Tue Mar 30,12:07 PM ET
By PAM EASTON, Associated Press Writer
HOUSTON - The bodies of the final two missing passengers aboard a helicopter that vanished a week ago in the Gulf of Mexico with 10 people aboard have been recovered, authorities said Tuesday.
The bodies of Jason Petitjean, 34, of Rayne, La., and Jeff Langley, 42, of Kountze, Texas, were recovered late Monday night from the Gulf's floor.
"It's a sad relief would be the way to put it," said Christine LeLaurin, a spokeswoman for Unocal, the California-based oil company that chartered the helicopter.
The cause of the crash was still under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board has retrieved most of the wreckage needed to complete the probe, agency spokeswoman Lorenda Ward said.
It could take up to 18 months for a final report on the crash, which is being investigated by the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The helicopter took off from an airfield in Galveston and was headed to a drill ship near South Padre Island. The aircraft was 90 miles south of Galveston when the pilot made his last radio contact.
Remains of four people and a life vest were found a day later floating in the Gulf. Another four bodies were located Friday.
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was aware of Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear black market activities for at least a few years, but political pressures kept him from moving aggressively against Khan until recently, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said on Tuesday.
But Bolton reaffirmed Washington's view that Musharraf and other top Pakistani officials were not "complicit in or approved of (Khan's) proliferation activities" and therefore are not subject to U.S. sanctions.
Bolton, testifying before a congressional committee, came under fire from opposition Democrats.
They accused the Bush administration of failing to hold Pakistan's leaders accountable for Khan's blackmarket activities and for not using economic muscle to keep countries and companies from doing business with Iran and North Korea.
With Iran and North Korea's nuclear activities a growing concern for Washington, nonproliferation issues could loom large in the 2004 election.
Since Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, confessed in February to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya, U.S. officials have insisted only Khan was responsible, not Musharraf and his government.
Bolton reiterated that position, saying U.S. officials investigated Khan's activities and "we have no evidence that President Musharraf and top officials of the government of Pakistan are complicit."
But under questioning by the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee, Bolton said Musharraf was aware of Khan's activities when he fired him as head of Khan Research Laboratory in the year 2001.
DIFFICULT QUESTION
"I think it was a very difficult question for President Musharraf in the face of the internal political dynamic in Pakistan, which has resulted in the past two months ... in two assassination attempts against him," Bolton said.
"In fact, it was the exposure of the Iranian nuclear weapons program...and (Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddfi's decision to forswear all of his WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programs that brought us to the point that it was possible for Musharraf to take the actions that he did," Bolton said.
Musharraf, who seized power in 1999, had to balance U.S. demands for action on Khan against a risk of angering the army, his base of support, experts say.
Rep. Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat, accused President Bush of giving Pakistan "a pass on proliferating nuclear technology."
He acknowledged Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism and a U.S. desire not to destabilize him, but said Washington has already done enough by waiving sanctions on Pakistan and giving it $2 billion in aid over two years.
Bush's most recent decision making Pakistan a non-NATO ally goes too far, said Ackerman, adding: "This double standard with regard to Pakistan makes a mockery of our nonproliferation efforts around the world."
Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California faulted the administration for being "all too willing to risk American lives and to use our very effective military (in Iraq) but utterly unwilling to use tactics that might inconvenience corporations or our trading partners" that could force problem states to end proliferation.
One example is North Korea which relies on energy subsidies from China. The administration has not threatened China with a loss of even some of its $130 billion access to U.S. markets if it does not reduce the North's subsidies, he said.