Abdul Qadeer Khan: We've not yet seen all the fallout of Pakistan's nuclear proliferation.

Wall St Journal ^ | 2-17-04 | BERNARD HENRI LEVY

[Valin]

Did you see Charlie Rose last night?

[af_vet_1981]

To put it simply and disconcertingly: Pakistan's nuclear weapons need to be secured. They cannot -- will not -- be secured by Pakistan alone.

The French observer is correct.

[Mitchell]

Another Pakistan ping.

[Cold Heart]

Btt

[Cap Huff]

Maybe it has already happened:

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/09/wpak109.xml

The story is dated 13 Feb 2004 but filed on the 9th. On Wednesday/Thursday there was a visit that some unnamed sources said by Tenet.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1077316/posts?page=15#15

That secret visit is also refered to in a Sgt Schultz "I know nothing" comment here:

http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/Feb-2004/14/MAIN/top11.asp

[swarthyguy]

IMO, a corollary of mutual interest between Saudi, Pak, USA and various Gulf States, is that under no event whatsoever, will this be allowed to lead into the BCCI scandal.

No one's hands are clean, BCCI corrupted and bribed too many senior officials across the American spectrum for any trail to be exposed.

[philosofy123]

For many years the Arabs were so happy with Islamic bomb in Pakistan. Arab leaders like Quaddafi had even funded the development of such weapon in Pakistan simply because it is Moslem country. The US and the West have never looked at any country on a religion basis. On the other hand, the Moslems do. So guess who is going to have a more lasting endurance for this fight of us against them? We don't even think that there are us? The US intentionally looked the other way during the Pakistanis development of their bomb. We could have stopped it much easier in the beginning. Now it is in the hands of fanatical Islamists, and its blue print in every Arab Capital.

[angkor]

No one's hands are clean, BCCI corrupted and bribed too many senior officials

You're quite right. It reminds me of this:

"And like that he was gone. Underground. No one has ever seen him again. He becomes a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night.... And nobody really ever believes." --- Verbal Kent, The Usual Suspects

[Boot Hill]

Bernard Levy writes:   "But we must not shift our gaze from [Musharraaf] himself, whose knowledge of Khan's dark machinations no one in Islamabad doubts..."

In reading Levy's editorial, one is reminded of the old adage that, "when you're up to your a$$ in alligators, sometimes it is difficult to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp".

Of course Musharraf was aware of what Kahn was doing, just as every other leader of the army and the Pakistani government has known for the past 15 years. But punishing the guilty here is far less important than stopping those transfers of nuclear technology and moving on to complete our far more critical objectives in Pakistan.

And if, in accomplishing those goals, we find it convenient, for the time being, to indulge Musharraf and his fiction that he was not involved in the Kahn affair, then so be it. Rather than turning our gaze to Musharraf, as Levy entreats, we should rivet our attention on real objectives in Pakistan that further our goals in the War on Terror.

1. Keep Pakistan's existing nuclear weapons stockpile out of the hands of Islamist radicals, al Qa'ida, etc.
2. Capture Osama bin Ladin, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mullah Mohammed Omar.
3. Clean out the rat's nest of terrorist groups that inhabit Pakistan.
4. Close off the support for these terrorists including the financial support (foreign and domestic), weapons supplies and the madrasis.
5. Track down the details of the Saudi nuclear weapons program that was located inside of Pakistan.

Anything else, including the question of Musharraf part in the Kahn affair, is just a sideshow, set up by those who do not wish us well, to distract us.

--Boot Hill

[Cap Huff]

Bravo! Well stated. I've been a bit frustrated that a number of people in the press have either ignored the subject altogether, or concentrated on the connection to Musharraf and the army. Very succinctly you've laid out a line of thinking that probably is very close to what the administration is working under.

[Khan Noonian Singh]

<< IMO, a corollary of mutual interest between Saudi, Pak, USA and various Gulf States, is that under no event whatsoever, will this be allowed to lead into the BCCI scandal. >>

Anything that is off limits becomes the natural hiding place for more shady deals. The new shady deals cannot be exposed because one would run the risk of revealing the old ones.

So it becomes like a stone in a dark place, gathering moss, moss, and more moss, until eventually the moss takes over completely.

[risk]

I saw the last few minutes of a rabbi's dialog, but that's it.

[angkor]

So it becomes like a stone in a dark place, gathering moss, moss, and more moss,

Yes, and as an example:

BCCI Hong Kong was purchased in the early 1990s by the Hong Kong Chinese Bank (aka Lippo Bank Hong Kong), which in 2001/2002 was in turn sold to CITIC Ka Wah Bank Ltd (now CITIC International Financial Holdings Ltd), which is a subsidiary of the largest state-owned financial conglomerate in the People's Republic of China, the CITIC Group.

As you said, "until eventually the moss takes over completely."

From Abedi (where it served heroin dealing and the "Muslim bomb"), to Riady (where it served Bill Clinton), and right back to the PRC.

[AmericanVictory]

Regime change in Iran from within with our support would be extremely helpful in many ways, as would making it clear to both Tehran and Riyadh that oil dependence will be ended by better technology inside five years.

[Persephone Kore]

nugan hand is another whose inner secrets are still hidden well.

[Valin]

A DISCUSSION ABOUT EDUCATION AND VIOLENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST with
ITAMAR MARCUS
Founder, Palestinian Media Watch
AND
ZIAD ASALI
Founder of the American task force on Palestine


REALLY GOOD!

[Monty22]

The 'fallout' will probably be a bright flash in LA, Chicago, NYC, and others at the same time. The burn victims will be slithering away from the blast, and there will be no medical attention or hospital beds for them.

It'll be the end, and it will *hopefully* be a full scale retaliation against the islamic world in retaliation.

Sadly, we'll probably do nothing but scrape up the pieces like we did on 9/11. And we'll absorb the millions injured and suck it up, cause that's what we do now.

[Khan Noonian Singh]

Are Nugan Hand and BCCI connected?

[risk]

I just noted that Ziad Asali was uncomfortable with Itamar Marcus' stark contrast of Palestianian and Jewish viewpoints of one another. I don't see transcripts up on http://www.charlierose.com/ yet. (That always makes it harder to discuss the programs right away after they air, have you noticed?)

[Boot Hill]

Thanks for those generous words Cap.

--Boot Hill