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Zardari took 'massive secret commissions' for securing French submarine deal: Report 2011-01-15 16:00:00 Official Pakistani documents, detailing how President Asif Ali Zardari benefited from massive, secret payments connected to the sale of French submarines to Pakistan, have been seized as evidence by a Paris magistrate investigating a suspected widespread scam surrounding the deal. The documents, published by Mediapart, show that the payments to Zardari and others took place on the fringes of the sale of three Agosta-class submarines by the French defence contractor, the DCN, to Pakistan in the 1990s. The French sale, which succeeded against rival offers by Swedish...

Pakistan to build and sell submarines in the international market Karachi: Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the country may become self sufficient to build its own submarines and sell them in the international market. He said Pakistan Navy was building the Agosta submarines with French assistance, and had acquired the technical skills to build and market them at a later stage. "We are focusing on the Naval facilities on ground, water and air so that PN is modernised and made effective with adequate firepower, defensive and offensive capability. Pakistan has now acquired the technical skills to build...

Osama bin Laden may soon have his hands on three Agosta 90B next-generation stealth submarines capable of carrying sixteen sea-to-land cruise missiles each. Those missiles can deliver atomic warheads. And Osama, I suspect, will have access to the forty nuclear warheads constructed by Pakistan. Washington and New York, two primary targets for Al Qaeda, are near bodies of water from which these nuclear-tipped missiles can be launched. So are many other major American cities. Here are the skeletal details: In 1994, DCN, the government-owned company that builds France's naval vessels, agreed to help the Pakistanis build and learn to operate...

Dodging the Nuclear 9/11 by Howard Bloom Osama bin Laden may soon have his hands on three Agosta 90B next-generation stealth submarines capable of carrying sixteen sea-to-land cruise missiles each. Those missiles can deliver atomic warheads. And Osama, I suspect, will have access to the forty nuclear warheads constructed by Pakistan. Washington and New York, two primary targets for Al Qaeda, are near bodies of water from which these nuclear-tipped missiles can be launched. So are many other major American cities. Here are the skeletal details: In 1994, DCN, the government-owned company that builds France's naval vessels, agreed to help...

Navy gets Agosta 90-B Saad today (8/22/04) ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s first indigenously built submarine, Agosta 90-B Saad will be inducted into the naval fleet today. The submarine has been built with the technical assistance of France and it is the latest in the Agosta class. Pakistan was transferred technology to completely manufacture three submarines in the country under an agreement with France. The first submarine, Khalid, manufactured with French assistance was commissioned in the Pakistan Navy in September 1999 while the third submarine, Hamza, presently under construction in the naval dockyard, will be commissioned in year 2005. Sources said Agostas have...

August 24, 2002 Pakistan launches Agosta submarine By Aamir Shah UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Pakistan on Saturday launched its first submarine built in the country, an Agosta 90B Class attack submarine, manufactured in its naval facility with French assistance and now heading out to sea for six months of field trials. "Today Pakistan joins the elite club of a very few countries that have the ability to construct submarines," Adm. Abdul Aziz Mirza said in Pakistan's port city of Karachi. Mirza, who is Pakistan's chief of naval staff, also paid tribute to the 11 French...