As Nuclear Secrets Emerge, More Are Suspected -NYT (Kahn)

[Rose Siding]

When experts from the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency came upon blueprints for a 10-kiloton atomic bomb in the files of the Libyan weapons program earlier this year, they found themselves caught between gravity and pettiness.

The discovery gave the experts a new appreciation of the audacity of the rogue nuclear network led by A. Q. Khan, a chief architect of Pakistan's bomb. Intelligence officials had watched Dr. Khan for years and suspected that he was trafficking in machinery for enriching uranium to make fuel for warheads. But the detailed design represented a new level of danger, particularly since the Libyans said he had thrown it in as a deal-sweetener when he sold them $100 million in nuclear gear.
...
Nearly a year after Dr. Khan's arrest, secrets of his nuclear black market continue to uncoil, revealing a vast global enterprise. But the inquiry has been hampered by discord between the Bush administration and the nuclear watchdog, and by Washington's concern that if it pushes too hard for access to Dr. Khan, a national hero in Pakistan, it could destabilize an ally. As a result, much of the urgency has been sapped from the investigation, helping keep hidden the full dimensions of the activities of Dr. Khan and his associates.

There is no shortage of tantalizing leads. American intelligence officials and the I.A.E.A., working separately, are still untangling Dr. Khan's travels in the years before his arrest. Investigators said he visited 18 countries, including Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, on what they believed were business trips, either to buy materials like uranium ore or sell atomic goods.
...
The breadth of the operation was particularly surprising to some American intelligence officials because they had had Dr. Khan under surveillance for nearly three decades, since he began assembling components for Pakistan's bomb, but apparently missed crucial transactions with countries like Iran and North Korea.

http://nytimes.com/2004/12/26/international/asia/26nuke.html?hp&ex=1104037200&en=b3f8d7d736a5772c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Tempest]

1. And yet Bush let Khan go

Just to appease Mushy.

[kohodog]

2. Was Kahn "Under surveillance," or was CIA complicit?

This is probably an onion we will never be able to fully unpeel. Interesting that this first hit the surface shortly after the Plame operation was shut down.

I am looking forward to reading the entire article in the Times tomorrow.

[0007]

3. The only place in the article Colin's name comes up. Strange!!

"Pressures mounted on General Musharraf. "I said to him, 'We know so much about this that we're going to go public with it,' " Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said last week. " 'And you need to deal with this before you have to deal with it publicly.' "

Colin L. Powell, first time I've ever seen his middle initial used. "L" for lair I bet?

[Gloria]

4. Why the General Begs to Differ....A Times

From the December 17, 2004 World Media Watch

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Dec. 17, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FL17Df05.html

WHY THE GENERAL BEGS TO DIFFER
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Islamabad and Washington have agreed to a plan under which Pakistan will hand over all necessary source material regarding its dealings with Iran's nuclear program, in exchange for which the US will not take action against the most sensitive people suspected of involvement in the underground network which facilitated the proliferation with Iran.

In mid-2003, a worldwide nuclear-proliferation network based in Pakistan was unearthed, headed by Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program. According to a report issued by the US Central Intelligence Agency on November 23 this year, Khan not only sold advanced uranium-enrichment centrifuges to Iran, he likely also sold it an actual nuclear-weapon design, along with nuclear fuel material. The network also apparently had dealings with North Korea and Libya.

The specific period in which this network spread its wings is said to be from 1987 to 2003. After the exposure, Pakistan's military government put the blame squarely on Khan, saying that he operated the network entirely independently and without the knowledge of the army, which oversaw Pakistan's nuclear development program. Khan even gave a confession on national television. However, there has been widespread skepticism, especially in the West, that the network could have operated without the knowledge of the generals.

Former chief of army staff General Aslam Beg <1>, who held the position from 1988 to 1991, is frequently mentioned as being pivotal in the network, and in aiming to build an Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan nexus to challenge US influence in the region.

MORE

[teryang]

5. Pakistans complicity in proliferation is so obvious

Yet Washington rewards them because the defense contractors badly needed new strategic threats to justify expansion of nuclear weapons and strategic aerospace programs.

Quadafi's exposure of the true scope of Khan's services reveal that he could not have operated without official Pakistani support. Thus while Libya officially supports Washingtons anti proliferation and anti terror policies it is actually revealing tacit American complicity in proliferation.

[lovuian]

6. I agree the Pakistanis are terrorists

and yet we deal with them!!!

:nuke:

[teryang]

7. "Unbelievable"- yes that part is right

"It is an unbelievable story, how this administration has given Pakistan a pass on the single worst case of proliferation in the past half century," said Jack Pritchard, who worked for President Clinton and served as the State Department's special envoy to North Korea until he quit last year, partly in protest over Mr. Bush's Korea policy."

The ubiquitous Mr. Hadley. This is the new National Security Advisor:

<Stephen J. Hadley, the deputy national security adviser, went to Pakistan soon after the Sept. 11 attacks and raised concerns about Dr. Khan, some of whose scientists were said to have met with Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda's leader. But Mr. Hadley did not ask General Musharraf to take action, according to a senior administration official. He returned to Washington complaining that it was unclear whether the Khan Laboratories were operating with the complicity of the Pakistani military, or were controlled by freelancers, motivated by visions of profit or of spreading the bomb to Islamic nations.>

UNCLEAR? The Cornell graduate and graduate of Yale Law couldn't possibly be that stupid. Oh wait a minute, this gentleman is from the Scocroft Consulting Group, the one that represents the aerospace and energy industry. He also served on the Defense Policy Review Board and was keeper of the flame at the DOD Comptrollers office. He also put the false language in the SOU speech about Iraq and uranium from Niger. Oh yeah, like I believe this story.

[leveymg]

8. Just Like the 9/11 Hijackers - CIA had Been Watching Khan's Every Move

SNIP "they had had Dr. Khan under surveillance for nearly three decades."
SNIP "In fact, officials were so confident they had accurately taken his measure, that twice - once in the late 1970's and again in the 1980's - the Central Intelligence Agency persuaded Dutch intelligence agents not to arrest Dr. Khan because they wanted to follow his trail, according to a senior European diplomat and a former Congressional official who had access to intelligence information. The C.I.A. declined to comment."

Fact is, the Agency covert operators protected Khan and several of the principal 9/11 hijackers. They all would have been arrested by other agencies long before they had a chance to complete their missions. Criminal negligence, reckless endangerment at the very least. When are we going to see a grand jury - after they nuke DC and NYC?