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Analysis
West
Revisits Pak Nuclear Proliferator AQ Khan
To pressurize Iran and muddy
India - China Relations
by
K. Gajendra Singh
West Knew and Acquiesced in Khan’s Activities
Suddenly Simon Henderson has written a story in ‘Sunday
Times’ of 20 September, 2009 based on a letter with him since 2007 from
Pakistan nuclear proliferator Abdul Qadeer Khan but written in December
10, 2003 to Henny Khan’s Dutch wife to insure against any harmful action
by Pakistan army at US behest. A copy of the letter was recovered by Dutch
intelligence at Khan brother‘s Holland residence in 2004, after ISI came
to know about the letter which would have exposed complicity across the
board of Pakistani leadership in Khan’s roller coaster nuclear
proliferation.
Khan’s daughter Dina in London was coerced into
destroying the letter with Khan under duress in Pakistan. Handwritten in
apparent haste the letter to Henny began: “Darling, if the government
plays any mischief with me take a tough stand.” In numbered paragraphs, it
outlines Pakistan’s nuclear co-operation with China, Iran and North Korea,
and also mentions Libya. It ends: “They might try to get rid of me to
cover up all the things they got done by me.” On the third page, Khan had
written: “Get in touch with Simon Henderson… and give him all the
details.”
Why the story now! What is West upto? Most of the details
have been available in the media and were covered in my piece of 29 May
2005, which among dozens website was also hosted by London’s Think Tank
known as Chatham House.
Emerging Strategic Nuclear Environment: Iran &
North Korea-
http://www.iiss.org/whats-new/iiss-in-the-press/press-coverage-2005/september-2005/emerging-strategic-nuclear-environment/
Henderson
was first posted to Pakistan in 1977 as BBC stringer and befriended AQ
Khan .Adds Henderson that even in 1998, when Pakistan first tested its
1,500-kilometre-range Ghauri missile, a Khan-directed copy of the North
Korean Nodong rocket, and went on to test two nuclear weapons, there was
little noise in the West about the proliferation . When 65, Khan retired
but kept in touch with Henderson.
Then, in late 2003 things
started churning up. The Wall Street Journal revealed that a German cargo
ship was intercepted on its way to Libya with thousands of centrifuge
components, and diverted to Italy. Khan was placed under house arrest on
February 1, 2004, and since then he was rarely able to leave his house. He
was granted freedom by a Pakistani judge recently after President Gen
Pervez Musharraf was made to resign in 2007 and in the tradition of former
Presidents and irksome political leaders, exiled to shuttle between US,
London, Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
According to the letter, “The first
customer for one of its (Khan established) enrichment plants was China —
which itself had supplied Pakistan with enough highly enriched uranium for
two nuclear bombs in the summer of 1982.”
Also in the letter: “We
put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250km southwest of Xian).” -- “The
Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched
uranium, gave us 10 tons of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%).” (UF6 is
uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plant.)
Years earlier, Khan was warned about the Pakistan army by Li Chew, the
senior minister who ran China’s nuclear-weapons program. Visiting Kahuta,
Chew said: “As long as they need the bomb, they will lick your balls. As
soon as you have delivered the bomb, they will kick your balls.” In the
letter to his wife, Khan rephrased things: “The bastards first used us and
are now playing dirty games with us.” [This only confirms that the real
power in Pakistan has always been with its military and its all powerful
intelligence agency ISI]
On Iran, the letter says: “Probably with
the blessings of BB [Benazir Bhutto, who became prime minister in 1988]
and [a now-retired general]… General Imtiaz [Benazir’s defense adviser,
now dead] asked… me to give a set of drawings and some components to the
Iranians…The names and addresses of suppliers were also given to the
Iranians.”
On North Korea: “[A now-retired general] took $3million
through me from the N. Koreans and asked me to give some drawings and
machines.”
Why late 2003 became crucial, explains Henderson,
because Al-Qaeda was far from vanquished in Afghanistan and with
Pakistan-linked centrifuge components heading towards Libya, President
Musharraf was under tremendous pressure from Washington. In all
likelihood, he was offered a way out: “Work with us and we will support
you. Blame all the nuclear nonsense on AQ Khan.” Gen Musharraf carried out
a theatre of Khan’s confession and pardon on Pak TV. Khan, earlier praised
by Musharraf remains a Pakistani hero of all times having been decorated
twice with Pakistan’s highest award Nishan-i-Imtiaz (Order of Excellence),
and also with Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Crescent of Excellence).
America
wants Khan’s continued confinement. Deprived by Pakistan the opportunity
to interrogate Khan, US is concerned that he may revive his old networks.
Echoing the official view, The New York Times called this month for
restrictions to remain on Khan for his “heinous role as maestro of the
world’s largest nuclear black market”. If Khan is free to travel and speak
openly, there is a danger that he will give his own account of events,
opening up a can of worms and complicating relations with Washington. Now
that his letter has been revealed, he hopes his story will be told
differently.
Wonders Henderson if there was much money? Much was
made of a “hotel”, named after Khan’s wife, Henny, built by a local tour
guide with the help of money from Khan and a group of friends in Timbuktu,
West Africa. It is a modest structure at best, more of a guesthouse. But
why inaccessible Timbuctou of all the places, a place visited by the
author in 1979.
[The Timbuctou hotel located in Mali provided a
pretext to visit to visit Libya and even go across to Niger, a well known
source for Yellow cake aka Uranium.]
Perhaps there was not that
much money earned in the operations except from Saudi Arabia (which might
even have a nuke or so. German media sometimes talked of a nuke program).
Apart from appearing as a trail blazer and champion of Islamic nations by
manufacturing ‘an Islamic bomb’ , after the Protestant , Anglican
,Catholic ,Orthodox ,Confucian and Hindu Nukes, transfer of technology to
Iran, Libya and other Muslim countries would take angry focus away from
Pakistan , as it has , first on Libya and then on Iran .
