"Fatal Error" Changed Nuclear History
By CBS News producer Wendy Krantz.
As searing images of Pakistani policemen with automatic weapons and riot gear appeared this week on our network and elsewhere, hours after Gen. Pervez Musharraf imposed martial law, two dogged investigators for the National Security News Service suggest in a new book that we may be one step away from a catastrophic meltdown in a country where the Taliban, al Qaeda and nuclear weapons are all in play.
In the book by David Armstrong and Joe Trento, titled "America and the Islamic Bomb: The Deadly Compromise," the authors provide a new perspective on Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear black market scandal and the circumstances that brought us to this nuclear crossroads today.
"Right now, we have a government that is barely hanging on, controlling a vast stash of nuclear weapons," Trento told CBS News. "American may be facing nuclear terrorism if the Pakistani government doesn't hang on."
Trento and Armstrong recently sat down with CBS News, discussing why we should be concerned about ongoing nuclear proliferation from members of Khan's former network and how a "fatal error" in 2000 changed the course of nuclear history forever.
"We heard about this amazingly brave, British customs inspector who had run up against the network," Trento said. "As he makes his discoveries and gets closer and closer to AQ Khan, he's pulled off the case, and told to stop it, leave it alone."
That's when it became clear, says Trento, that the intelligence services of Britain and the U.S. were actually protecting members of the AQ Khan network in what Trento calls "a cover-up." The result: proliferation continued for four more crucial years, allowing North Korea and Iran to move forward with their WMD programs. That's a gap, according to Trento, that could never be recovered.
U.S. intelligence sources tell CBS News that this is a misinterpretation of the situation, and that there was no fatal error. Rather, in an effort to protect "assets" and develop "actionable" intelligence, they say that the continued monitoring of Khan's network allowed them to develop further intelligence on the nuclear weapons programs in other countries.
That's an answer that doesn't sit well with Trento and Armstrong, or that loyal customs inspector, Atif Amin, who identified the front companies, the financial conduits, the middlemen and even the players who were procuring and providing all of this nuclear know-how for AQ Khan in early 2000.
In a recent videotaped interview with the National Security News Service, provided to CBS News, Amin says that he was puzzled that the U.S. waited to shut things down, adding that they could have been "more proactive" in disrupting this network years ago.
Armstrong and Trento offer example after example in their book of this "blind eye" policy, where members of Khan's network who were linked to proliferation activities were let off the hook. In some instances it was a case of intelligence sources tipping off some of the proliferators. In others, it was a case of Washington's long arm reaching down and tampering with the legal system. Evidence, Armstrong said, of Pakistan's nuclear "get-out-of jail-free" card.
Today, few members of the network have been held accountable, and many are free to travel. Not only are they not on the "no fly" list, says Trento, but some of Khan's middlemen are even living here - including an import/export businessmen in South Florida, recently granted U.S. citizenship, who appears to be using the social security number of a man currently in jail.
"We know that members of the network have largely escaped any kind of sanction, and in cases where there have been attempts at prosecution, it's been primarily slaps on the wrist, suspended sentences, small fines," Armstrong said. "There has been no real penalty, no repercussion, for the people who have participated in this and no real serious effort to wrap up the members of network and bring them to justice."
That leaves a potential pool of skilled engineers and technicians trained by Khan's gang available to anyone willing to pay.
"We have situation where you have warlords who first the CIA paid, and bin Laden has paid, who are basically available to the highest bidder, who may end up in control of a weapon," Trento said. "That is something that gives me great pause."
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. As searing images of Pakistani policemen with automatic weapons and riot gear appeared this week on our network and elsewhere, hours after Gen. Pervez Musharraf imposed martial law, two dogged investigators for the National Security News Service suggest in a new book that we may be one step away from a catastrophic meltdown in a country where the Taliban, al Qaeda and nuclear weapons are all in play.
