Probe Reveals Pakistan Bought U.S. Nuclear Technology -LAT

WASHINGTON — A federal criminal investigation has uncovered evidence that the government of Pakistan has made clandestine purchases of U.S. high-technology components for use in its nuclear weapons program in defiance of American law.

Federal authorities also say the highly specialized equipment at one point passed through the hands of an arms dealer in Islamabad, Pakistan, named Humayun Khan, who they say has ties to Islamic militants.

Even though President Bush has been pushing for an international crackdown on such trafficking, efforts by two U.S. agencies to send investigators to Pakistan to gather more evidence have been stymied for more than a year by other American officials, according to U.S. officials knowledgeable about the case.

The impasse is part of a larger tug-of-war between federal agencies that enforce U.S. nonproliferation laws and policy-makers who consider Pakistan too important to embarrass. The transactions began in early 2003, well after President Pervez Musharraf threw his support to the Bush administration's war on terrorism and the invasion of neighboring Afghanistan to oust Pakistan's former Taliban allies.

........MORE..........

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-paknuke26mar26,0,7347311.story?coll=la-home-headlines

oh, but they're good guys, now... right?

Fighter jets reward Bush war ally

Times Online, UK - 6 hours ago
By Zahid Hussain in Islamabad. AMERICA has agreed to sell F16 fighter jets to Pakistan in a major policy shift to reward an ally in the war on terrorism. ...

source...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1542389,00.html

peace

Rice talked with Mushareff about it this week...

snip>
Several senior U.S. officials said that the United States had made high-level requests of Islamabad for cooperation in the case, but that none was made forcefully or publicly. Two State Department officials dealing with nonproliferation said the Bush administration has voiced its concerns about Pakistan's ties to the nuclear black market, most recently during private meetings between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Musharraf and other Pakistani leaders last week.

Pakistan also has refused to allow access to Abdul Qadeer Khan. But Gary Milhollin, a nuclear nonproliferation expert, said the Bush administration could apply enough pressure on Pakistan to gain access for the investigators, tying cooperation to the $3 billion U.S. aid package, for example, and the sale of F-16 fighter jets that the White House announced Friday.

"But it seems bizarre that we are letting the Pakistanis get away with nuclear smuggling because we think they'll help fight terrorism," said Milhollin, who heads the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.
.................

Amazing. "About that black market yada yada. Oh well, here's some fighter jets. Enjoy!"

You can't really blame them for wanting to make a buck, can you? What, do you hate freedom or something?

I mean, what the Hell, Pakistan might start the Ultimate Nuclear War or something, but think of how well the Repulican shareholders have made out from this deal. You have to see the issue in balance. I'm sure George Bush will explain it all to you better than I have.

snip>
Khan charged that Washington has allowed dozens of black market companies to flourish in Pakistan and elsewhere by selectively enforcing its nonproliferation laws.

"It's all about politics," Khan said. "If they don't want us to develop these things, they would do everything they can to stop it. ... You (the U.S. government) close one eye and open the other at particular times to these things that have been going on."

He said dozens of front companies throughout South Asia and the Middle East are procuring such components from U.S. companies for questionable purposes.

Khan said he had emailed detailed information to U.S. investigators about at least 10 other Pakistani companies that he claims routinely engage in illicit schemes to buy goods from U.S. suppliers, including Tektronix, Inc., the Oregon company that sold him the oscilloscopes.
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Here's a Tektronix site (if it's the right Tektronix) and the board members...

http://www.tek.com/Measurement/cgi-bin/framed.pl?Document=/ir/ir_corpgovernance.html&FrameSet=company_info

you NEVER hear the names of the compaines if they're US

ah, another super-power perk, eh :shrug:


http://images.globalfreepress.com

peace

Pakistani Hints He'll Turn Over Centrifuges in Iran Investigation

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan says he will consider turning over centrifuges to the international nuclear watchdog agency to aid in its investigation of Iran's nuclear program.

The centrifuges could help the group, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, determine whether the traces of highly enriched, weapons grade uranium found on nuclear equipment in Iran originated in Iran or, as Tehran maintains, arrived in a contaminated shipment of centrifuges from Pakistan.

Earlier this month, Pakistan acknowledged for the first time that Dr. A. Q. Khan, the country's most celebrated nuclear scientist and a one-man nuclear black market, had sold centrifuges to Iran, but said he had done so independently and without the consent of the government.

International diplomats have said that Pakistan privately agreed months ago to turn the centrifuges over to the agency but had been dragging its feet. In an interview broadcast Thursday on a private television network called Aaj, General Musharraf seemed to say the delays would stop.

http://nytimes.com/2005/03/26/international/asia/26pakistan.html