When
Neocon driven President George Bush , pumped up with history ‘s mightiest
military power ‘Testosterone ‘ (US spends as much on defense as the rest
of the world put together ) invaded Iraq illegally in March, 2003 against
the wishes of the UN Security Council and the world community, Libya got
cold feet and promptly declared and stopped its nuclear program . It is
doubtful if Libya with its limited technology infrastructure could have
built a bomb. Similarly, Iran at the receiving end from Washington, ever
since the Mullahs expelled Shah of Iran, US gendarme in the Middle East,
got a scare and stopped its nuclear bomb program. From reports from IAEA,
Vienna, it appears that the program remains suspended, inspite of all
dubious and western planted data having been exposed. US corporate media
is mostly propaganda while BBC in UK is the worst spinner of the truth.
The information now proffered by ‘Sunday Time’ and much more,
available from the media has been italicized and underlined in my article
below.
Emerging Strategic Nuclear Environment: Iran & North
Korea; 29 May, 2005
While posted at Dakar in Senegal in West Africa ,I
commenced in October 1980 the first leg of my travelathon crisscrossing
continents on an Air Algeria flight which after a brief halt at Nouakchott
, Mauritania , zigzagged East to Niamey, Niger's throbbing capital (thanks
to uranium). Looking down from the plane, the journey across Sahara,
crossing river Niger, over Timbuktu and Gao was fascinatingly dull. I
wondered if all these little known places and Bamako (Mali), N'jamena
(Chad) and Bangui (Central African Republic) might become household words
like Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, once the reportedly buried uranium
wealth underneath were mined to fuel energy needs of last decade of this
century and early 2lst century.
But in spite of wake up calls in
1970s of hydrocarbon energy shortage, the corporate interests in oil and
gas, which is so profitable, did little to develop nuclear or other means
of energy. So Niger has become notorious for its uranium mines for weapons
use, and sometimes for its famines. President George W. Bush used alleged
attempts by Saddam Hussein, proved concocted, to get uranium from Niger
for weapons, as one of the causes belli to invade Iraq.
However, it
was the Bhopal ( India) born Pakistan national and German trained
metallurgist and nuclear scientist and a globalizer in nuclear weapons
technology ,Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, who last year brought into world focus,
Timbuktu ,which even the much traveled Indian journalist Khuswant Singh
thought was a only a verbal expression , when I told him about it. For in
November 1979 after presenting my letters of credence in Bamako, saying
now or never, I undertook a journey by road and by boat on river Niger, to
sample some romance of the earlier travelers, to the famous Eldorado,
where during medieval centuries a pound of salt fetched an ounce of gold,
attracting traders, invaders and scholars making Timbuktu a great centre
of Islamic culture and civilization.
Who would have ever thought
in 1979 that Khan would love Timbuktu so much that he would even invest in
a hotel there (It appears that Hotel La Colombe (?) has been named for his
wife -shades of a minor Shah Jehan).But even Dr Watson would tell Sherlock
Holmes why, so that he could travel from Pakistan to Timbuktu and back and
supervise transfer of yellow cake to Pakistan and elsewhere. One can
easily fly east from Timbuktu to Niger or go by road or river. He went
around openly, flying around to Morocco, Mali, Chad, Sudan and every where
the maker of the Islamic bomb was a welcome hero.
The media accused Khan last year when the scandal about
his proliferation activities exploded, of him even using Pakistan military
aircrafts to transport furniture for his Timbuktu hotel project from
Pakistan. Pray Dr Watson, what came back in empty Pakistani military
aircrafts. Yellow cake, of course. Not even the gullible would believe
that such top secret transfers were not known to the all powerful ISI, the
Intelligence Services of Pakistan or the western intelligence services.
Recently a former Dutch Prime Minister said that he was stopped from
moving against Khan by USA’s Central Intelligence Agency.
The
Muslim world has been oppressed and exploited by the Christian West since
centuries and Pakistan’s pioneering role is part of the battle to face up
to the western challenge, whether as an ally (against India ) or as an
opponent sooner or later). But for its nuclear arsenal, USA after 119
would have come down on Pakistan even more heavily. So Iran has only taken
the Pakistan ignited torch to share its nuclear capability for peaceful
uses with Muslim and other nations as part of millennia old Jihad versus
Crusade. If non-Muslim third world nations too join in this struggle then
it would also become a North vs South struggle and confrontation.
AQ Khan’s contribution to Globalization of nuclear
weapons technology
Khan, a Pakistani national, while employed in early 1970s
by Physics Dynamic Research Laboratory, based in Amsterdam, a
subcontractor to the URENCO consortium specializing in the manufacture of
nuclear equipment, was persuaded in 1975 to take over Pakistan’s Uranium
enrichment plant by Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who after
India’s 1974 nuclear implosion had vowed that Pakistan would have its
Islamic bomb even if “we eat grass” Khan took over in 1976 bringing with
him stolen secret URENCO blueprints for uranium centrifuge and the
suppliers list .
Convicted in 1983 in abstentia by a court in the
Netherlands for stealing the designs, his conviction would be later
overturned on a technicality. Then US supported and financed and Pakistan
facilitated Jihad against USSR in Afghanistan was in full swing. The
purloined material used for enrichment of Uranium was used in Pakistan's
first nuclear device on 28 May 1998. There are allegations that the
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons origins closely mirror Chinese designs from the
late 1960’s.
In March 2001, when Al Qaeda had shown its hand and
attacked US embassies in Africa and the close collaboration with
Pakistan’s ISI and military with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden was well
known. Khan, by now a national hero, was quietly retired but remained an
adviser to the new President General Pervez Musharraf. Khan’s
proliferation activities could become mushroom clouds over the west.
Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage in an article in Financial
Times of 1 June 2001, expressed concern that, "people who were employed by
the nuclear agency and have retired" may be assisting North Korea with its
nuclear program. Unsaid were fears of Taliban, Al Qaeda and nuclear
secrets passed on to Muslim countries like Libya and Iran among others.
In October 2003, Richard Armitage reportedly briefed Gen.
