they had to know was a Pakistani bomb program.

The United States was hardly unaware of this. The NSA was routinely intercepting faxes and telexes from high-tech firms in Germany and Switzerland looking for a Pakistani nuclear connection,[13] and they were aware of assistance coming from firms in Turkey. Indeed, dozens of démarches were issued to the Turkish government during the late 1970s and 1980s protesting ongoing shipments of electrical components—many of them made in the United States—to Pakistan. Turkey claimed that its export laws were insufficient to allow the government to interfere with such trade. After some time, Turkey passed a stronger export control law, but its enforcement was feeble. Additionally, the U.S. government refused to acknowledge the Turkish role officially because doing so would have required the cutoff of military assistance to an important NATO ally.

Warnings about the dangers of the Pakistani program were being constantly and publicly issued during this period, most prominently by Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio). In speeches, op-eds, and congressional testimony, Glenn warned that Pakistani nuclear weapons development, if not stopped, would lead to weapons technology finding its way to the Middle East, particularly to Iran.[14] It was a natural deduction to make: intelligence reports contained evidence of a Pakistani/Iranian nuclear cooperation agreement, and news reports quoted intelligence sources saying that Saudi Arabia and Libya were helping to finance the Pakistani bomb. These warnings had little effect on the Reagan or George H. W. Bush administrations, who did all they could to keep Congress in the dark about the details of the Pakistani program.

The Pressler amendment was not invoked until 1990, after the Soviets had left Afghanistan and despite intelligence that Pakistan had manufactured their first weapon nearly three years earlier. According to former deputy CIA director Richard Kerr, Pakistan had the bomb by 1987.[15] When then-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto visited the United States in 1989, she was told that the determination of “no possession” made that year would be the last one.[16]

Yet, there is little evidence that any of Khan’s suppliers were shut down at the time. Khan realized that he could use the network he had created, now also including Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure, to enable other countries with nuclear ambitions to obtain critical components and materials for their own weapon programs, with Pakistan (and Khan) reaping large rewards in the process.

Marketing Khan’s Wares
Khan established his laboratory’s technical bona fides by having his scientists publish papers and reports, beginning in the late 1980s, on the design, construction, and testing of centrifuges.[17] These papers contained just enough details to make them credible without providing a blueprint for others to replicate the Pakistan machines. It was at about that time that Iranian scientists began receiving training in Pakistan (1988) and assistance for Iran’s centrifuge program in 1989. The Khan laboratory began publishing brochures, distributed at arms fairs, advertising equipment for sale that was useful in the construction and operation of centrifuges, including vacuum devices to enable rotors to spin in relatively frictionless chambers.[18]

The Khan laboratory was not the only one, however, touting sales and delivery of equipment useful for nuclear-enrichment purposes. In 1999, following its nuclear-weapon tests the previous year, the Pakistani government put out its own advertisement of procedures for the export of nuclear equipment and components. The ad also listed equipment for sale, including “gas centrifuges and magnet baffles for the separation of uranium isotopes.”[19] Musharraf later stated that the Pakistani government was not aware of nuclear transfers arranged via Khan or his laboratory.

The ads had the desired effect. Other countries began viewing Pakistan as a source for building nuclear weapons. Khan was contacted and began selling off surplus centrifuges and components.[20] Shipments were sometimes made using official government cargo planes to middlemen in other countries, who were used to disguise the origin of the cargo. Khan later arranged for parts to be ordered through his middlemen and to be delivered directly from his network sources. The spectrum of supplies that could be provided by the network included older and advanced centrifuges, bomb design (based on the original Chinese design given to Pakistan in 1983), electronic components, and advanced materials. The network also provided logistical and technical assistance. The network involved suppliers or middlemen located in a dozen countries, including Turkey, Malaysia, the UAE, Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, Germany, Canada, South Africa, and Pakistan.

The sales were not only producing funds for support of Khan’s laboratory; they were also helping Pakistan in its development of missile capability, a program that was run out of the Khan laboratory as well. For years, North Korea had been selling missiles to Pakistan. Pakistan had been paying cash for the missiles but ran into a foreign currency reserves crunch around 1996.[21] At that point, it is believed, the North Koreans agreed to a barter transaction involving the provision of centrifuges in exchange for missiles. Khan has apparently made at least 13 visits to North Korea over the past decade that were known to U.S. intelligence.[22] Some reports suggest that North Korea and Iran (and Iraq prior to Operation Desert Storm) may have obtained uranium-melting information from Pakistan in the late 1980s.

