U.S. reportedly misled allies about N. Korea nuke-materials transfer(another political storm?)

Does it matter if N. Korea knew where the destination of their uranium hexafloride would be? They did export nuclear material to Pakistan, which is known to peddle nuclear materials and technology to other enemy countries.

A familiar pattern. CIA falling out with Bush, ping!

My current experience with journalists leads me to believe that they are often guilty of omitting "essential details about the transaction" on most things they report.

The DAs at Fox & Frieds said this was reported by the Washington Times, but since it is the Wash. Post we all know it is a fraudulent report.

The Washington Post seems to be getting more liberal as time goes on.

The original point made about this Uranium is that it came from North Korea. No other country has the particular isotope signature that this uranium hexaflouride had so it had to come from North Korea.

The original point was noone knew for sure that North Korea had uranium processing facility in the first place. Now we know they do have a uranium-processing program and now we know they were selling it abroad as well.

The original reports, while saying North Korea probably sold it to Lybia, also noted that Pakistan had been known to do so as well through the Khan network.

The original reports did not say that it was definitely sold directly from North Korea because there was no evidence of the sale in the first place or how it happened prior to the Lybians turning over the uranium.

komapsumnida

Pakistan had also said that N.Korea sold to the Kahn network and not to the Government and that Kahn's network passed the nuclear material along without their knowledge.

WASHINGTON - In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.

That is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the intelligence, supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold the material to Libya. The U.S. had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction.

NOT NEWS TO ALLIES

Pakistan's role as both the buyer and the seller was concealed to cover up the part played by Washington's partner in the hunt for al Qaeda leaders, according to the officials, who discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity. In addition, a North Korea-Pakistan transfer would not have been news to the U.S. allies, which have known of such transfers for years and viewed them as a business matter between sovereign states.

The Bush administration's approach, intended to isolate North Korea, instead left allies increasingly doubtful as they began to learn that the briefings omitted essential details about the transaction, U.S. officials and foreign diplomats said. North Korea responded to public reports last month about the briefings by withdrawing from talks with its neighbors and the United States.

In an effort to repair the damage, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is traveling through East Asia this weekend trying to get the six-nation talks back on track. The impasse was expected to dominate talks Saturday in Seoul and then Beijing, which wields the greatest influence with North Korea.

The new details follow a string of controversies concerning the Bush administration's use of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. In the run-up to the Iraq invasion in March 2003, the White House offered a public case against Iraq that concealed dissent on nearly every element of intelligence and included interpretations unsupported by the evidence. [/WaPo opinion]

A presidential commission studying U.S. intelligence is reviewing the case, as well as judgments on Iran and North Korea. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence also is reviewing evidence on nuclear, chemical and biological programs suspected in Iran and North Korea.

The United States briefed allies on North Korea in late January and early February. Shortly after, administration officials, speaking to The Washington Post on condition of anonymity, said North Korea sold uranium hexafluoride to Libya and portrayed the briefings as part of regular discussions with China, South Korea and Japan ahead of a new round of hoped-for negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program.

~~But in recent days, two other U.S. officials said the briefings were hastily arranged after China and South Korea indicated they were considering bolting from six-party talks on North Korea.~~ The talks have been seen as ineffectual, but the Bush administration, which refuses to meet bilaterally with Pyongyang, insists they are critical to curbing North Korea's nuclear program.

The White House declined to offer an official to comment by name about the new details concerning Pakistan. A prepared response attributed to a senior administration official said that the U.S. government ``has provided allies with an accurate account of North Korea's nuclear proliferation activities.''

Although the briefings did not mention Pakistan by name, the official said they made it clear that the sale went through the illicit network operated by Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, Abdel Qadeer Khan. But the briefings gave no indication that U.S. intelligence believes that the material had been bought by Pakistan and transferred there from North Korea in a container owned by the Pakistani government.