Musharraf and so did Gen. Abizaid, then head of US Central Command. But
the nuclear genii was already out of the bottle. With the international
inspections of Iran's nuclear operations and the October 2003 interception
of a ship headed for Libya and carrying centrifuge parts, Pakistan’s game
was out in the open, when United Nation's International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), weighed in November 2003. In late January 2004 Pakistani
officials concluded that Khan and Mohammed Farooq were doing black market
deals, but acting on their won, in sale of sensitive technology to Iran
and Libya, perhaps for their own personal gain. Musharraf first denied any
government involvement (He is adept at denials as Indian Prime Ministers
learn sooner or later). His pledged so called harsh punishment amounted to
house arrest. It only meant no one could meet or interview him.
Like Pakistan’s TV family melodramas, popular in India too, Khan admitted
selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea between 1989
and 2000 (to North Korea even beyond) and asked for clemency, which was
promptly granted. Any international investigation, not including US and
Chinese experts would show the truth of western acquiescence. Is murder of
former Prime Minister Hariri of Lebanon more important than wide spread
proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The network used to supply these
activities has turned out to be global in scope, stretching from Germany
to Dubai and from China to South Asia, and involves numerous middlemen and
suppliers. Khan Research Laboratories' sales brochure had promoted the
sale of components derived from Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and
critical to the making of centrifuges.
Khan traveled openly during
late 1990s to many countries around Niger, with Pakistani missions in
Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan, Kenya, Malaysia etc providing him all help .This
information is available in media and books. In Cleric Turaibi’s Sudan,
where Osama was guest after leaving and returning to Afghanistan, Khan met
the Sudanese President and the minister of education. Many times he was
accompanied by senior serving scientists of Pakistan's nuclear
establishment, responsible for Pakistan's military nuclear development.
These included Dr. Fakhrul Hasan Hashmi, Chief Scientific Adviser to Khan,
Brig. Tajwar, Director-General Security Khan’s Research Laboratory,
Dr.Nazir Ahmed, Director-General S&TC Division KRL among others. Khan and
his aides visited at least 10 African countries in February, 2000 alone.
An investigation into Khans’ activities revealed the transfer of
nuclear weapons-related technology, centrifuge parts, and blueprints to
Iran and Libya through a Malaysian middleman, Buhary Syed Abu Tahir. The
network comprised of European middlemen from Germany, Turkey, the United
Kingdom, and Switzerland which helped Khan in illicit trafficking and
proliferation of nuclear technology through countries ranging from the
United Arab Emirates, to South Korea, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, the
United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Times of India, in February and
March, 2004, reported that Khan sold Nuke Tech to Syria and Turkey.
North Korea & Pakistan in a Missile for Nukes Tango;
In Pakistan’s wide ranging nuclear proliferation,
specially with North Korea, almost all Pakistan Prime Ministers and
Military Chiefs were reportedly involved. Khan’s network reportedly played
a key role in North Korea’s nuclear program, including both centrifuge
designs and a small number of actual complete centrifuges, in addition to
a list of components needed to manufacture additional ones, after it had
agreed under the 1994 Agreed Framework to freeze its reactors and
reprocessing facilities. In return, in 1994 Pakistani Gen. Abudl Waheed
sent Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to Pyongyang for North Korean
assistance in nuclear-capable long range missiles and to bring back
computer disks containing specifications for missiles. It was reportedly
claimed that lack of money on Pakistan’s part made trading easier. Soon
Khan made the first of his about 13 trips to North Korea, as part of a
Pakistani delegation to Pyongyang, composed of both scientists and
military officers. At that time Gen. Musharraf was Gen Waheed’s director
general for military operations.
Khan confessed to helping North
Korea with the knowledge and approval of senior military commanders, among
which two army chiefs and Gen Musharraf, Gen. Karamat (dismissed by
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif thus cooking his own goose later),
now Ambassador to USA who secretly travelled to North Korea in December
1997. Khan claimed that Karamat was also aware of the terms of the barter
deal between North Korea and Pakistan, as Pakistan test-fired a Ghauri
missile in April 1998. Implicitly Musharraf knew too as after becoming
army chief of staff in October 1998, he also took over the Ghauri program.
In exchange, North Korea got centrifuge components between 1997-1999, with
Khan’s network providing direct technical assistance between the years
1998-2000.
In 2000, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence
conducted a charade raid on an aircraft chartered by the Khan Lab and
bound for North Korea because it was claimed that senior military
commanders were unaware of Khan's dealings with North Korea. The raid
obviously yielded no evidence. As late as July 2002, Pakistani cargo
planes were spotted by US Spy satellites in Pyongyang being loaded with
missile parts. Now President, Gen Musharraf claimed that these were
picking up surface-to-air missiles Pakistan had purchased. In April 2003,
a cargo-ship containing aluminum tubing, intended for use as outer casings
for G-2(P-2) centrifuges, was intercepted in the Suez Canal following
German conclusion that it was headed for North Korea. It was also reported
that Khan admitted that during a 1999 visit to an undisclosed location, an
hour out of Pyongyang, he witnessed firsthand what were described to be
three plutonium nuclear devices produced by North Korea.
However,
only in August 2005, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for the first
time confirmed, during an interview with the Japanese news agency Kyodo,
that Khan had transferred centrifuges and centrifuge parts as well as
their designs on to North Korea.
September 19, 2005 Agreement with North Korea
After three years of confrontation, choice insults hurled
at each other ( US and North Korea ) and off and on negotiations - a
statement of principles intended to form a framework for an eventual
agreement was signed on 19 September 2005 ,after four rounds of six-party
talks in Beijing. Under intense pressure from its neighbors and the United
States, North Korea signed up to the document that commits it - in theory
- to scrapping its nuclear weapons and weapons programs and readmitting
inspectors from IAEA. The North Korea's neighbors and the US, in return,
have agreed to supply energy assistance and move towards diplomatic
normalization. The US also promised it had no nuclear weapons on the
Korean peninsula and had no intention to attack the North Korea. However
it is to be seen how the details are worked out November to implement the
agreement and how North Korea's nuclear claims would be verified.
