Tuesday, November 6

Pakistan: the perils of cutting expedient deals with lunatics

"... few believe that Abdul Qadeer Khan acted alone and the affair risks gravely damaging the [Pakistan] Army, which oversaw and controlled the nuclear weapons development programme and of which Musharraf is still the Commander-in-Chief."(1)

Although much remains to be learned about Khan's activities, enough is known about the Pakistan military involvement that it's merely a convention to refer to Pakistan's clandestine nuclear proliferation program as the "A. Q. Khan network."

To cut to the bone, Pakistan is a rogue state selling nuclear technology and equipment to any government willing to purchase. Much of the story has been suppressed. But with the October publication of Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons, it's harder to maintain the argument that if other governments (most notably China and the US) don't support Musharraf, Pakistan will be taken over by foaming Islamists who won't hesitate to deploy the Bomb.

Pakistan's government was taken over long ago by lunatics who did not hesitate, and still don't hesitate, to sell nuclear technology to any government, Islamist or otherwise, willing to build and deploy nuclear weapons.

If you were listening closely to John Batchelor's discussion on the Loftus Report last night -- and I hope you were listening very closely -- you'll have noted that Batchelor spoke in the present tense, when he relayed what one of the Deception authors told him about Khan's nuke proliferation activities.

(Khan, by the way, was released in July 2007 from the fig-leaf house arrest.)

From what Loftus said last night, it is likely that tonight he and Batchelor will continue their discussion of issues related to Deception, and expand on their Monday discussion of Israel's bombing of a nuke facility (or facilities) in Syria.

If you missed the Loftus Report conversation last night, you can catch up here. Forward to the second half of the show; you'll have to pay five dollars to listen to the archived podcast if you're not a subscriber. If you have the time the first part of the show, which includes Malcolm Hoenlein, is also a very important discussion and mentions Iran's activities in Latin America.

In any event, don't fail to tune in tonight.

1) Wikipedia

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