In fact, Iran is believed to have been the first customer of Pakistan/Khan nuclear sales. A centrifuge sale took place around 1987, probably pursuant to the 1986 nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries. The precise origin of the Pakistani-Iranian nuclear connection is unclear and includes speculation that then-army chief Aslam Beg saw such cooperation as a way to finance Pakistan’s defense budget.[23] In any event, it apparently ended in the mid-1990s as a result of the civil war in Afghanistan.

Still, the help that Iran received from the Khan network, including advanced (P-2) centrifuge designs,[24] and the transfer of these and other technologies has helped lead to Iran’s emergence as a relatively near-term nuclear proliferation threat. In buying Khan’s wares, Iran took advantage of Article IV of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which made a just-under-the-threshold nuclear weapons program feasible and legal for an NPT signatory; facilitated a demand for nuclear-related components and equipment for such a program; and made it worthwhile for many high-tech companies, factories, and shippers to meet the demand.

Under Article IV, all states-parties to the NPT, including Iran and Libya, have the “inalienable right to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II.” Also, under Article IV, all states have “the right to participate in the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.” This language allows a party of the NPT in good standing to develop the means to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium—key nuclear weapons materials that also have civilian uses—and stockpile them without limit as long as they are placed under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

Iran clearly desires to develop a facility capable of manufacturing HEU and may plan to escape ultimately from the NPT by invoking Article X. That article allows a party’s withdrawal without penalty by giving three months’ notice and declaring, with an explanation, that “extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of the treaty, have jeopardized [its] supreme interests.” Iran, which has agreed under pressure to suspend its nuclear enrichment development, is in violation of its safeguards commitments by not having informed the IAEA of equipment and materials it had either received from Khan or produced indigenously. The IAEA has taken the position thus far that the violations are technical in nature, not yet calling for referral to the UN Security Council.

9/11 and the Khan Network
The exposure of the Khan network resulted from its dealings with Libya, which began in the early 1990s. In October 2003, a German cargo ship, the BBC China, was intercepted at sea on its way to Tripoli and brought to an Italian port, where its cargo of components for 1,000 high-speed centrifuges were confiscated. The parts were made in Malaysia and shipped through the Middle East. The subsequent investigation by the IAEA resulted in a decision by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to dismantle his illegal nuclear program and provide transparency to his interactions with the Khan network. Among the revelations was the startling fact that the Libyans had received an early Pakistani-Chinese nuclear weapon design, suggesting that weapon designs were now in play in the international nuclear black market.

Musharraf, under pressure from the United States, forced Khan to “retire” but still pardoned him for his transgressions. Musharraf has refused to make Khan available for interrogation, but some have suggested that, as a quid pro quo for U.S. forbearance, Pakistan may have passed back some information to the U.S. government concerning the Khan network’s assistance to Iran and perhaps elsewhere.[25]

According to a briefing given to Pakistani journalists on February 1, 2004, by Lieutenant General Khalid Kidwai, commander of Pakistan’s Strategic Planning and Development Cell, Khan signed a 12-page confession in which he admitted to providing Iran, Libya, and North Korea with technical assistance and components for making high-speed centrifuges used to produce enriched uranium.[26] In addition, according to three of the 20 Pakistani journalists who attended the briefing, Khan was defending himself by saying that he was pressured to sell nuclear technologies by two (now deceased) individuals associated with Bhutto,[27] that nuclear assistance to Iran was approved by then-army chief Beg, and that the deal with North Korea was supported by two former army chiefs, one of whom is now Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States.[28] Musharraf has also served as army chief. An independent interrogation of Khan and an investigation by the IAEA should be carried out to verify these claims.

Also requiring further investigation are the serious indications of possible nuclear collaboration involving Khan with Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt[29] and visits by Khan and his associates to Chad, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, and Sudan. Much more precise information is also needed regarding the trafficking routes used by Khan’s network for deliveries. Sea routes were used to deliver centrifuge components to Libya and Iran. Both sea and air were used to deliver missiles from North Korea to Pakistan, and both land and air were used to send uranium-enrichment equipment from Pakistan to North Korea.[30] The extent of available routes makes tracking such shipments a daunting task.