While a fundamental disagreement over the scope of North Korea's nuclear
capabilities has also not been addressed, the agreed statement looks like
the minimum necessary face saver to keep the diplomatic process alive. It
was warmly welcomed in the region - perhaps more out of relief than any
expectation of an early settlement. The accord is "an important turning
point that will help peace take root," said a statement issued by the
South Korean government. If North Korea has lied so has USA broken
international laws and treaties, invaded Iraq against UN opposition, so
there is little trust in each other.
Pakistan’s help to Iran;
Following Iran's disclosure of uranium enrichment research
and subsequent inspections last year, the central role of Pakistan in
Iran's nuclear program was unearthed. According to media reports, Khan
reportedly told Inter Services Intelligence officials that he transferred
nuclear weapons technology so that other Muslim countries could use it to
enhance their security.
Global Security.Org website says that
,”according to confessions by A.Q. Khan and his aides to Pakistani
investigators, he reportedly implicated among others, Gen. Mirza Aslam
Beg, the commander of Pakistan's army from 1988-1991, and that any nuclear
technology shared with Iran had been approved by him. These charges were
denied by Beg. But there was evidence that Beg had been informed by Khan
of the transfer to Iran in early 1991 of outdated hardware, though it has
been claimed that A.Q. Khan had led him to believe that the material would
not allow Iran to produce enriched uranium.
“A.Q. Khan has claimed
that equipment and drawing shipped to Iran were supplied as a result of
pressure from the late Gen. Imtiaz during his tenure as defense advisor to
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from December 1988 to August 1990. Khan also
admitted to meeting Iranian scientists in Karachi at the request of Dr.
Niazi, a close Bhutto aide. In return for the help, Iran transferred
millions of dollars to foreign bank accounts, with some money funneled
through the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which collapsed in
1991.
“Some of the centrifuges examined also appeared to have been
used outside Iran to enrich uranium, while components of some centrifuges
appeared to have come directly from Pakistan. Though some of the machines
Iran had bought did not work properly, Iran reportedly still managed to
effect significant improvements on Pakistani equipment designs. Despite
the design similarities, Iran has nonetheless denied having received them
from Pakistan.
“Faced with disclosure, Khan reportedly contacted
Iranian officials to not only urge them to destroy some of their
facilities but also to pretend that the Pakistanis who had assisted them
had died. In early March 2005, Pakistan acknowledged A. Q. Khan had
provided centrifuges to Iran, though it denied having had any knowledge of
the transactions.“
Iran counters Western opposition;
In his statement at the UN General Assembly, the recently
elected President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the West of "nuclear
apartheid" and lambasted them as sponsors of state terrorism around the
world. "Those hegemonic powers, who consider scientific and technological
progress of independent and free nations as a challenge to their monopoly
on these instruments of power ... have misrepresented Iran's healthy and
fully safeguarded technological endeavors in the nuclear field as pursuit
of nuclear weapons," he said. "This is nothing but a propaganda ploy."
Young, austere and ascetic Ahmadinejad is a product of the 1979 Khomeini
revolution and not a Cleric like Khattami or bazzari (trader) like
Rafsanjani, his predecessors and stuck to Iran’s right to process uranium
fuel for its nuclear power reactors as permitted under non-proliferation
treaty. He offered partnership to other countries in Iran's uranium
enrichment program and sought to broaden the stalled E-3 talks with UK,
France and Germany on Tehran's nuclear program. Iran "is prepared to
engage in serious partnership with private and public sectors of other
countries to implement uranium enrichment program in Iran. This represents
the most far-reaching step ... being proposed by Iran." South Africa gave
up its nuclear program after its independence after the peaceful collapse
of the apartheid regime. Iran’s offer was also aimed to attract others
with any similar ambitions like Brazil, Argentina, Kazakhstan, and
Ukraine. The last two which had inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet
Union after its collapse, surrendered them.
Ahmadinejad said Iran
would not accept "nuclear apartheid" that permitted some countries to
enrich fuel, but not others. "We're not going to cave in to the excessive
demands of certain powers," Ahmadinejad said later at a media conference.
He correctly insisted the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT, gave
every signatory the right to produce nuclear fuel, an interpretation
wrongly disputed by the West. He insisted that Iran's program was purely
for peaceful civilian energy purposes and said Tehran would cooperate with
the IAEA, although he hinted that it would consider withdrawing from the
NPT if the matter was sent to the Security Council.
He denied media
reports that Iran would share nuclear technology with other Islamic
countries, saying that his remarks were quoted out of context. He “thanked
South Africa who could potentially be a negotiating partner," Ahmadinejad
said, adding that Iran will not limit the cooperation to only some
countries. In an interview with CNN, he did not rule out steps for an oil
price rise if sanctions were imposed on Iran." Any intelligent, healthy,
smart human being should use every resource in order to maintain his or
her freedom and independence," he replied when asked about the oil weapon.
Iran "has the means to defend and obtain its rights."
U.S. and EU
officials were disappointed with a British Foreign Office spokesman
saying: "This was an unhelpful speech on which we will now want to consult
our partners on the IAEA board of governors." French Foreign Minister
Philippe Douste-Blazy said the option of reporting Iran to the U.N.
Security Council "remains on the agenda." A senior US State Department
official privately briefed the media.”It's a very aggressive speech which
would seem to cross the EU3 red line, especially in one very important
regard with respect to enrichment."
Earlier addressing the UN,
Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, demanded that Iran return to
the negotiating table with the Europeans. "Questions about Iran's nuclear
activities remain unanswered despite repeated efforts by the International
Atomic Energy Agency and after agreeing to negotiate with the European
Union," she declared. "Iran should return to negotiations with the EU and
abandon for ever its plans for a nuclear weapons capability."
The
action has now shifted to Vienna, where a critical meeting of the board of
the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, began on 19 September. While European
diplomats in Vienna said the West had the support of at least 20 countries
on the 35-member IAEA board, Russia, China, India and Pakistan were
reluctant to send the dispute to UNSC.
Earlier on 18 September,
Iran warned the board of IAEA that "Our advice to the agency is to review
Iran's case tomorrow logically and realistically to avoid making the case
more complicated," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a
weekly news conference. "We haven't started (uranium) enrichment yet but
everything depends on the result of tomorrow's meeting," he said.