~~They also gave no indication that the uranium was then shipped via a Pakistani company to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and on to Libya.~~ Those findings match assessments by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is investigating Libya. Libya gave up its nuclear weapons program in December 2003.

Since Pakistan became a key U.S. ally in the hunt for al Qaeda leaders, the administration has not held President Pervez Musharraf accountable for actions taken by Khan while he was a member of Musharraf's cabinet and in charge of nuclear cooperation for the government. [/WaPo opinion]

''The administration is giving Pakistan a free ride when they don't deserve it and hurting U.S. interests at the same time,'' said Charles L. Pritchard, the administration's special envoy for the North Korea talks until August 2003.

===

The number of unattributable / unverifiable sources and amount of opinion passing in this story makes this article almost worthless. Anyone in the WaPo newsroom could declare themselves the "official" for generating quotes.

Ping.

Yep! I love the word "Officials" - who the hell are they - if you can't name them - then stuff it. The word "misled" is a giveaway.

And .. this is the Miami Herald - they hate Bush.

"Pakistan's role as both the buyer and the seller was concealed to cover up the part played by Washington's partner in the hunt for al Qaeda leaders, according to the officials, who discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity."

It's just an outrageous lie.

Pakistan and Khan have *already* admitted publicly that they sold nuclear components/technology to Libya and North Korea, so the whole concept that the U.S. is "protecting" Pakistan's involvement is ludicrous.

Yet this article from the comPost claims "Pakistan's role as both the buyer and the seller was concealed to
cover up the part played by Washington's partner in the hunt for al
Qaeda leaders, according to the officials, who discussed the issue on
the condition of anonymity."

In fact, here's an article from early last year saying that Pakistan sold and admits selling nuclear technology/components to Libya (among others):

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2409643

That's hardly covered up or "concealed" as the comPost propagandist claims...

Here's an even earlier article, with other players fingered, including the independently conformable state registration of the ship involved:

Libya's decision was sealed with intercepted shipment

By Associated Press
Published January 1, 2004

WASHINGTON - Nearly three months after the successful operation, the Bush administration confirmed on Wednesday interception of an illegal shipment of thousands of parts of uranium-enrichment equipment bound for Libya.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/01/01/Worldandnation/Libya_s_decision_was_.shtml

Again, notice that the actual facts, independently verifiable, don't align with what either the so-called "anonymous" sources told the comPost, or what the comPost "journalist" managed to print on her own. This sort of nonsensical, easily refutable propaganda from the comPost isn't going to do anything but further sink the tanking credibility of the Left.

Southack you should email that to someone....Rush maybe.

Or email it to the guys at Powerline blog

Not fully correct IMHO.

The Washpost report today spoke specifically about one transaction that we were saying was between North Korea and Libya. The item in question is Uranium Hexafluoride which is a source material for Gas centrifuges that enrich Uranium.

What this report is saying is that while we presented the case to South Korea and China that the UF6 shipment that we intercepted was a North Korean operation, it now turns out that we may have chosen not to mention that we found the contraband in Pakistan government owned containers.

Now, South Korea and China clearly don't want to see any evil in Pyongyang. That is one issue. But it does appear that there was a bit of a cover up of Pakistan's role in this specific transaction. If we have solid evidence that as late as 2003 Pakistani government containers were used to send nuclear fuel source to Libya, then it blows a big hole into Musharraf's claim that AQ Khan did it alone. Basically, the N.Koreans sent a batch of UF6 to Pakistan. The Pakistanis took some and shipped the rest to Libya on government containers. As a result, if we were to admit this openly, we would be forced to impose sanctions on Pakistan. That is why, I can see a good reason for us not to share this info with China and S.Korea.

Irrespective of whether we hid this fact or not, the bottom line is that North Korea did ship contraband to Pakistan and the basic crime remains the same.

BTW, this is why we need to press Musharraf to hand over AQ Khan. Our credibility will not hold if we try to rally our allies to punish Iran and North Korea for their nuclear roguishness when we look so weak against Pakistan. Whichever way we spin it, the Khan network cannot be closed unless we squeeze Khan himself with our people in charge. There's too much at stake.