The reach of the Khan network in today’s technological environment strongly suggests that the arrests and administrative actions taken by various governments have not fully shut down the network or made it impossible to reconstitute interrupted sources of supply. We have also yet to draw appropriate lessons from the history of our involvement with Pakistan and the Khan network.

Lessons Not Learned
Khan’s downfall came soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led to a renewed U.S. relationship with Pakistan. When the United States decided to bring down the Taliban government for hosting Osama bin Laden, it turned to its old friends in Pakistan who had long provided the Taliban with crucial assistance. Under U.S. pressure, Musharraf reversed course and supported the U.S.-led military operation against his former allies.

That move and Musharraf’s current assistance in the hunt for bin Laden has resulted in his being amply rewarded. He has received the lifting of all nonproliferation sanctions and the beginning of a multibillion-dollar aid program, despite his refusal to give up Khan to the IAEA for interrogation. Even another case of a Pakistani agent allegedly attempting to smuggle nuclear-related electronic components out of the United States has had no effect on our current cozy relationship with Musharraf, who presides over a military containing elements friendly to Islamic revolutionary fundamentalism. It is the “blind eye” redux, but with the Cold War replaced by the war on terrorism. Of course, this time there is an added peril: who will gain control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons should Musharraf fall?

One lesson we should have learned from the history of our relations with Pakistan is that taking nonproliferation off the table in favor of pursuing other foreign policy goals may not help you achieve those goals, but will almost certainly result in proliferation. That does not mean that engagement with proliferators or potential proliferators is to be avoided. Rather, it means that engagement should be pursued with an objective of preventing, halting, or at least capping proliferation.

Although each case of proliferation has its own unique elements that must inform both bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, if a “norm” is to be respected, there should be consequences for a proliferator if all attempts at diplomacy have failed. This is the most obvious gap in the nonproliferation system: there is no international consensus on the penalties to which a proliferator ought to be subjected. Pakistan has escaped significant penalties despite its horrific proliferation record.

Being able to catch potential proliferators may be of little consequence if there is no agreement on what to do afterward, but catching proliferators early is also crucial if there is to be an effective nonproliferation regime. That requires an integrated, worldwide, intelligence operation, with a substantial human intelligence capability.

An effective regime also requires constant review and improvement of export controls. The Khan network has made it imperative that export controls be applied to smaller specialized components than is currently the case. This evolution is particularly important in the case of fuel cycle facilities.

Khan’s ties with Iran and other countries point to another necessary remedy: the need to establish a new global norm regarding the use of nuclear energy. A new nuclear compact along that line should state that all new, major nuclear facilities are to be multinationally owned and operated. This is not as radical as it may seem; indeed, the Acheson-Lilienthal recommendations on nuclear control right after World War II proposed international ownership of the most dangerous nuclear facilities.[31] More recently, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei has proposed an idea along this line but limited to new fuel-cycle and waste disposal facilities.[32] Nuclear reactors themselves would not be included in his proposal.

President George W. Bush has a different proposal to limit fuel cycle facilities. In a Feb. 11, 2004, speech, he proposed a ban on assistance by members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group for the construction of new enrichment and reprocessing facilities in countries not currently possessing such plants.[33] He did not back this up with a proposal for sanctions against those suppliers who would violate such a ban.

In his remarks, Bush also called on nuclear exporters to ensure that states have reliable access at reasonable cost to civilian nuclear fuel if they renounce enrichment and reprocessing. It is unclear if Bush is aware that one version of this proposal has been part of U.S. law for more than 25 years. Title I of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act (NNPA) of 1978 calls on the president to work with other countries to create an International Nuclear Fuel Authority (INFA) to guarantee nuclear enrichment services to non-nuclear-weapon states that agree not to build enrichment and reprocessing plants. There is some irony here because it has been reported that the president is opposed to the idea of international consortia in this arena.[34]

The president proclaimed correctly that “enrichment and reprocessing are not necessary for nations seeking to harness nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.” Further, the administration has supported crafting a treaty, albeit without verification measures, to cut off production of fissile material for weapons. (See ACT, September 2004.) Neither Bush nor his aides, however, have called for a universal fissile material cutoff treaty that would end production of those materials in military and civilian facilities. Nor has Bush said that the United States should seek to amend its nuclear agreements with other countries to bar the reprocessing of U.S.-origin spent fuel for plutonium extraction.