Western Reaction;
"For Iran, nuclear technology is a source of national
pride and a demonstration of its political and technological independence
from its former colonial masters," says Daryl Kimball, executive director
of Arms Control Association, a non-partisan organization that researches
nuclear issues. Kimball adds, "This is much more complicated than a simple
economic and energy calculation."
From the Western corporate
controlled media, a more independent Christian Science Monitors’ headline
on 19 September that “Iran bids to redefine nuclear limits- Iran's
president challenges the sway of Western powers” perhaps sums up best the
battle between Nuclear haves and have-nots. It commented “Ahmadinejad
declared at the U.N. Saturday that nuclear power was an "inalienable
right" for Iran and accused the West of practicing "nuclear apartheid" by
depriving it of nuclear know-how. In his address, President Ahmedinejad
accused the US of trying to divide the world into "light and dark
countries." The US was failing to abide by the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty (NPT) itself, he charged, with a doctrine that includes preemptive
strikes and developing a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons.
"It is, of course, an issue of proliferation, but really it is about
the nature of the [Iranian] regime, its politics, and its ambitions," says
Shahram Chubin, head of research at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
The dispute masks a power play "on both sides," between Iran and the US,
says Mr. Chubin, who runs an annual arms control course for diplomats
working on the Middle East. "It's a question of who is going to dominate
the regional order." Chubin should honestly admit that the developing
world supported by Russia, China, India and others is confronting Western
nuclear hegemony, inequitable in this sphere as it is everywhere.
Libya
Once Libya decided to 'come clean' on its weapons of mass
destruction programs the implications on A.Q. Khan and, possibly, Pakistan
were clear. Started in the early 1990s, Libya’s disclosed uranium
enrichment program appears based on both Pakistan’s centrifuge designs,
with some of the centrifuges having been flown there from Pakistan. Khan
confessed to meeting with Libyans in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1990. Libya was
also told by the Pakistanis how and where to acquire additional components
for this program. Components manufactured at a facility in Malaysia were
intercepted by the United States aboard a German-registered ship on their
way to Libya in October 2003 after having been spotted whilst going
through the Suez Canal.
Other Muslim Nations:
According to the minutes of a meeting of Select Committee
on Foreign Affairs of the British Parliament, its chairmen described Dr.
AQ Khan “history's greatest nuclear proliferator”. Dr. Gary Samore from
the International Institute for Strategic Studies said , “ I think we know
from documentary evidence that representatives of AQ Khan approached Iraq
in the months leading up to the 1991 war, and that Iraq never followed up
on that offer. That is one case. According to public reports, supposedly
AQ Khan approached both Syria and Saudi Arabia, both of whom, for whatever
reason, decided not to purchase his services. I think we have to assume
that AQ Khan knocked on every door. We may very well learn that he had
contacts with other governments in the Middle East but whether anybody
actually bought anything, at this point in time, I am not aware.”
While there has been no report of any nuclear program in Saudi Arabia in
such a secretive society but with such wealth it cannot be ruled out. It
has very close military relations with Pakistan. It is well-known that
Saudi Arabia granted monetary support for Pakistan nuclear program
throughout its duration. Saudi Arabia which considered himself as the
leader of the Sunnis was happy that Pakistan succeeded in acquiring the
Islamic bomb. A home of Wahabbis , an ideology which it exports , even to
Muslim countries ,it kept on denying that there are no Al Qaeda groups in
the Kingdom .After every Al Qaeda attack it claims that there are no more
left .No one know what is boiling inside the cauldron.
Israel’s Haaretz on Crisis;
Yossi Melman writing in Haaretz of Israel, the main
beneficiary if Iran were stopped in its tracks, said,” the delaying
tactics that Iran has perfected over the past two and a half years are
proving themselves yet again. Despite the fact that the "new" proposals
voiced last night by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad contain nothing
new, the international community is able to see them as a ladder to help
him down from his high perch.
The Iranian president is proposing
the establishment of a new international monitoring body to supervise his
country's uranium-enrichment program and ensure that the finished product,
which the Iranians say is for peaceful purposes only, is not used to
produce nuclear arms. “
In truth the monitoring body IAEA already
exists but the Iranian proposal does contain a semblance of compromise,
and will presumably allow the board of governors of the IAEA, to again put
off making a decision - one that has been put off repeatedly for more than
a year now.
“Opposing voices are coming from Washington, too - not
surprisingly. A decision to transfer the matter to the UN Security Council
will severely shake the international markets, and send oil prices
skyrocketing to $70 and maybe even $80 a barrel. A significant rise in oil
prices could work against the Republicans - already weakened in the wake
of the botched handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster - in the
upcoming elections to Congress in November.”
In “UN Security
Council, there is no chance of the body imposing sanctions on Tehran -
both due to the oil crisis that such a decision could spur, and because
Russia and China would veto such a move.
”Iran is looking to buy
time so that, under the cover of its overt uranium-enrichment program, it
can secretly develop infrastructure and fissile materials that will
facilitate the production of nuclear arms. But Iran also fears
international isolation and - even more so - the possibility of coming
under attack. Therefore, Ahmadinejad's speech could serve as a convenient
tool for all those involved in the Iranian game to put off the decision
that everyone is so afraid of.”
Developing Nations and India;
As for Iran, it resumed its work at the plant near Isfahan
in August, where uranium oxide is converted to uranium hexafluoride gas –
but only under the watchful eyes of the IAEA inspectors. This gas is the
feedstock for centrifuges that enrich uranium to varying degrees: 4
percent for power plants, 20 percent for research reactors, and 90
percent-plus for weapons.
As the West does not have majority at the
IAEA meeting, they settled on asking Iran to suspend its activities
related to uranium enrichment, and for the IAEA secretary-general Muhammad
El Baradei to report on the issue by September 3. El Baradei's 15-page
report was a mixed bag. While insisting that Iran maintain transparency,
the report did not invalidate the IAEA's earlier conclusion that it had
not found evidence that Iran was engaged in a banned nuclear weapons
program.
