Posted on 05/13/2006 7:40:09 PM PDT by familyop
In the first such revelation of its kind, US intelligence has said that the network headed by Pakistani scientist AQ Khan had offered and supplied nuclear weapons technology to Syria.
The startling disclosure was made in the 'Intelligence Report to Congress,' which said that Pakistani investigators had confirmed reports from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Khan's network 'offered nuclear technology and hardware' to Syria.
This is for the first time that Bush administration publicly linked Syria to Pakistan via Khan network. So far, it has been saying that the network supplied nuclear materials and goods to only Libya, Iran and North Korea.
Syria maintains nuclear facilities in three places - Dayr, Al Hajar and Dubaya, said the '721 Report', named after a law that requires intelligence establishment to report to Congress about acquisitions of weapons of mass destruction and advanced conventional munitions by various countries.
The report covered the period of 2004, but its release was delayed by the new Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said as US newspaper.
"We are concerned that expertise of technology could have been transferred. We continue to monitor Syrian nuclear intentions with concern," said the intelligence report.
"In 2004, Syria continued to develop nuclear capabilities, including uranium extraction technology and hot cell facilities which may also be potentially applicable to a weapons programme," it said.
I don't think Syria has enough resources or talent to make the bomb. They don't even have enough territory to hide the factories... not even mentioning a certain neighbor who will make sure it won't happen. On Syria's part it would be just a waste of money, they surely understand that.
It's time for the CIA to arrange a little 'accident' for him. Ooops we don't do that anymore. Pity.
L
Israel would have absolutely no trouble taking care of this particular threat.
Horizontal proliferation among Muslim countries will ensure a larger sized collective nuclear arsenal that can be used against common "enemies of the Islamic world", countries like Israel or India, and can also provide the strategic depth (to protect their weapons programs and stockpile) and the geographical reach to deploy nuclear warheads (with limited range) close to their target.
Very soon it will become a chain reaction as one by one Muslim countries will unite to become nuclear powers. Not only will the Islamic world assume greater political clout and resort of a global nuclear blackmail, the risk of nuclear terrorism will increase greatly.
Further to this, an article from
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1528897.cms
Pak nukes meant only for India
By Chidanand Rajghatta/TNN
Washington: It does not matter who attempts to take out Pakistan’s nuclear assets — US, Israel or any other country — Pakistan will attack India in retaliation. This bizarre, hair-trigger nuclear stance is central to Pakistan’s deterrence theory and was conveyed to New Delhi by Islamabad when it suspected India and Israel of collaborating to take out its nuke assets, a top retired Pakistani general has revealed.
Gen Mirza Afzal Beg, Pakistan’s former army chief recalled Islamabad’s India-centric nuclear policy to AP’s Kathy Gannon while relating how he had given similar advice to Iran in dealing with American pressure on its nuclear programme: no matter who attacks, aim for Israel. “We told India frankly (through an emissary) that this is the threat we perceive and this is the action we are taking and the action we will take. It was a real deterrent,’’ Gannon quoted Beg as telling the Iranians about the time when Pakistan was paranoid about an India-Israel nexus.
Beg said he suggested the Iranian government “make it clear that if anything happens to Iran, if anyone attacks it — it doesn’t matter who it is or how it is attacked —that Iran’s answer will be to hit Israel; the only target will be Israel.’’
While Pakistan’s hair-trigger nuclear posture has long been known to Indian planners, the latest revelations about targeting India for any misfortunes to its nuclear assets will doubtless force a reassessment in India’s own ‘no-first-use’ nuclear stance. For instance, what happens if US decides to take out Pakistan’s nukes?
Can India stand-by and be a fall-guy for an American adventure? Beg also said he also advised Iran to “attempt to degrade the defence systems of Israel’’, harass it through the Hamas government of the Palestinian Authority and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, broadly the same policy Pakistan adopted towards India in Kashmir.
Gannon, a Canadian journalist who had been AP correspondent in Pakistan and Afghanistan for 18 years, said the interview took place “several weeks” before the recent threatening exchanges between Iran and Israel.
Gannon recently released her first book I is for Infidel: From Holy War to Holy Terror, an account of her years in the region, and the Beg interview appears to be a result of the many close contacts she developed over the years.
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