In the book by David Armstrong and Joe Trento, titled "America and the Islamic Bomb: The Deadly Compromise," the authors provide a new perspective on Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear black market scandal and the circumstances that brought us to this nuclear crossroads today.
"Right now, we have a government that is barely hanging on, controlling a vast stash of nuclear weapons," Trento told CBS News. "American may be facing nuclear terrorism if the Pakistani government doesn't hang on."
Trento and Armstrong recently sat down with CBS News, discussing why we should be concerned about ongoing nuclear proliferation from members of Khan's former network and how a "fatal error" in 2000 changed the course of nuclear history forever.
"We heard about this amazingly brave, British customs inspector who had run up against the network," Trento said. "As he makes his discoveries and gets closer and closer to AQ Khan, he's pulled off the case, and told to stop it, leave it alone."
That's when it became clear, says Trento, that the intelligence services of Britain and the U.S. were actually protecting members of the AQ Khan network in what Trento calls "a cover-up." The result: proliferation continued for four more crucial years, allowing North Korea and Iran to move forward with their WMD programs. That's a gap, according to Trento, that could never be recovered.
U.S. intelligence sources tell CBS News that this is a misinterpretation of the situation, and that there was no fatal error. Rather, in an effort to protect "assets" and develop "actionable" intelligence, they say that the continued monitoring of Khan's network allowed them to develop further intelligence on the nuclear weapons programs in other countries.
That's an answer that doesn't sit well with Trento and Armstrong, or that loyal customs inspector, Atif Amin, who identified the front companies, the financial conduits, the middlemen and even the players who were procuring and providing all of this nuclear know-how for AQ Khan in early 2000.
In a recent videotaped interview with the National Security News Service, provided to CBS News, Amin says that he was puzzled that the U.S. waited to shut things down, adding that they could have been "more proactive" in disrupting this network years ago.
Armstrong and Trento offer example after example in their book of this "blind eye" policy, where members of Khan's network who were linked to proliferation activities were let off the hook. In some instances it was a case of intelligence sources tipping off some of the proliferators. In others, it was a case of Washington's long arm reaching down and tampering with the legal system. Evidence, Armstrong said, of Pakistan's nuclear "get-out-of jail-free" card.
Today, few members of the network have been held accountable, and many are free to travel. Not only are they not on the "no fly" list, says Trento, but some of Khan's middlemen are even living here - including an import/export businessmen in South Florida, recently granted U.S. citizenship, who appears to be using the social security number of a man currently in jail.
Still others appear to be in the same line of business, working for some of the same companies Amin uncovered in his Dubai investigation seven years ago, according to corporate records obtained by CBS News. All this despite public assurances from the Bush administration that the Khan network has been "dismantled, and the culprits "brought to justice."
Watch an interview with the authors"We know that members of the network have largely escaped any kind of sanction, and in cases where there have been attempts at prosecution, it's been primarily slaps on the wrist, suspended sentences, small fines," Armstrong said. "There has been no real penalty, no repercussion, for the people who have participated in this and no real serious effort to wrap up the members of network and bring them to justice."
That leaves a potential pool of skilled engineers and technicians trained by Khan's gang available to anyone willing to pay.
"We have situation where you have warlords who first the CIA paid, and bin Laden has paid, who are basically available to the highest bidder, who may end up in control of a weapon," Trento said. "That is something that gives me great pause."
This was not the only "fatal error" of the clinton reign. How about Nortk Korea, China, Iran, letting binLaden get away. You people are unbelievable, unbelievable.
Posted by screen_ident at 05:30 PM : Nov 10, 2007
screen_ident''s post is precisely why the thought of a neocon serving as an intelligence analyst is so very scary - and why actually having them serve is so very dangerous.
The story plainly says:
"That''s when it became clear, says Trento, that the intelligence services of Britain and the U.S. were actually protecting members of the AQ Khan network in what Trento calls ''a cover-up.'' The result: proliferation continued FOR FOUR MORE CRUCIAL YEARS, allowing North Korea and Iran to move forward with their WMD programs."