The only valid basis to take Iran to the UN Security
Council for its breach of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime is
enshrined in the NPT. Following the IAEA meeting, Russia – which is
building a civilian nuclear power plant near Bushehr, said that it saw no
evidence that Tehran was violating the non-proliferation regime. Many in
IAEA are cool to western bias and belong to the NAM, like Brazil, India,
Indonesia, and South Africa. Rajmah Hussein of Malaysia, the current NAM
chairman, reiterated NAM's position that all countries have "a basic and
inalienable right" to develop atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
Wrote Dilip Hero recently, ”NAM members note that while Western nations
repeatedly ask why Iran is so insistent on building nuclear power plants
when the country has vast reserves of oil and natural gas, they never pose
the same question to the Russians, who have built a large number of
nuclear power plants despite having the largest natural gas reserves in
the world. In any event, according to a recent estimate by British
Petroleum, oil consumption in Iran was rising so fast that the country
would become a net oil importer by 2024.
”By design or accident,
Iran has positioned itself as a champion of the third world, with the
courage and conviction to stand up to the Western powers. This has won it
quiet admiration from many NAM governors, who fear that the limitations
imposed on Iran could eventually extend to them. The experience of the
past few months has made it clear that any further pressure on Iran to
relinquish its right to uranium enrichment at the forthcoming quarterly
meeting of the IAEA Governors will likely cause an open fissure with the
developing world. The double standard applied in implementing
nonproliferation is coming home to roost.”
Indian Dilemma;
Nothing seems to be more important than Iran for USA which
took up the bulk of George Bush-and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
tête-à-tête. For India it has become a major problem in its rising energy
requirement security program .It needs natural gas from Iran and nuclear
power technology from USA .It was a major problem for Manmohan Singh in
New York for the UNGA session, which was meant to reform it and expand the
SC membership in which India deserves to be added.
It has became clear
that if at the forthcoming IAEA board meeting if India did not support the
US move , the US Congress would not change its domestic laws to facilitate
the sale of civil nuclear energy equipment and technology to India. It was
a Republican Congressman from California, Tom Lantos , a member of the
India-US Caucus who while supporting the move to sell US nuclear power
reactors and technology to India, made it conditional on India showing "a
degree of reciprocity", specifically on the US effort to isolate Iran.
What is deeply worrying that Lantos' views were echoed by virtually
all members of the House International Relations Committee, cutting across
party lines, many members of the India Caucus in the House? If this was
how India's friends viewed the Indo-US agreement on nuclear cooperation,
what about India baiters.
Was Lantos' outburst “a maverick effort
or was it orchestrated by the White House to mount pressure on Delhi,
without harming the Teflon coating of shared values and enduring relations
that Bush had worked so diligently to create? If it's the latter, then
what could India do beyond what it had already done to reassure the US
that it shared its goals with respect to Iran, but disagreed on the means
adopted? “India had already supported an IAEA's resolution expressing
concern over Iran's decision to resume the enrichment of uranium after
disabling the IAEA's monitoring systems. Iran has to fulfill its
commitments as a signatory of the NPT and announced India's support for
the attempts being made by E-3 to find a way to resolve the differences
without resorting to coercion.
USA has been openly demanding that
India back out of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project? Finally,
there was the nagging worry that if India gives in, Iran will only be the
thin end of the wedge of American demands. While George Bush may assure
Manmohan Singh that he stood by their July joint statement of nuclear
cooperation and hoped that Congress would give its approval.
Apart
from danger of becoming almost a lame duck President, the US has a long
record of signing agreements and treaties only to have Congress refuse to
ratify them later. ”What is most disturbing about the attempt to change
the laws governing nuclear sales to India is the way in which the issue
had become embroiled in the larger one of constitutional prerogative. When
Burns presented the case for a relaxation of existing laws to exempt
India, many members of the committee rounded on him for daring to make
commitments to India without first consulting the House of Representatives
and the Senate. Even if the administration got past the House of
Representatives, it still had to face the Senate. “
Indians who
look on US strategic relationship with dreamy eyes might look at the state
US led West has reduced Pakistan to .India might also look at the fate of
USA’s decades old NATO ally Turkey, where both needed and still need each
other and to what extent to rely on USA .A Turkish Deputy Prime Minister
told the author, who spent nearly ten years in two tenures as diplomat in
Ankara.”Mr. Ambassador, you cannot trust the Americans, even on what they
give you in writing.”
Pak Israel make up in Turkey;
The recent meeting between the Foreign Ministers of
Pakistan and Israel in Istanbul with encouragement from Turkish Prime
Minister Erdogan could perhaps be the beginning of a far reaching
developments-post Hyper power USA ‘s system now exposed at home by
Hurricane Katrina while the Iraqi quagmire is deepening. In post US
withdrawal scene, in the region there are four middle level major players,
Israel, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, but only Turkey does not have a known
nuclear bomb program. USA will have to rely more on Israel, which
reportedly has 100 nuclear bombs.
It was a year after the US
invasion of Iraq that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Vice
President Dick Cheney that USA had messed it up in Iraq and had no backup
plan either. The fate of the region may not be decided by Turkey, Israel,
Iran and Pakistan but they have a major role to bring in peace and
stability to the region and safe guard their interests.
In 1995
when Dr AQ Khan visited Ankara, at a reception when I asked the British
envoy, if there was a Turkish nuclear program, he retorted what about
India's nuclear program. I snapped back,” why does UK need one. To use it
against North Ireland or Malvinas.” British ambassadors always acted as US
poodles and he was clearly not happy to be probed. However, on the basis
of available information, while the Turkish industry is advanced enough to
have a Customs Union with Europe Union in 1996, there appear no research
centers including its civil research centre at Tubitak, unless the
military has a covert program. But Turkey is surrounded by countries
having nuclear weapons and wannabe Iran and almost all with missiles.
Turkey has no missiles program of its own but is very keen to have one.
Turkish Ambassador in Bucharest has no time to answer any queries on this
or any other subject!
