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Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings by S Jagadish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the owner & administrator of Pakistan's largest & most famous EOU is set free by the Islamabad High Court. Dr. Khan, the poor metallurgist unfairly blamed for transfer of some atoms to Iran, North Korea & Libya, and thus Pakistan's nuclear proliferation record has been mentioned several times here.
I still think I gave a good suggestion around 2.5 years ago when I mentioned that India should provide medical treatment to Dr. Khan, who was (is?) suffering from prostrate cancer. Of course now, with the state of diplomacy, that's just impossible.
On a side note, and without any intention to offend those who do suffer from that form of cancer, shouldn't everyone who repeatedly does namaskarams at various places of worship (and in front of Jayalalitha) also get affected by prostrate cancer?
Reports suggest that Pakistan will file cases against Pakistanis involved in the attacks in Mumbai. If this is true, will India allow Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman (aka Qasab/Kasab/whatever) to be trialled (& jailed) in Pakistan?
Wouldn't that be a great opportunity for him to be bumped off? Ok, even if he doesn't actually get killed, they could just say "He escaped", just like Masood Azhar?
I see something developing here - Pakistan, a country that wants the UN to help investigate Benazir Bhutto's assassination and which has absolutely no control over Balochistan, Swat & FATA (accounting for 47% of the country's land area), reckons that it actually has a judicial & legal system in place to try a terror attack in another country. Someone help me understand this!
A moronic member of the USA Congress gives another great option - the International Court of Justice.
I have always had hatred for Narendra Modi, but I don't see why him questioning whether it was possible for the attacks to be conducted at that scale & precision without local support implies he is weakening India's stand. It is very highly likely there was local involvement. The arrests of those responsible for the blasts in Bangalore last July indicate that there are enough folks potentially unconnected with Pakistan who're involved in terror attacks in India. Yet, does that allow Pakistan to get away with murder? Of course not, because the attacks were planned by Pakistan, the attackers were Pakistani and the attackers were backed by Pakistan.
Now that India is sure to rebuff attempts by Pakistan to get "Qasab" over there, Pakistan will just shrug and say: "Hey, we're more than helping out. India isn't responding!". That increases pressure on India to agree to either Pakistani or neutral jurisdiction.
This will coincide with election time in India and the focus will be lost. Regardless of whether a new dispensation takes charge, things'll basically have to start afresh. By then, the USA would be more than happy to buy Pakistan's line that resolving Kashmir would result in a Yaadon ki baarat like re-union for the estranged siblings - India & Pakistan.
As for Dr. Khan, I'm sure he'll have a great future making after-dinner speeches on entrepreneurship.
Labels: aq khan, india, mumbai terrorism 200811, pakistan, proliferation, terrorism
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The Pakistani connection to North Korea's nuclear test
The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty can be thrown in the dustbin now.
Three years after it became the first nation to withdraw from the treaty, North Korea, which went online a couple of years ago and where the government tells you what haircut to have, yesterday announced that it had conducted a nuclear weapons test.
Sources close to the North Korean government confirmed to this reporter that Dr. AQ Khan was among the first to call up the Chairman of North Korea's National Defence Commission to congratulate him on the test. There's apparently also been TV footage of workers at the site frantically clearing out debris which had references to 'Made in Pakistan' and 'Made in China'.
Previous posts on Pakistan's involvement in North Korea's nuclear programme: Musharraf and Karamat knew, as did Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, an exposé by The Observer and an investigation by The New York Times.
Labels: aq khan, musharraf, north korea, pakistan, proliferation
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Given that medical tourism in India has been a hit for a few years, and that Indo-Pak ties have also been bolstered by several children from Pakistan being treated at reputed hospitals in various parts of India in the last couple of years, the Indian government should latch on to this opportunity.
Dr. AQ Khan is being operated for prostrate cancer. India should insist that in the better interests of Indo-Pak ties, the poor metallurgist, should be treated in India, free of cost, with the obvious ulterior motive of arresting him later. It'd be fun to see Pakistan's response!
Labels: aq khan, proliferation
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Pakistan's announcement about considering the case against Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan as being 'closed' is irresponsible, shocking, and entirely predictable. It merely provides a final act to the clean chit he received earlier this year.
Given the way Iran has increased the stakes on its nuclear ambitions, the admission last year by a Pakistani minister that AQ Khan sold centrifuge technology to Iran is proof of Pakistan's refusal to acknowledge the role played by the government and military establishments in the nuclear blackmarket, where China features prominently as well, despite it being a signatory to the NPT.
Pakistan has consistently rejected any attempts by the IAEA etc. to directly interact with the metallurgist. It has successfully stalled the investigation thanks mainly to the US government's willingness (or convenient 'incompetence'?) to not step up the heat on the proliferation issue as long as Pakistan helped with capturing Osama bin Laden.
The nuclear agreement between India & the US perhaps lends credence to the belief that Pakistan's proliferation record effectively ensured that India would benefit more when it came to nuclear co-operation.
Pervez Musharraf's comments in 2004 about how he knew all about it but had no proof, which is why he had to pardon Khan for he knew not what he was doing, were a complete load of bullcrap.
This issue can not be considered closed by India, the IAEA, the US and the other signatories to the NPT. Tough questions must be asked and answers extracted. The carrot approach has obviously not worked. It is now time for the stick to be used.
Labels: aq khan, iran, musharraf, pakistan, proliferation
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Unconfirmed reports suggest that several pigs were seen flying over various parts of Pakistan shortly after Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri told reporters that Dr. AQ Khan's clandestine nuclear network was now totally dismantled.