A sensible extension of the president’s remarks about fuel cycle facilities would be to propose that nations should only seek nuclear energy when it is cost-effective for them to do so. This suggests that, instead of the Atoms for Peace program, which formed the foundation of the NPT, it would be more sensible from a security standpoint to begin an “Energy for Peace” program that would include cooperative assistance in energy planning to help determine the best, most efficient mix of energy technologies for individual countries. This idea was also made part of U.S. law in Title V of the NNPA but, as with an INFA, has yet to be implemented. Under an “energy for peace” philosophy, nuclear energy would only be used if it competed economically with alternative sources, taking into account environmental and other costs, including security.

Ultimately, the best insurance against the emergence of future Khan networks is the elimination of nations’ motivations for seeking nuclear weapons. The president stated that nuclear weapons “will not bring security or international prestige.” That is unfortunately not the way many view those weapons, including many in the president’s own administration, but the elimination of nuclear weapons is an appropriate goal to pursue. The nuclear-weapon states could take the first steps by a more forceful implementation of their own commitments under the NPT to make good faith efforts toward nuclear disarmament.

ENDNOTES

1. Seymour Hersh, “On the Nuclear Edge,” The New Yorker, March 29, 1993.

2. Ibid.

3. Jamshed Nazar, “A History of U.S.-Pakistan Relations,” Chowk, November 22, 2004.

4. The 1976 Symington amendment provided that any non-nuclear-weapon state importing or exporting unsafe, guarded enrichment materials, equipment, or technology would be prohibited from receiving U.S. economic or military assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act or the Arms Export Control Act. Pakistan’s importation of unsafeguarded nuclear materials and equipment for its Kahuta enrichment facility triggered the cutoff of U.S. assistance.

5. The 1977 Glenn amendment extended the Symington prohibitions and penalties to the import or export of reprocessing technology, materials, or equipment by a non-nuclear-weapon state regardless of whether safeguards are attached. It also prohibited the explosion of a nuclear device. Pakistan was in violation of this amendment as well. Both amendments contained presidential waiver authority, but the conditions for exercise of the waiver under the Symington amendment required the receipt of “reliable assurances” that no nuclear weapon was being developed. As a result, legislation was required to allow a waiver for Pakistan, whose assurances were not deemed reliable.

6. Brzezinski revealed this in a 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur.

7. See Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden (New York: Penguin Press, 2004).

8. Ibid.

9. The Pressler amendment required that, in order for Pakistan to receive economic or military assistance in any fiscal year, the president had to certify a priori that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear explosive device and that the U.S. assistance program would reduce significantly the risk that Pakistan would possess such a device. Pakistan’s continued progress on the bomb in the face of U.S. assistance meant that it was in violation of the Pressler amendment from the first subsequent delivery of U.S. assistance, but the Department of State essentially refused to implement the law, insisting that there was no difference between the “possession” test and the “risk” test. This refusal continued until the Soviets left Afghanistan.

10. The Solarz amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act prohibited military and economic assistance to any non-nuclear-weapon state that illegally exports or attempts to export nuclear-related items from the United States that would contribute significantly to the ability of that state to manufacture a nuclear explosive device. A presidential waiver of penalties was included.

11. When a Pakistani agent was caught violating the Solarz amendment, President Ronald Reagan imposed the penalty and then immediately issued another waiver to remove it. In another case, the violator was treated as if he was an independent contractor with no connection to the Pakistani government, despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary.

12. William J. Broad, David E. Sanger, and Raymond Bonner, “A Tale of Nuclear Proliferation: How Pakistani Built His Network,” The New York Times, February 12, 2004.

13. Hersh, “On the Nuclear Edge.”

14. See John Glenn, “Pakistan’s Bomb and the Mujahedin,” The Washington Post, November 4, 1987.

15. Hersh, “On the Nuclear Edge.”

16. Ibid.

17. David E. Sanger, “The Khan Network,” Paper presented at the Conference on South Asia and the Nuclear Future, CISAC, Stanford University, June 4, 2004.

18. Ibid.

19. Sharon Squassoni, “Weapons of Mass Destruction: Trade Between North Korea and Pakistan,” CRS Report for Congress, RL31900, May 7, 2003.