Does the story say that the intelligence agencies of the U.S. and Britain just "forgot" about Khan et al when Bush took office, as if having a Republican Administration shook up their minds like so many organic Etch-a-Sketches?
No.
Right-wing neocons are incapable of absorbing and interpreting intelligence because they can''t see past their prejudices and preconceptions.
"how a "fatal error" in 2000 changed the course of
nuclear history forever."
.
Bill Clinton was still president in 2000,
Bush didn''t take office until January of 2001 .
It happened on Clinton''s watch
It happened on Clinton''s watch
It happened on Clinton''s watch
It happened on Clinton''s watch
It happened on Clinton''s watch
It happened on Clinton''s watch
It happened on Clinton''s watch
.
Just thought I''d act like a liberal for a minute
LOL
Why? What is this American insanity that allows Pakistan to get away with it while at the same time picks on Iran who doesn''t have nukes and are a signatory to the international agency that oversees nuclear technology?
I tell you why? I-S-R-A-E-L.
You can have all the nukes in the world and even give a few of them to some of your friends as long as you don''t make demands on Israel to respect human rights and stop stealing land.
That''s why many Arab countries are talking about having nuclear technology and the US is not saying anything about that except, of course, when Syria wants to do the same.
And why? Because Syria has not learned like the rest of the Middle East to keep quiet when it comes to Israel.
What''s so shortsighted and irrational about this approach is that the US has only succeded in having the heads of states in keeping quiet about Israel while the rest 300 million Arabs under their control are seething in anger about how Palestinians are being eaten alive in front of their eyes.
And after Hillary wins the elections and tries to outman Bush in the Middle East the situation is bound to get worse and the US will lose control of the entire area.
You''re right where state-sponsered nuclear programs are concerned. Iran or North Korea won''t launch nuclear arms against others who have them. The fear that nukes will be launched against those who don''t have them is what drives nations to have them.
If the U.S. and Israel and India and Russia and China who have extensive nuclear arsenals committed to no 1st use we wouldn''t have this crisis of developing countries seeking the same in order to have a deterrent.
The real threats posed by proliferation are in the level of security of these missles in all countries and the potential for independent fanatics to obtain the technology and material to develop portable nukes without a return address.
Given the recent incident where nuclear-armed bombers passed through all the fail safe measures(if you believe the official story)and were flown from Minot,N.D. to Barksdale,La.(the operational hub for mideast operations)the threat is real.
DickNBush, in particular should have taken taken this threat seriously, and devoted every effort to stop it.
It shouldn''t be partisan but DicknBush have limited their efforts to stop this spread to verbal ones. They''ve done almost nothing even when the presented with the evidence and shamed into action, except give the black-marketeers stern warnings and severe suspended sentences. Are they really so incompetent, or have they allowed these activities so that next time they invade a country for WMD''s, there will actually be at least some kind of nuclear program there?
They have a record of deciding what they want to do and then doing whatever necessary to come up with excuses to do what they already wanted. Their blind eye to the nuclear black market may have injected some truth to enter their fear-mongering, but at what cost? They''ve allowed the spread of nuclear technology to go unchecked so they can complain about that very spread. It''s a really dangerous game of "See, told you so!"
A nuclear Pakistan was allowed because Reagan was a staunch anti-communist. He used Pakistan to ship arms to Afghanistan (The Mujahideen) during the Soviet invasion. Reagan deliberately allowed them to develop the bomb so long as Pakistan acted as an arms conduit.
Moreover, Pakistan was illegally given nuclear technologies by us (Regan/Bush) and they in turn funneled those technologies to N. Korea.
The articles are enclosed below.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1840824/posts
http://www.counterpunch.org/leopold03082004.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/pakistan/nuke.htm
http://www.fas.org/news/pakistan/1992/920731.htm
http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=8091
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2188777,00.html
http://www.thenation.com/doc/19801101/dugger
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2004_07-08/Reagan.asp