During his first ever visit to India in
1995, Turkish President Suleyman Demirel, a former engineer himself went
around Tata’s Fundamental Research centre and the Atomic Energy Research
centre in Bombay. On return he wistfully remarked that “look India has
hundreds of nuclear engineers and scientists as does Pakistan (which he
visited six times). Turkey is economically and militarily a powerful
nation and would certainly like to have a nuclear program. It seems to be
the only defense currency nowadays .It has seen and suffers from the
consequences of USA's unilateral and illegal invasion of Iraq in search of
free oil and to control of the region. At this rate Iraq might be reduced
to the rubble level of Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan who met with Iran's president on the sidelines of a U.N. summit on
15 September said that Ahmadinejad assured him that Iran wants to be as
transparent as possible and was in touch with the IAEA. Erdogan denied
that they talked about transfer of nuclear technology and said Turkey
wouldn't accept the offer anyway.
The possession of half a dozen
nuclear bombs by North Korea have proved that only Nuclear weapons can
protect a poor and small nation and guard its sovereignty. Pakistan, one
seventh India’ size because of its nuclear threat continues to blackmail
and bully India, in which it has been encouraged and aided by
Anglo-Saxons. It is natural that Iran after mastering the legal Uranium
fuel cycle would embark on the Pakistani path and could arrive there
sooner or later.
It is therefore time for Turkey to start
preparing for the same objective. If Turkey has a nuclear program or is on
the way, Israel will feel less singled out. While Israel may not provide
any assistance, if Pakistan or anyone else helps, Israel with its control
over US Congress and decision-making machinery can ease the situation, now
for Pakistan and later for Turkey. Already Pakistan is demanding parity
with India on nuclear reactors. It will get F-16s or whatever it else
wants.
It has not dawned on India’s Hindu hardliners, many of whom
believe that all Muslims are against Israel and also against Hindus
because of Pakistan’s successful propaganda. The Hindu Muslim cleavage was
assiduously promoted during the British era and is a colonial legacy. But
apart from diplomatic relations with Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Israel has
relations with Turkey since Israel’s creation by western powers .Israel
has an Embassy in Baku and relations with other Turkic republics in
Central Asia.
Relations can be hostile between Muslim states as can
be seen in the Arab world .Nearer India ,let us take majority Sunni
Pakistan and Shia Iran .During 1980s there was a papered over joint front
against USSR in Afghanistan, but underneath there were tremendous
differences and enmity, which led to open brutal warfare after the
withdrawal of the Soviet troops in 1989.Since then Iran and Pakistan
supported by Saudi Arabia kept up proxy battles supporting different
Mujahidin groups in Afghanistan till now , while Saudi Arabia and Iran
support to Sunni and Shia extremists in Pakistan.
To whatever
extent Pakistan and Turkey remain attached to USA and NATO, it is because
of Russia lurking in the background. Iran with this oil wealth is now
well-placed economically and could become the avant garde of the East in
the progressive confrontation which US led West is mounting, with Russia
and China openly backing Iran on the nuclear issue .In the energy sector
both China and India need Iran. Nuclear Pakistan‘s relationship with the
Russia would remains undefined, while Russia benefits by strengthening
Iran.
Pak Israel relations;
After the Pakistan and Israel Ministers meeting Istanbul,
President Musharraf accepted an invitation to address an interfaith
conference this month organized by the Council for World Jewry when he
comes to New York for the UN General Assembly. "It is learnt that covert
contacts between representatives of the Jewish state and Pakistan had been
going on for several months through diplomatic and informal channels.
However, the decisive factor for the first open political contact between
the two countries was the Israeli pullout from Gaza last month, which in
Pakistan is viewed as a positive move and has been welcomed by the
government," Dawn added. Some lame excuse!
Relations with Pakistan
are important for Israel. Pakistan is one of the most populous Muslim
countries, and establishing ties could soften enmity towards the Jewish
state in other Muslim countries. Israeli officials also believe that
relations with Pakistan could set off a chain reaction in the region, with
countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh following suit.
Musharraf, a key US ally in the Indian sub-continent, has been gradually
moving toward conciliation with Israel, despite strong opposition from
powerful Islamic radical parties in Pakistan. But the head of the ruling
Pakistan Muslim League said the Arab world would benefit from Pakistan and
Israel establishing relations."
Pakistan would also benefit by
dampening to some extent the emerging close relationship between India and
Israel specially supply of crucial military hardware to India. Ruthless as
Israeli's are, which the Indian right-wing does not understand, Tel Aviv
would exploit its relationship with Pakistan to bargain with India. There
have been reports of Pakistan assistance to US interference in Iran. It
appears that any Israeli proposal, reported from time to time, to bomb
Pakistan’s nuclear facilities is now off the table, at least for the time
being.
Yes, Iran is really worried. "The meeting between Pakistan
and Israel is a great blow to the policies of the Islamic republic based
on an unabated antagonism with Israel and the 'Palestiniation' of its
diplomacy which, in the past two decades, were the cause of many crises in
Iran's foreign relations and increases in tensions with the United States,
resulting in huge damage to our national interests," commented Iran Emrooz,
a Persian-language Internet news website based in Germany.
While ,
there has been no comment from Tehran, a source close to the new
government of Ahmadinejad said, "They are shocked to the point of being
choked off," referring to the Iranian leaders. "As usual, when Iranian
officials are jolted and horrified to the point of being astounded at some
news they are not ready for, they keep silent until the oracle comes from
the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei," the source added, speaking on
condition of not being named.
"As a result of a foolish diplomacy
based on the destruction of Israel, Iran has suffered enormous diplomatic
humiliations and economic losses," said Dr Shahin Fatemi, a professor of
Economy at the American University of Paris. "The biggest danger for the
Islamic republic is that the Pakistanis, under growing pressures from
Washington, might inform Israel on the extent of cooperation offered by
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the so-called father of Pakistan's atomic bomb and the
materials he sold to Tehran secretly," said Hasan Shari'atmadari, a member
of the Iranian Republican Movement based in Hamburg, Germany. It is silly
pro-West assessment.
Throughout history Iran has always existed as
a powerful state in the region and would continue to aspire and do so,
whatever USA and its brutal Sheriff Israel might want to do in the region.
