Posted on 02/08/2004 9:51:40 AM PST by Dog
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan was left with no option but to institute a swift and thorough investigation into the alleged connections between a few Pakistani nuclear scientists headed by Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan with the nuclear black market, when it was provided ‘mind boggling’ evidence by the top United States government officials, who arrived in Islamabad to meet top military leadership in the first week of October last year, informed officials said.
The government machinery swung into full action when two weeks later the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) not only fully endorsed the US findings, but also in a two-page letter to the government of Pakistan demanded probe and action against a few Pakistani scientists, two senior Pakistani officials confirmed in separate interviews.
"The US government, in order to emphasise the importance of the evidence of nuclear proliferation against Pakistani scientists, used the usual diplomatic channels and at the same time the military channel was used at the highest level," an informed official said.
October 6, 2003 was the crucial day on the subject. On this day the US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary of State (South Asia) Christina Rocca, loaded with intelligence information against Dr A Q Khan and a few other nuclear scientists, called on President Pervez Musharraf at the Army House in Rawalpindi and requested an independent verification, followed by a stern action against the scientists named in the report, an official said.
"We were told that Pakistan’s failure to take action will most certainly jeopardise ties of the country with the US and other important nations," an official said. "Nuclear proliferation has taken place either you as a country take the responsibility or let the world know if it was an act of some individuals," said the official summarising the message carried by the Armitage-Rocca team.
Underlining the importance and severity of the issue, the US Central Command chief Lt-Gen John Abizaid also arrived in Islamabad for an October 6 meeting with President Musharraf, also at the Army House. Another informed official said that Lt-Gen Abizaid stressed the need for a swift action against the nuclear scientists in separate meetings with other top military officials, including the Vice-Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Yusuf Khan.
To get the maximum out of their meetings, Armitage and Rocca, who were earlier scheduled to arrive on October 2, advanced their trip to October 5 so that their meetings with President Musharraf coincide with the Centcom chief’s meeting, who landed in Rawalpindi on October 5, one senior official said. Senior officials said that the Pentagon had better ties with Pakistani military establishment than any other arm of the US government.
"Whenever there is an important geo-strategic development in the region, the Centcom gets in touch with the GHQ," commented a senior official.
Two senior officials said that the US government, for its own reasons, didn’t brief Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali on the findings against the nuclear scientists, though the premier had visited the US during the same week and had meetings with President George Bush and at the Pentagon.
"This was the most important development for us since 9/11," a senior official said. "For one more time the ball was in the court of General Musharraf."
Officials said that the ‘incredible evidence’ collected by the US intelligence services detailed almost all foreign travels of Dr A Q Khan, particularly to the UAE, Malaysia, Libya, Iran and North Korea in the previous few years. Minute details of his meetings with active nuclear black marketers were provided, and documents were given to prove the sale of nuclear hardware and designs to many countries. Bank accounts establishing the profits made through this sale were also handed to Pakistan authorities.
"It seemed that the Americans had a tracker planted on Dr A Q Khan’s body," said a Pakistani official. "They had perfect information on Dr Khan’s abortive attempt to sell nuclear secrets to Saddam Hussain in 1992 and for his travel to Beirut in mid-1990s for a clandestine meeting with a top Syrian government official. They know much more than us about Dr Khan’s wealth spread all over the globe," he said.
"Things got worse when the IAEA stepped in with officially certified statements from Tehran and Tripoli, where the governments were happy to acknowledge Pakistani assistance to their nuclear programme," another senior official said.
"Both, the US government and the IAEA, separately reminded to Pakistan that its failure to pin the responsibly of proliferation activity may ultimately lead to sanctions from the US government and the United Nations," another official said.
At least three Pakistani officials said that despite ‘receiving apparently indisputable evidence’ against Dr A Q Khan and a few other scientists, President Musharraf ordered the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Strategic Planning and Development (SPD) cell to independently verify each shred of information that had reached Pakistan either from the US or the IAEA.
"Top ISI officials travelled to relevant countries and found that the evidence was accurate," an official said. "Dr Khan’s associates in the country provided the details of corruption and malpractice that were not even available to the outside world."
Informed officials said that the US government presented its full case against the nuclear scientists in October, but twice in the past four years they had notified Pakistan about suspicious activities of nuclear scientists.
"Fairly strong reports were received in November 2000 and in May 2003 when Armitage came to Islamabad to inform us about the reasons behind the American decision to impose sanctions against the Khan Research Labs in March 2003," an official said.
In his annual address at the George Town University the Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet said on Thursday: "Last year in my annual World Wide Threat testimony before Congress in open session, I talked about the emerging threat from private proliferators, especially nuclear brokers. I was cryptic about this in public, but I can tell you now that I was talking about A Q Khan. His network was shaving years off the nuclear weapons development timelines of several states including Libya. Now, as you know from the news coming out of Pakistan, Khan and his network have been dealt with a crushing blow, with several of his senior officers in custody."
Tenet further said: "His network is now answering to the world for years of nuclear profiteering. What did intelligence have to do with this? First, we discovered the extent of Khan’s hidden network. We tagged the proliferators. We detected the network stretching from Pakistan to Europe to the Middle East to Asia, offering its wares to countries like North Korea and Iran."
That should be an understatement.
BTW, this is unnamed sources from HiPakistan.
I only post what I find..
I'm not being critical of you posting this. I'm just adding some context to the article-- that's all.
Shoot, what is more important right now than trying to figure what is going on in Pakistan and I commend you for trying to do that.
This may even be true.
Hmmm...now that's an interesting little tidbit of information.
Sounds like U.S. intel has learned something about Jamali that makes them question where his true loyalties might actually lie. The sophistication of the recent assassination attempts on Musharraf's life only highlighted the degree to which the upper echelons of his government are riddled with Islamist sympathizers conspiring to overthrow him. As a member of the pro-government PML(Q) party (as opposed to the collection of Islamist radicals that make up the MMA party), Jamali would seem to be above suspicion, yet something about him triggered this unusual response by the U.S.
--Boot Hill
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