Experts Worry Terrorists Have Nuke Plans

snip

Al-Qaida apparently has shown interest in acquiring nuclear technology. Two Pakistani nuclear scientists were detained in late 2001 after meeting Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) in Afghanistan (news - web sites) on suspicion of giving away secrets, but they were later released without being charged. The military, which controlled the weapons program, also is known to have elements who sympathize with the Taliban and bin Laden.

snip

Officials say Abdul Qadeer Khan — the father of Pakistan's nuclear program — has confessed to selling equipment related to centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Libya also received designs for a nuclear bomb from Pakistan that it handed over to U.S. and British intelligence last month, European diplomats say.

snip

Mahmood's son told the AP in December 2002 that his father — a deeply conservative Muslim who sympathized with the Taliban — met bin Laden several times between 2000 and July 2001 and the al-Qaida leader asked how to make nuclear bombs. Mahmood claimed to have rebuffed the request, telling bin Laden "it is not child's play for you to build a nuclear bomb," according to his son, who didn't want to be named.

snip

"There's a lot of smoke and mirrors that the government is throwing up, but at the same time it's being forced to reveal information," he said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&e=4&u=/ap/20040204/ap_on_re_as/terror_nuclear

Just which country is blowing the smoke this time?

win because you scare the crap out of them.

anyone we SUSPECT of one thing or another, can anyone blame them? With that lunatic in the White House aiming to militarize space, I'm amazed Canada isn't seeking nuclear weapons for self defense.

Here they are:

http://home.earthlink.net/~enigmaep/annihilation/buildabomb.html


:evilgrin:

the power play on a stage far from many an eye, the poker game must be getting hot and heavy ...

better tread that Pakastani thing carefully ... it might lead back home via the never resolved BCCI scandal/corruption/&coverup ... the below link's unamed "BCCI depositors" ... BCCI, which has links to Harken Oil ... Jackson Stephens (wonder who he supports for President to keep the lid on things) ... who knows, a Bin Laden link might slip into the picture ... James Bath wherever he might be hiding ... Pug "enron Board" Winokur and the Harvard Management Co. ... a Senate investigation which just seemed to close leaving many guilty people footloose and fancy free, and possibly causing Danny Casolero's death in August 1991 ...

... somewhere in and between these and other activities are common denominators ... and, this Pakistani nuke connection could be just another sausage link ...

... well ... at any rate ... the conjecture is: it could get messy ...




Pakistan's Nuclear Hero Defended


(or, perhaps better titled: "was the United States totally clueless while a Pakistani scientist supplied nuclear technology to Iran and North Korea")


By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 3, 2004; 10:18 AM


Online commentators in Pakistan are rallying to the defense of the
country's leading nuclear scientists, one of whom has confessed to
selling weapons technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya.

Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, is
reportedly under house arrest in connection with a U.S.-backed
investigation into the lucrative black market in nuclear weapons
technology. Correspondents John Lancaster and Kamran Khan (no
relation to the physicist) report in today's Washington Post that
Khan has signed a 12-page confession. Khan has also reportedly told
investigators that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf knew about
his efforts to help North Korea's nuclear program.

The revelation will likely stoke an already intense debate. While
many Pakistanis defend Khan as a national hero, others in the South
Asian media see Khan, a flamboyant self-promoter, as the scapegoat of Musharraf and the permissive nonproliferation policies of the U.S.
government.

~snip~

Pakistan proceeded to spend some $10 billion developing a nuclear
arsenal, say the editors of the Times of India. The money came from
Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and the
depositors of the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International), which became notorious in the early 1990s for myriad criminal activities. The bank, say the editors of the Times of India, was founded by a Pakistani and operated freely in the Persian Gulf oil
enclave of Dubai. It is inconceivable, they argue, that Western
intelligence agencies didn't know all about this black market.

~snip~


"Is it possible that the scientists involved in State-
managed clandestine deals overreached the arrangement of
cooperation? "

"If so, was it a planned move governments] to overlook this extended relationship?"

They answer that question with another question:

"Or was the Pakistan government unable to question the illegitimate
affairs within secret arrangements that involved a scientist like
Khan?"

In other words, was the United States totally clueless while a
Pakistani scientist supplied nuclear technology to Iran and North
Korea?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8262-2004Feb3.html



George W. Bush and partners receive more than $2 million of Harken
Energy stock in exchange for a failing oil well operation, which had lost $400,000 in the prior six months. After Bush joined Harken, the largest stock position and a seat on its board were acquired by
Harvard Management Company. The Harken board gave Bush $600,000 worth of the company's publicly traded stock, plus a seat on the board plus a consultancy that paid him up to $120,000 a year. When Harken runs short of cash it hooks up with investment banker Jackson Stephens of Little Rock, Arkansas, who arranges a $25 million stock purchase by Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS). Sheik Abdullah Bakhsh, who joins the board as a part of the deal, is connected to the infamous BCCI.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0203/S00035.htm