When is the complicit American people going to finally deal with and research this story that means so much to us the people and the rest of the world?
Just off the wire now from the Pakistan Post:
http://thepost.com.pk/OpinionNews.aspx?dtlid=149239&catid=11A threat slipping out of hands
Ubeid Kamran
Indian External Affairs Minister Parnab Mukharjee recently voiced his concern over the ‘very real threat’ of atomic weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, which is an obvious reference to Pakistan. It raised my apprehensions over the international conspiracy hatching against Pakistan. Mr Mukharjee reiterated that there was a very real threat of terrorist groups laying their hands on nuclear material and even fully assembled nuclear weapons. The threat of nuclear proliferation is, no doubt, a prime concern in recent years. The world media has been putting Pakistan in an awful position and a general perception is being created that Pakistan is the real hitch in undermining world peace and is probably involved in the proliferation of its strategic assets.
The Washington Post on January 27, 2004 accused Pakistan of allegedly offering nuclear assistance to other countries. One document allegedly found at the farm of Hussein Kamal, Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law, was addressed to a contact person in Iraq’s main nuclear weapons programme (code named PC-3), summarises a meeting between Iraqi officials and some person named ‘Malik’ who said he represented AQ Khan. The PC-2 project for the manufacture of mustard gas, set up by Bechtel in Iraq was equally contrary to the security of mankind and world peace at general. It is equally true that $ 47.6 billion worth of sophisticated deadly weaponry was supplied by the US and other countries during eight years of the Iran-Iraq war. How does the world justify such an appalling devastation of mankind when it comes to lucrative profits for multinationals?
Former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry in his presidential debate in January 2004 stated that if elected he would get tough with Pakistan on nuclear safety, accusing Pakistani leaders about lying to him and the US with regard to nuclear issues. Another presidential candidate Senator Barrack Obama in his speech at the Wilson Center, Washington DC blatantly mentioned that it was time to get off the wrong battlefield in Iraq and taking the fight to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He stressed upon the need to take out the world’s most ‘deadliest weapons’ from the hands of terrorists in order to secure a more resilient homeland.
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The world media has been putting Pakistan in an appalling position and a general perception is being created that Pakistan is the real hitch in undermining world peace and is probably involved in the proliferation of its strategic assets.
What is exceptionally alarming is the recent report by Sibel Edmonds, a former Turkish language translator for the FBI, who listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based on the agency’s Washington field office. Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions. Though she has mentioned Pakistan as one of the black market buyers, yet what is needed to be contemplated upon by the international community and the US presidential hopefuls is that US sensitive military and nuclear institutions are lackadaisical in handling their secrets that makes the world so vulnerable. What disturbs me the most is the US government’s indifference with regard to their own strategic assets; instead they are planning to slowly and premeditatedly cast a net around Pakistan’s nuclear estate. This incidence of nuclear warheads in combat positions carried by an American bomber was a clear cut violation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Conscious efforts by Washington to confuse the public have been successful. Attention has been shifted from the central issue by relieving the squad commander in charge of munitions crews at Minot pending an inquiry and blaming Pakistan for potential security lapses and possibilities of some rogue commander getting hold of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. The world should be much concerned with regards to breaches in nuclear security incidences like that of last years in April, when New Mexico police while responding to a call about a domestic dispute in a trailer park near Los Alamos National laboratory not only stumbled on paraphernalia for making the drug ‘crystal meth’ rather also found thousands of pages of highly classified documents detailing the designs of US nuclear weapons. Documents also show that the Department of Energy (DOE) is investigating separate drug use by at least 35 other laboratory workers who received security clearances around the same time. Given the stakes involved in lapses in the security of nuclear secrets the US state department should lay stringent restrictions and much more vigilance to secure its own nuclear secrets in falling into the hands of terrorists instead of worrying about Pakistan’s nuclear programme. How can the world continue to believe in global tranquility and security when such brazen laxity in the handling of such serious security information continues? Despite the DOE’s propositions of sweeping changes in security procedures and the issuance of clearances, recent Edmonds report of passing highly classified information, not only by the state department rather also from the pentagon, in exchange for money, position and ‘political objectives’ is alarming. US nuclear assets need to be in safe hands. I wonder what deters our leadership and the world leaders at large from raising their concern over the US heedlessness with regards to repeated cases of serious leakages in their nuclear security programme.
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