This is not the first time in history that Iranians are controlling Iraq.
The Sassanians controlled Mesopotamia and battled with the Romans and
Byzantines and later against the Ottoman Turks. The Sunni Ottomans could
reach Vienna but were stopped at the present border by Persian Shia
Safavids.
Power flows through a nuclear armed Missile;
"The US only takes countries seriously that have reached a
certain degree of technological and economic power (hence the cooperation
with India)," says Bijan Khajehpour, an analyst and chairman of the Atieh
Group of companies in Tehran. "This fact certainly motivates Iran to
become ... more powerful."
To dispel fears of Iran's nuclear
intentions, Mr. Ahmadinejad spelled out acceptance of broader oversight,
suggesting the involvement of third countries such as South Africa, or
even private companies working with Iranian scientists. He also appeared
to indicate that Iran was constrained by Islam in developing weapons.
"[I]n accordance with our religious principles, pursuit of nuclear weapons
in prohibited," he said.
Iran bid for more support from nonaligned
countries - and sought to counter the US push to isolate the Islamic
Republic - when Ahmadinejad promised to share its nuclear knowledge with
other Muslim countries. "We believe that atomic energy is a blessing given
by God; it is an opportunity given to all nations," the staunchly
conservative leader said.
"Ironically, those who have actually used
nuclear weapons, continue to produce, stockpile and extensively test such
weapons ... [and] are not only refusing to remedy their past deeds, but in
clear breach of the NPT, are trying to prevent other countries from
acquiring the technology to produce peaceful nuclear energy."
The
offer to share nuclear technology has "changed the dynamics," says Mr.
Khajehpour, because "some Western players now see more reason to stop
Iran's efforts to enrich uranium." But the offer was likely "targeted at
Iran's neighbors to give them assurances that Iran is not planning to
deprive the region of nuclear technology."
Still, the offer has set
off alarm bells in Western capitals. "That's red meat for anyone concerned
with nonproliferation and security threats," and may prove to be "another
bargaining chip to give away," says Natalie Goldring, at the Security
Studies Program at Georgetown University in Washington.
But the
inability of the US and EU to muster sufficient votes at the IAEA or
Security Council to sanction Iran, for a combination of reasons, points
toward a shifting nonproliferation framework.
"The US has very
little leverage with potential proliferators," says Ms. Goldring. "When
headlines in the US talk of preemptive attacks on countries without
nuclear weapons, and that [the US] will improve its tactical nuclear
arsenal, our leverage is zero or negative."
"We've given the
message to Iran that we will not do a whole lot to stand in their way,"
says Goldring, noting that India and Pakistan, after detonating secret
nuclear devices in 1998, survived sanctions and are now being courted by
the US. "If I were in Iran, I would see a US tied down in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Mississippi, so Iran has some freedom of movement now."
In Tehran, says Chubin, "they talk about the rising East, the rising
Asia - this is the old multipolarity: 'If we get Iran tied to Russia,
China, and India, then the US would not be able to do anything.'" "And the
Russians almost say the same thing," adds Chubin, who visited Moscow
earlier this month. "They do it politely, but they are constantly
complaining about US influence.... The Russians are not going to annoy the
Americans by supporting Iran, but they are not going to make it easy for
them, either."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his opening
address at the UN session said that the consensus underlying the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty was badly frayed but nations would rather point
fingers at each other than work for solutions. "We face growing risks of
proliferation and catastrophic terrorism, and the stakes are too high to
continue down a dangerous path of diplomatic brinkmanship," he said.
Henry Kissinger gets hillbillies;
The cold warier who called
Indira Gandhi and Indians names in a meeting with President Nixon , thinks
that if Bush's first term was dominated by the war against terrorism, the
second would be preoccupied with the effort to stem the spread of nuclear
weapons.
“This challenge is more complex than the first. Do we
oppose proliferation because of the rogue quality of the two regimes -
Iran and North Korea - furthest advanced on the road towards acquiring
nuclear weapons? Or is our opposition generic; does it extend to fully
democratic countries?
“During the Cold War, all of the principals
who might have to decide on the issue of nuclear war faced the dilemma
that such a decision could involve millions of casualties, yet a
demonstrated willingness to run this risk was necessary if the world was
not to be turned over to totalitarians. “
”All Cold War
administrations navigated these shoals. Deterrence worked because there
were only two main players in the world. Each made comparable assessments
of the perils to them of the use of nuclear weapons.
“But as
nuclear weapons spread, the calculus of deterrence grows increasingly
ephemeral. It becomes ever more difficult to decide who is deterring whom
and by what calculations.” Finally, the experience with the proliferation
network demonstrates the consequences to the international order of the
spread of nuclear weapons even when the proliferating country does not
meet the formal criteria of rogue state.
“For these reasons, it is
the fact, not the provenance, of further proliferation that needs to be
resisted. The loathsomeness of a regime that undertakes proliferation
compounds the problem and provides a sense of urgency, but in this
analysis it is not the decisive factor. We should oppose nuclear
proliferation even to a democratic Iran.
“How do we prevent the
diplomatic process from turning into a means to legitimize proliferation
rather than avert it? We must never forget that failure will usher in a
new set of nuclear perils dwarfing those that we have just surmounted.”
Recently the doddering warrior, accused by many as a war criminal,
was put on an American Channel. The very idea of Iran having a bomb gave
him the hillbillies.
In 1970s when my son in school first learnt
what getting hillbillies’ means, a good actor, he tried to express it by
facial and voice contortions like some cartoon characters. But he was no
match for Henry Kissinger‘s act of fear, which most of the world or any
one “who is not with us, is against us” has lived with, since USA dropped
two Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
(K Gajendra Singh, served as Indian Ambassador to Turkey
and Azerbaijan in1992 -96. Prior to that, he served as ambassador to
Jordan (during the1990 - 91Gulf war), Romania and Senegal. He is currently
chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies, in Bucharest. The
views expressed here are his own. - Email-Gajendrak@hotmail.com)
September 21, 2009
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