ECONOMIST: Circa 2004:

"Though suspicions had attached to Mr Khan for years, Pakistan’s government had always denied any wrongdoing. But the evidence from the IAEA is now unignorable. More of it came out after a shipment of centrifuge parts for uranium enrichment was intercepted on its way to Libya, hastening the surprise decision last December by that country’s leader, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, to confess to a hidden nuclear programme of his own.

The IAEA’s chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, was taken aback at how much equipment and technology Libya had amassed; and all of it from what he has called a veritable Wal-Mart of black-market proliferation. Libya not only had names of contacts to find answers to after-sales scientific questions, but also the blueprint for a nuclear warhead. The most sensitive materials, parts and documents have now been flown to America for safekeeping. Some, including the bomb design, are thought to have come directly from Pakistan. The IAEA's inspectors would doubtless like to take a closer look at the country's nuclear programme, but on Thursday the government in Islamabad said it would not hand over any documents.

Though the network of middlemen and companies involved spans Europe, the Middle East, Asia and South Africa, Pakistan’s nuclear suspects are thought to have been at the centre of it. The nuclear programme was supposed to be under close military control. General Musharraf insists there was no official involvement, either now or in the past, in any of these transactions, which, he claims, were motivated by personal greed (official tales of Mr Khan’s national heroism have now given way to tales of his great personal wealth and many villas). The covert nature of Pakistan’s own bomb project, the general claims, left the scientists with too much autonomy, which they abused."

"Officials said the U.S. misled allies over the transfer of materials for making nuclear weapons to Libya, omitting the fact that Pakistan served as the intermediary.
By DAFNA LINZER"

Those officials lied. Read the Economist article from early 2004.

"BTW, this is why we need to press Musharraf to hand over AQ Khan. Our credibility will not hold if we try to rally our allies to punish Iran and North Korea for their nuclear roguishness when we look so weak against Pakistan."

Rubbish.

Look kid, the U.S. doesn't look weak.

Not economically. Not socially. Not politically. Not militarily.

End of argument.

Thank you.

Of the MSM (magazines), which can we trust?

(Not Newsweak, Time, New Republic, Economist, ..... But Forbes - nor other business magazines? (These exaggerated Enron's plans and potentials and future, hyping Enron's stock when they "should" have been actually investigating the deceit in Enron's stock reports and coverups.)

I'm not a kid but someone with 20+ years of experience in this field. That particular line to me atleast was clearly in the context of this UF6 transaction.

As to my comment about us looking weak, our acquiescing to the Pakistanis' ridiculous position that they knew nothing of AQKhan's dealings is a sign that we were unable to take them to task.

Please let up with the patronizing. Thanks

"As to my comment about us looking weak, our acquiescing to the Pakistanis' ridiculous position that they knew nothing of AQKhan's dealings is a sign that we were unable to take them to task."

It's nothing of the sort. We're certainly able to take on Pakistan, a nation with a military smaller than Iraq, no ICBM defenses, no anti-stealth technology, poor chemical weapons resistance, and almost no biological defense, and no satellites.

That we *chose* to deal with Pakistan, in fact, shows that we are so strong that we don't have to simply nuke every non-allied nation off the face of the Earth (though we can go that route, too).

We've used nukes before in war, after all, and we'll use them again. There's no law against it, and there's no one who can stop us, anyway. If you think otherwise, then you've paid too much attention to the geopolitical machinations that pretend that no one can use nukes, rather than to the stark reality of what will no doubt be rather common in the next ten years if democracy isn't spread by the U.S. fast enough, far enough.

In the meantime, we're currently so strong economically, culturally, socially, politically, and militarily that we don't even have to resort to such things, a point that is illustrated by your very own example of the U.S. choosing to deal with Pakistan. We had other options.