Is Pakistan Using U.S. Aid to Expand Nuclear Arsenal?
By Susie Madrak Monday May 18, 2009 5:30pmOh, I'd say this is a pretty safe bet! (In an unsafe kind of way.)
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have been told in confidential briefings that Pakistan is rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal even while racked by insurgency, raising questions on Capitol Hill about whether billions of dollars in proposed military aid might be diverted to Pakistan’s nuclear program.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed the assessment of the expanded arsenal in a one-word answer to a question on Thursday in the midst of lengthy Senate testimony. Sitting beside Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, he was asked whether he had seen evidence of an increase in the size of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.
“Yes,” he said quickly, adding nothing, clearly cognizant of Pakistan’s sensitivity to any discussion about the country’s nuclear strategy or security. Inside the Obama administration, some officials say, Pakistan’s drive to spend heavily on new nuclear arms has been a source of growing concern, because the country is producing more nuclear material at a time when Washington is increasingly focused on trying to assure the security of an arsenal of 80 to 100 weapons so that they will never fall into the hands of Islamic insurgents.
The administration’s effort is complicated by the fact that Pakistan is producing an unknown amount of new bomb-grade uranium and, once a series of new reactors is completed, bomb-grade plutonium for a new generation of weapons. President Obama has called for passage of a treaty that would stop all nations from producing more fissile material — the hardest part of making a nuclear weapon — but so far has said nothing in public about Pakistan’s activities.
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Money out, bad.
C'mon Barack. Look what you're doing to alex jones...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR2UXmTGK4M
If I had to pick one U.S. ally that we should NOT be helping to increasing its nuclear arsenal right now, it's Pakistan... a government in imminent risk of collapse with the Taliban waiting in the wings to take over.
If such activity IS in place, I guarantee it's a hold-over from the Bush Administration and someone needs to put the ky-bosh on it quick.
and exactly who was it that destabilized Pakistan?
*Iran* is the scary nuclear boogey monster. Not the already nuclear politically unstable Pakistan.
It is Iran that will kill us all because they hate our freedom, not the Al-Qaida & Taliban embedded Pakistan.
It is Iran who can't have nukes, not Pakistan who had nuclear brinkmanship with India a decade ago.
It is Iran that has been rumoured to have bought nuclear technology from.. Pakistan. It isn't that Pakistan had individuals selling nuclear tech to the highest bidder.
Please keep up!
Pakistan is not under threat of immediate collapse and the Taliban or any radical Islamic force are not on the verge of obtaining Pakistan's nuclear weapons. What we are seeing is a process of destabilization and demonization of Pakistan, conducted particularly by American officials, that began after Pakistan's military dictator was forced to step down by a groundswell of opposition from civil society. These vague prognostications of imminent disaster have a hidden agenda, and are on par with the Saddam / WMD fables.
This isn't news to me. Pakistan has been using US aid to help build up its nuclear weapons industry for years. The US has until recently just chosen to look the other way.
I would be a lot more concerned about this than Iran's theoretical program.
There has got to be a nuclear freeze involving all parties, including India, in South Asia. Maybe Israel would have to be part of it to get Muslims to go along.
Musharaf had easy time taking Billions of US dollars from the lowest intelectual President in the history fo the US, i.e., George Bush. Now, current President of Pakistan has successfully fooled Obama and taken US money not only to fund their nuclear arsenal but also to fund Taliban.
How easily American forget that Pakistan is controlled by dangerous fundametal muslims who have very clear agendas, that is to expand Islamic faith, destroy Israel, and kill anyone that opposes Islamic agenda. I have no doubt that the first nuclear bomb and delivery system for dropping it on an Israel city will be delivered to Hamas or Taliban or to Iran by Pakistan.
Is Pakistan using US aid to expand nuclear arsenal?
More importantly, is the country with the largest nuclear arsenal in history, the US, slaughtering people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq? Maybe it's somewhat sensible for Pakistan to augment their nuclear weapons as a possible deterrent to continued US attack. And there's also the possibility that the US is knowingly using aid to feed Pakistan's nuclear weaponry while at the same time supporting Pakistan's arch-rival India in its nuclear programs, thus sowing further division which can be used as a smokescreen for the US to further exploit the region's resources, kinda like the US did with Iran and Iraq in the 80s.
It's rather like eating gold isn't it? There must be such a thrill to eat something so valuable. Trying to find something useful to do with gold that doesn't involve electronics must be really tough for the hoarders? You can't really use if for anything if you have it if you aren't making gadgets, so you figure you have to eat it.
A nuke is pretty similar. Can't really use it, so you have to have them. Brilliant minds in charge. They just can't figure a way to take the gold out of the shit that doesn't get their hands dirty.
On the ground in Pakistan:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05152009/pr...
India is happy about that. Hopefully it doesn't lead to an arms race, or a souring of U.S.-India relations.
and they've been doing so ever since their program started in the '80's. Successive US administrations of both parties have green lighted the Pakistani nuclear weapons program, lets hope its not a case of reaping what you've sown.
Pakistan doesn't have a long range delivery system, so if they do loose off a few nukes then its unlikely that the US will suffer directly. If they were to get hold of such a thing, e.g. from their friends in Nth Korea, then we'll all need to worry big time. BTW if you believe that AQ Khan carried out his proliferation activities without the knowledge of the Pakistani military then you probably still believe there are WMD's in Iraq.
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