Bin Laden met nuke scientists -- 'Nuclear bazaar' story out of Pakistan gets more bizarre

Worldnetdaily ^ | 2.8.2004 | Joseph Farah

[DoctorZIn]

WASHINGTON – As the Pakistani nuclear proliferation story widens, U.S. intelligence officials say top atomic scientists from that country met with Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar in Afghanistan.

Two former senior Pakistani nuclear scientists who were based in the Afghan town of Kandahar met Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden several times before the fall of the Taliban. They were later detained and questioned on their return to Pakistan.

Last week, after it became clear that Pakistan was the center of what has become known internationally as the "nuclear bazaar," President Pervez Musharraf agreed to pardon nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan for selling the country's nuclear secrets to Libya, North Korea and Iran.

Because Pakistan is perceived to be central to the U.S. war on terror, the reaction in Washington has been low-key.

"This is a matter between Dr. Khan, who is a Pakistani citizen, and his government," said Secretary of State Colin Powell to reporters outside the United Nations. "But it is a matter also that I'll be talking to President Musharraf about."

Bush administration officials have expressed satisfaction with Musharraf's guarantees that the country's nuclear proliferation will now come to an end.

A top defector from North Korea says that country's uranium-based nuclear weapons program was launched in 1996 under a deal with Pakistan. In addition, Pakistan stationed other nuclear scientists in Iran to help that country develop its nuclear weapons program.

Pakistan says the presidential pardon to the top nuclear scientist over his admission to have proliferated nuclear technology to three foreign countries is subject to set of a "comprehensive conditions" – but those conditions have not been revealed publicly.

The pardon even allows Khan to keep the vast wealth he accumulated by developing Pakistan's nuclear weapons and from selling the technology to other countries – including several rogue nations. Khan is believed to have earned millions of dollars from his sale of nuclear know-how, beginning in the late 1980s. Much of the money was funneled through bank accounts in the Middle East. His assets include four houses in Islamabad worth an estimated $2.8 million, a villa on the Caspian Sea, a luxury hotel in Mali and a valuable collection of vintage cars.

Khan, 69, last week made a televised confession of his wrongdoing after government investigators confronted him. Despite being granted a pardon, he is under house arrest and forbidden to give interviews.

In addition to selling nuclear technology to Iran and North Korea, Khan also offered Saddam Hussein a design for a nuclear weapon in 1990, according to a document seized by U.N. weapons inspectors. Later he made a deal with Libya.

[the invisib1e hand]

Well, we KNOW they haven't got a bomb now, or they would have used it already.

I'm not sure that's true. I have a hunch that they do have a bomb...

[Alas Babylon!]

I think this happened in the far future....

[DoctorZIn]

Report: Al-Qaida has obtained tactical nuclear explosives

By Haaretz Service

Al-Qaida has obtained tactical nuclear explosive devices that can fit inside a suitcase, Israel Radio reported Sunday night citing the Al-Hayat newspaper.

According to the Arabic daily based in London, the devices are not intended for use, except in the event that the existence of the organization is threatened.

The report said that members of Osama bin Laden's group purchased the devices from Ukrainian scientists who sell them to anyone willing to pay the price.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/392006.html

[okie01]

"But they aim to overthrow Mushafaff (And his base is very shaky) and take over the pak nooks. We've gotta head them off at the pass NOW and eliminate the slamic bomb. Yeah, I know we're already in deep but Pak poses a bigger threat than Irq. I dunno how Bush can handle it, but I'm hoping that in his second term he takes care of the Pak problem like he's done with the Irq and Libyan problems."

There are credible rumors that we have already secured the Pak nukes and they are now under joint control.

The Bush administration has been very calm about them -- the point of seeming unconcerned. That can only mean one thing: we know where they are, and we know nobody else can get to them.

The government of India also seems very relaxed. Another key indicator...

[patriciamary]

HE OFFERED DID HE TAKE? WHY TO THEY SAY OFFERED?

[piasa]

I don't know. Most likely, because they have no word from the Iraqi side of it until we manage to find the documents relevent to the issue among all the burned and or drowned documents, translate them and so on. Hussein killed people who knew- and his fedeyeen continue to try to kill anyone who talks, such as the scientists who were talking with Kay. and until we find the designs in Iraq, we cannot say for sure Iraq's more recent centrifuge technology was the same as Khan's. The last centrifuge Iraq had- besides the older one found in the scientist's rose garden- was a German one which inspectors found in December 1998 right before Operation Desert Fox.

The reason we know Iran's and Libya's are based on Khan's because both are talking to the us at this time. We can assume North Korea's is as well since we know about the deal between Pakistan and North Korea- North Korea provided the missiles to Pakistan and Pakistan in turn gave them the centrifuge designs.

I suspect we won't talk too much about Iraq until the US hands over the reigns to a new Iraqi government. Discovery of Iraq WMD would bring the UN into Iraq by treaty- one we signed and would have to abide by. We really don't want the UN in Iraq as boss of the investigation, as the UN is trying to cover its own butt there already after the boondoggle of an Oil-for-Food program. The UN leaks and has a huge conflict of interest, and it would interfere with a serious investigation into al Qaeda and ANO. Had we brought the UN into it immediately, and if there is a connection between Khan and the Iraqi program, it might have messed up our tracking down of who all dealt with Khan- a likely problem since those same nations are in the UN and would get info on the investigation before we are ready to spring it on them.

