Pakistan helped Iran with Nuclear Program

[karynnj]

Didn't Dr. Rice tell Kerry that our needs with regards to Pakistan were adequately being taken care of.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/11/international/asia/11pakistan.html

[TayTay]

1. From the Transcript

U.S. SENATOR RICHARD LUGAR (R-IN) HOLDS A HEARING ON THE NOMINATION OF CONDOLEEZZA RICE TO BE SECRETARY OF STATE
Jan 18, 2005

KERRY: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Dr. Rice, for your patience and hanging in here.

I've got a few areas of inquiry that I'd like to pursue if I can.

Number one, have you read this article in The New Yorker by Sey Hersh? Are you familiar with it?

RICE: I'm familiar with it, but I've not read it, Senator.

KERRY: "Coming Wars"?

(see: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact for article in question.)

Just to quote from it for a minute, he says -- he talks about the administration conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran, at least since last summer. He talks about the administration looking at the region as a huge war zone and next we're going to have the Iranian campaign. This is a quote from a Bush administration former high-level intelligence official.

Quote: "Next we're going to have the Iranian campaign. We've declared on the bad guys, wherever they are, the enemy. This is the last hurrah. We've got four years and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism."

There is one particular -- I'm not going to ask you to comment on anything classified, but I am going to ask you to comment on this. A former high-level intelligence official told me, quote, "They don't want to make any WMD intelligence mistakes as in Iraq. The Republicans can't have two of those. There's no education in the second kick of the mule."

The official added that, "The government of Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, has won a high price for its cooperation: American assurance that Pakistan will not have to hand over A.Q. Khan, known as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bombs, to the IAEA or any other international authorities for questioning."

Do you know whether or not that's accurate?

RICE: I will just reiterate what was said about that article by the Defense Department. It is filled with inaccuracies and its credibility is sorely lacking.

KERRY: But on that specific point...

RICE: Let me just speak to the handling of A.Q. Khan. What we have been concerned about is that we are able to get the information that we need to break up the network. We have not made any deals about what happens with him.

We have not made any deals about what happens with him, but we have been concerned with the Pakistan government to get access to as much information as we possibly can. This is a matter that's being handled by the Pakistanis. It is not our place to talk about what should or should not happen with the IAEA, and we have not.

KERRY: What about our own interests and our own efforts with respect to A.Q. Khan?

RICE: Our own interests are being very well served by the fact that A.Q. Khan is now off the market, that we are working with the Pakistanis to get information about what he knows. Very well served by cooperation with several other governments about members of his network. Several of them are in custody. Some will be prosecuted. And so our interests are very well being served in this regard.

KERRY: Are they being served if we don't have direct access to him?

RICE: We believe that we have a working relationship with Pakistan on dealing with the A.Q. Khan matter. At this point, we are getting cooperation from Pakistan on what we need with A.Q. Khan.

KERRY: Are they being served if we don't have direct access to him?

RICE: They're being served at this point.

KERRY: Adequately?

RICE: We are getting the information that we need to deal with the A.Q. Khan network.

Senator, I don't know what we will need to ask in the future, but at this point we have a good working relationship with Pakistan on this matter.

KERRY: And with respect to Iran, are you also denying or discounting any of the allegations in this article?

RICE: The article has -- is inaccurate.

KERRY: With respect to Iran?

RICE: The article is, as Defense said, inaccurate.

KERRY: With respect to Iran?

RICE: Senator, the article does not represent our policies toward Iran or our expectations of policies toward Iran.

[elshiva]

2. ARrrrghhhhh! n/t

[TayTay]

3. Ahm, was that 'ARrrrghhhhh!' meant in a nice way?

Sometimes I ask my husband his opinion on something and he goes: "hmmm." As I was asking a 'yes or no' question, I have to ask him to retate his opinon as an actual opinion or risk making me feel like I am too dumb to get it.

I loved Kerry's questioning of Condiliar. He nailed her. (All of his committee questioning has been really good so far this year. I hope he stays pissed off, it looks good on him.)

[elshiva]

4. I was saying ARrrrrrghhhh! because

I KNOW that we wouldn't have Rice, not for a second. Just makes me sick to think how better things could have been. Also no Rumsfield.SIGH!
I LOVED the way he questioned Kindasleazy!

[TayTay]

5. Me too!

I actually watched the whole thing. Gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling right down to my toenails. Sigh! (But then I get a little moody from thinking that the wrong guy is making appointments for SECofState and such. Sigh! I try not to go there. Too depressing.)

Go John Go! You're just incredible when you engage that big squishy prefrontal lobe and outwonk the bastards. I just love that. Plus, I had a genuinely scary moment when Kerry intimated that he knew shit from the campaign briefings and was not happy at all with what Condi was saying. The transcript quote above is rife with this innuendo. Kerry is telling her that she is not getting away with finessing him. He knows this shit cold and he knows she is lying to him.

[elshiva]

6. Yep. He KNOWS his stuff.

And Dubya knows diddly...:(

[TayTay]

7. Dumbya couldn't find his

own ass with both hands and a flashlight. Hey, wait, I forgot. Dems were told that we lost the last election because the American people knew what * stood for and that they didn't feel they knew what Kerry stood for. (Who voted for them anyway. I somtime stray from the fold of pure Democracy and think we ought to have an intelligence test for voters. You believe that Iraq had WMD, you can't vote cuz you are too friggin dumb to elect the Leader of the Free World. Sigh. I have to work on eliminating my own elitism. It's very unattractive.)

So let me rephrase that. I absolutely believe, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Dumbya couldn't find his own ass with both hands and a flashlight. And you can take that to the bank. And I totally, totally mean it. And if any bad guy terrorists are reading this, Grrrrr, I really mean it. Okay? (Really, we Dems are tough guys, honest. Now, let me finish this latte, okay.)

[elshiva]

9. LOL! I think Dubya scored the lowest IQ of all recent

presidents. Dubya is dumber than Dan Quayle.

[karynnj]

8. I saw all of Kerry's questioning

I had seen only excepts of the hearings before, so initially I was surprised at how intensely serious. Condi must have wished he were not on that committee, because even without the campaign briefings his would have been the toughest questions. With the briefings, he really does have more on them than anyone.

Also, I wonder if some of Khan's deals could have been paid for by money sent via BCCI (Pakistan based) - they never really say how they traced them - just that they did. If so, if both parties would have been more interested in ending the corruption instead of protecting themselves, this might have been stopped earlier.