20. Broad, Sanger, and Bonner, “A Tale of Nuclear Proliferation.”

21. Squassoni, “Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

22. Seymour Hersh, “The Cold Test,” The New Yorker, January 27, 2003.

23. Gaurav Kampani, “Proliferation Unbound: Nuclear Tales From Pakistan,” Report for Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute for International Studies, February 23, 2004.

24. International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors, “Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Report by the Director General,” GOV/2004/83, November 15, 2004.

25. See Seymour Hersh, “The Coming Wars,” The New Yorker, January 24 and 31, 2005.

26. John Lancaster and Kamran Khan, “Musharraf Named in Nuclear Probe,” The Washington Post, February 3, 2004.

27. David Rohde, “Pakistanis Question Official Ignorance of Atom Transfers,” The New York Times, February 2, 2004.

28. Lancaster and Khan, “Musharraf Named in Nuclear Probe.”

29. Christopher Clary, “A.Q. Khan and the Limits of the Nonproliferation Regime,” The Disarmament Forum, 2004.

30. Andrew Prosser, “Nuclear Trafficking Routes: Dangerous Trends in Southern Asia,” Center for Defense Information, Washington, DC, November 22, 2004.

31. “Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy,” Washington, DC, March 16, 1946.

32. Mohamed ElBaradei, “In Search of Security: Finding an Alternative to Nuclear Deterrence,” Presented at CISAC, Stanford University, November 4, 2004.

33. Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, “President Announces New Measures to Counter the Threat of WMD,” February 11, 2004.

34. See Carla A. Robbins, “Nuclear Nonproliferation Effort Snags,” The Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2005.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leonard Weiss has worked on nonproliferation issues and legislation for nearly 30 years as a consultant and former staff director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. He was a chief architect of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act of 1978.
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2005_03/Weiss.asp

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Petron
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posted May 07, 2005 01:58 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

Plot to kill Musharraf 'smashed'
Saturday 07 May 2005, 6:35 Makka Time, 3:35 GMT

Pakistan has interrogated a number of al-Qaida suspects including the network's alleged third in command after security officials said they had smashed a new plot to kill President Pervez Musharraf.

Intelligence agents seized seven conspirators in central Punjab province in late April, around a week before the capture on Monday of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, allegedly a key aide of Osama bin Laden, officials said on Saturday.

The Libyan, accused by military leader Musharraf of masterminding two earlier attempts to blow him up in December 2003 because of his support for the US-led "war on terror", had links with the assassination plotters, they added.

"This is a spectacular achievement by Pakistan's security agency," said one top security official. "First we smashed the gang plotting a new attack on Musharraf and then a week later we netted two Arabs including al-Libbi."

Officials said the suspects involved in the latest bid were headed by a Pakistani al-Qaida fighter freed from prison in Afghanistan named Muhammad Arshad, who is an associate of al-Libbi.

Key plotter

Also among them was junior air official Mushtaq Ahmad, who escaped from jail last November after being sentenced to death for a key role in one of the earlier attempts on Musharraf's life.

He was recaptured last week.

"The group was planning a new attack on President Musharraf in Rawalpindi or Islamabad. They had assembled the explosive devices and they were to use them adopting a new method," the intelligence official said, without giving details.

The plot was revealed when security agencies arrested Ahmad, the official said.

"Mushtaq Ahmed was an important part of the group and we understand that the group's leader was in contact with al-Libbi," the official added.

A security official said it was possible al-Libbi's arrest in Mardan town in North West Frontier Province was based on intelligence gleaned from those arrested in Punjab.

Afghans held

The identity of the other Arab had not been established but he appeared to be a mid-level operator, he added.

Ten Afghans were also picked up.


Abu Faraj al-Libbi is believed to
have been a key bin Laden aide

In December 2003 anti-Musharraf elements blew up a road bridge moments after he passed and then two weeks later on Christmas Day car bombers ploughed into his motorcade in the same area, killing 15 people.

Ahmad was convicted of a role in the first attack in November and escaped from military custody soon afterwards. Security forces arrested him on a tip-off last week on a bus south of Islamabad.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Friday the interrogation of al-Libbi was "proceeding well", while another security official said he was being questioned to get more leads on his accomplices.

Al-Libbi took over al-Qaida operations in Pakistan after the arrest in March 2003 of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the key planner of the September 11 attacks and the network's former number three, officials said.


Reuters

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