Iraq might have turned them down in favor of trying to purchase uranium which was already enriched. Iraq also had an old but suitable Brazilian/German centrifuge design thanks to a guy who was convicted a while back in Germany.

I DO notice the rather remarkable fact that almost all articles relating to khan go to lengths to ignore the possibility he dealt with Iraq. This is the only one which I've seen which brings up that he did talk to Iraq.

[piasa]

I have also noticed - actually it sort of gets in a person's face- that there are a lot of very desperate people trying to claim Iraq didn't have a viable nuke program nor an intention to restart one.

One example is the shrillness and misinformation out there on the business of the aluminum tubes mentioned by Powell.

(The Libyans for example, tried the high strength aluminum tube method before jumping onto Khan's newer model, one which uses a special steel not as subject to corrosion as the former. Yet Libya had quite a shop full of aluminum left over from their R&D nuke efforts.) Here are some letters to the editor responding to the Wash Post writer Gelman, who had nearly wet his pants with glee claiming aluminum tubes referred to by Powell were not for use in a nuclear program. Of course, he managed to mischaracterize, mislead and misquote in an effort to make his point, as the letters to the editor from kay and General Meekin point out here:

Definitely worth a look here:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49199-2003Oct31.html

Note that the Washington Post made a number of HUGE errors in regard to Iraqi WMD and David Kay's investigation besides the aluminum issue.

[Athwart]

What do you think, Doctor, if Bush had not decided to take out both the Taliban and Saddam, would Musharraf have been able to get enough of his military and intelligence to work with him to expose and stop Khan?

You asked him, not me, but I think it goes way beyond that:

(1) I'm betting Musharref knew about the nuke sales. Why do you think Khan has been pardoned and allowed to keep his loot? So he'll have a good reason not to say, as a friend of his reported he told him, that his superiors knew about his activities.

(2) No way did Musharref voluntarily initiate the prosecution of Khan, a "national hero." There's another thread somewhere about how the U.S. came to him with clear proof and demanded action. We're keeping this low-key so as to give Musharref a plausible lie about it being an entirely internal matter, but this was a U.S. operation all the way.

(3) No way would Pakistan have acted unless they were terrified that the U.S. might take them out if they didn't. I'm betting that after 9/11, and a good look at the strategic map, we went to them and said: you want to be a friend regime, or an enemy regime? Afghanistan and Iraq gave them a good look at the fate of an enemy regime.

Now, try to imagine how much of this would have happened if Gore had been President. Or Kerry. This alone is enough to give Bush my vote.

[Smogger]

Well, we KNOW they haven't got a bomb now, or they would have used it already

Highly illogical, and pollyanish.

We HOPE they don't have the bomb.

[Consort]

Assume that they have one.

[Polycarp IV]

He has risked unleashing nuclear weapons by putting them within reach of unstable regimes, and has SOLD STATE SECRETS without any serious repurcussions. Unless, of course, he was authorized to share the nuclear technology all along, particularly in order to receive missile technology and parts form N Korea.

That was my thought from the start; it seems the only sane conclusion.

[PISANO]

Well let's connect the dots! No, let's don't we 'might' be wrong, but if we don't we might miss a nuke nightmare, but if we are wrong we will upset the press corps and the Socialists of America.

Never mind let's have another INVESTIGATION, so we can get further and further away from 911 so that the country can forget!!

[eddiespaghetti]

There are credible rumors that we have already secured the Pak nukes and they are now under joint control.

Is there any info. on that in print?

es

[Cronos]

Well, either way, the best course of action is to move into Pak, get all the nooks there -- I guess they would be there either in Pak or alQ hands (they couldn't really transport them north or east and to the west Iran might have been a bit leery)

[Cronos]

Unless, of course, he was authorized to share the nuclear technology all along, particularly in order to receive missile technology and parts form N Korea.

Ahhh, now we get the picture. But haven't we known this since 1998? And why are we still letting this rogue state Pak still retain it's nukes?

[Cronos]

Everybody in this article is talking about how Pakistan is in the middle of all this. Who gave Pakistan their nuclear technology? China. All roads lead to China in this whole sordid affair. China probably figured that Pakistan would be more than happy to nuke the USA by using merchant ships as the delivery platform. I'm betting Sept. 11th was supposed to be the opening tap on the shoulder. Lousy China, we should level those bastards.

Quite correct. The Chinese are playing an old game (Sun-Tzu's disciples). They're bleeding their enemies indirectly -- by arming Pakistan they've made a two bit state a perpetual drain on india -- the future rival they fear. And they've also got a weapon to wield against the West -- by making us focus on these 7th century barbarians they hope to make their economy number 1 and then move in for the kill, oh, about 2050.

[Cronos]

No worries, Pakistan is an ally, and Musharaf has complete control of the nukes and all associated programs and materials.

you forgot the </sarcasm tag. Mush may be secular (or he may be putting up an act), but who's to guarantee his slamofascist army? Many fought with the talibs and trained them. I doubt he has control over all his nukes -- Khan's proof he doesn't. And when he goes (and he WILL be bumped off soon), all H*** will break loose.

[Cronos]

We are improving the security for Pack bombs and other necessities to ensure that others don't get control of them.

If "improving the security" is a euphemism for "they are under US control in all but name" then I'm okay with that. Any other option is suicide for the USA.