...do they have a delivery system?
Posted on 10/25/2001 8:10:10 PM PDT by kattracks
| (Islamabad/Moscow, October 25) |
| There is now a nuclear dimension to the Afghan war. A second retired Pakistani atomic scientist was picked up by Islamabad on Tuesday night on the suspicion that he was developing a nuclear device for Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. The arrests followed tip-offs by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Pakistani authorities. Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood and Abdul Majeed, both scientists who had retired from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), were picked up after the FBI provided evidence of their links to jehadi outfits. The Pakistan Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haidar, said on Thursday that Bashiruddin was being taken into "protective custody." Military spokesman, Rashid Qureshi, only said the scientist was being questioned. After retirement, Bashiruddin had formed an NGO called Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (Reconstruction of the Muslim Ummah). This NGO was affiliated to the Al Rasheed Trust, an organisation banned for its links with Al-Qaeda network. The NGO was one of the few allowed by Mullah Muhammad Omar to carry out relief work in Afghanistan. Majeed was the chief engineer of PAEC until last year. Pakistani press reports said he had been trying to get a hold of supplies of plutonium and enriched uranium to send to the Taliban. Bashiruddin was with the PAEC for 35 years. He held many senior positions, including director of the Kahuta Enrichment Project. He was also one of the designers of the Khusab nuclear plant in Punjab. He took early retirement in 1998 to protest moves by the then Nawaz Sharif government to sign the CTBT, a treaty he strongly opposed. Bashiruddin founded Ummah Tameer-e-Nau after vowing to rebuild Afghanistan. Most of its membership consisted of nuclear scientists and military officers. Bashiruddin's Islamic fervour was well known, catching even the attention of Mullah Omar. The Taliban gave him permission to conclude business agreements on their behalf. This strengthened suspicions that Bashiruddin's NGO was looking for nuclear hardware for Kabul. He and Majeed had been under investigation by a joint US-Pakistani intelligence team. The West is reportedly also concerned about A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. Khan resigned as head of the country's nuclear programme in March this year. Because he had publicly expressed sympathy for the jehad movement, it was rumoured he was joining the fundamentalists. The detention of the two scientists follows statements by Pakistani officials, including President Pervez Musharraf, that the country's nuclear installations and assets were secure. There have been persistent rumours Bin Laden has sought weapons of mass destruction —chemical, biological and nuclear. Pakistan is increasingly seen as a possible source of such weaponry for the Taliban or Bin Laden. One reason is the large number of scientists employed by its nuclear programme. The other is the creeping popularity of the fundamentalist cause among educated, urban Pakistanis. In the past, the most likely source was one of the "loose nukes" scattered about the ex-Soviet Union. Seven years ago, Russian agents stopped a planeload of Russian nuclear scientists heading off to North Korea. Says Michael Krepon of the Henry Stimson Centre in Washington, which does research on nuclear security, "It is easy to get fissionable material, but difficult to make a bomb." He points out the Taliban could just mix nuclear material with RDX. This would not produce an atomic explosion. But, say other experts, the very knowledge Kabul has weapons-grade nuclear material could deter US bombing as Washington would have to fear a terrorist strike that could leave nuclear contaminants. |
20 years in the future, a little boy sees a picture of New York with the World Trade Center.
"Daddy, what's this picture," he asks.
"It's a picture of the World Trade Center before the Arabs blew it up. They were the tallest buildings in the U.S. at the time," his dad responds.
"Daddy, what's an 'Arab'?"
I hope it doesn't come to that, but the workd should be on notice that we WILL defend ourselves by any means necessary.
Now this is SCARY! Pakistan is developing a Democrat party?
You can call all you want, but I guarantee you Bush is not going to do it. He's still treating Pakistan, Saudi, and Egypt as if they were allies.
You people are just getting off your Camels while we have fought in two World Wars and many other small battles.
Those world wars were not fought by the current generation of politicians. This is the age of the PC "war".
I don't know who the "you" is you are referring to, but I am neither Arab nor Muslim. I was simply trying to point out to you that if only 1/10 of 1% of a billion Muslims were fanatical enough to blow themselves up in suicide attacks against the west, there would be 1 million of them to contend with.
Political correctness is going to get a lot of people killed .
Neither India nor the U.S. could tolerate this shift of power...
You're right, Bob, and the US would have to pull the trigger first! I hope we've got enough snakeaters in Pakistan to protect Musharraf.
Stay well and vigilant, as you can, my friend...FRegards
...the US would have to pull the trigger first!***
Either way... if India or the U.S. had to nuke Pakistan / Afghanistan, it might draw China or N. Korea into the fray with nuclear weapons... both of whom can reach our west coast.
Reading Matthew chapter 24 would be an excellent exercise for some on this forum... and others...
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