A couple of days ago, 'The Guardian', through access to a confidential report by a European intelligence service, revealed that Pakistan is still at the centre of the nuclear black market.
Previously featured here in the same context: Pakistan sold centrifuges to Iran, AQ Khan was just a metallurgist, no access to Khan & co., CIA confirms Pak-Iran joint venture, why the US won't bother, IAEA confirms Pak-Iran JV, Nawaz Sharif says he knew, how India should counter Pakistan's role, no proof from US, Pak's JVs with Libya and North Korea, Bhutto, Sharif and Musharraf in ignore mode, 'The Hindu' editorial, official government seal on AQ Khan's brochure and 'New York Times' editorial.
Labels: aq khan, iran, musharraf, pakistan, proliferation
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Manmohan Singh at the US Congress
Here's the text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the US Congress and an analysis on Rediff.
Did he take a dig at the US electoral system when he mentioned a statutory independent election commission? There were quite a few pointed digs at Pakistan.
Our Army has remained a professional force, subject throughout to civilian control.
We know that those who resort to terror often clothe it in the garb of real or imaginary grievances. We must categorically affirm that no grievance can justify resort to terror.
In this context, I would also like to reiterate that India's track record in nuclear non-proliferation is impeccable. We have adhered scrupulously to every rule and canon in this area. We have done so even though we have witnessed unchecked nuclear proliferation in our own neighbourhood which has directly affected our security interests. This is because India, as a responsible nuclear power, is fully conscious of the immense responsibilities that come with the possession of advanced technologies, both civilian and strategic. We have never been, and will never be, a source of proliferation of sensitive technologies.
The point he made on the restructuring of the UN Security Council was interesting. He said "The UN Security Council must be restructured as part of the reform process.", which is a little closer to the US position, i.e. UN reforms, including accountability, budgeting, processes, monitoring etc. need to be carried out before we think of the UNSC. Does this mean the G-4 initiative is on hold for the present?
As Nitin points out, his tailpiece was really nice.
This is what former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke at the US Congress in September 2000.
Labels: proliferation
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Pakistan admits Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan sold nuclear technology to Iran
It has been well known, although undocumented, for a while now but today the cat is well and truly out of the bag, officially too! Pakistan's information minister lived upto his designation and told a gathering at a seminar that Dr. AQ Khan did indeed sell some centrifuges to Iran. Of course, he continued to maintain that the government knew nothing about it. We believe you, Rashid. So do the ungulates with pink curly tails who just flew past my window.
Of course, he contradicts himself and confesses the truth when he says "Yes, we supplied Iran the centrifuge system". We can surely only mean the Pakistani government.
Labels: aq khan, iran, proliferation
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Musharraf indicates that he talked about a free trade agreement with the US in an interview to "The Times". He goes on to disclose to all that Dr. AQ Khan was just a poor metallurgist plying his trade. Oh, the glib talker that he is!
Labels: aq khan, musharraf, pakistan, proliferation
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Following a report indicating that the investigation into the nuclear black market, spearheaded and controlled by Dr. AQ Khan and the Pakistani military, had stalled since the investigators were unable to gain access to Dr. Khan or his accomplices, Robert Scheer rubbishes the idea that Pakistan can help in creating a "truly free" Palestinian state, simply because Pakistan isnt one in the first place.
Labels: aq khan, proliferation
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An unclassified CIA report to the US Congress explicitly mentions that Pakistan's Dr. AQ Khan assisted Iran with its covert nuclear weapons programme. It obviously does not pin the blame on the Pakistani government, instead making it out as though the scientists were working in their individual capacities.
Labels: aq khan, iran, proliferation
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Nicholas Kristoff tries to find out why the US will not bother about Dr. AQ Khan.
Labels: aq khan, proliferation
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Nawaz Sharif's exclusive interview to India Today reveals that:
So exactly, which of those assertions is unknown to people? Even Pakistanis know the truth. Nawaz Sharif has absolutely no chance of getting back to Pakistan before his exile ends in 2010, especially now that he says he's willing to team up with Benazir Bhutto!
Labels: aq khan, kargil, musharraf, nawaz sharif, pakistan, proliferation
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Pervez Musharraf talks about al-Qaeda, Kashmir, attacks on him, his dual role as President & army chief and proliferation by Dr. AQ Khan.
Labels: al-qaeda, aq khan, jammu and kashmir, proliferation
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Cricket
More mindless interference by the government into the issue of Prasar Bharati being able to telecast live the India-Pakistan cricket series. The government is apparently now contemplating bringing into force an ordinance which makes it mandatory for any channel in India to share feed of events of national interest with Prasar Bharati. The government would bring out a list of such events. The government's new stand is being guided by the fact that Pakistan's laws had such a clause.
I think the government's stand that an India-Pakistan cricket series is an event of national interest and importance is totally misguided. I'd have agreed if any TV channel had the rights to say, the Republic Day parade and wasn't allowing Doordarshan to telecast it too. Now that is a national event. Cricket is not, even if it is allegedly the national religion. If Prasar Bharati managed to get the rights through hook or by crook, would it agree to not insert any advertisements during the day's play, given that the event is one of national interest and importance? I don't think there are advertisement breaks during the Republic Day Parade or the Independence Day function, is there? So why a different yardstick. Basically it boils down to the fact, as I mentioned yesterday, that Prasar Bharati missed the bus while Ten Sports didnt. Prasar Bharati has only now realized the enormous marketing potential and loss of advertisement revenue and is thus clinging onto the government for succour.
Business & Economics
Is there a case for an integrated ASEAN economic zone, given the extremely fragmented nature of the ASEAN economies, drop in foreign direct investment and exports? The McKinsey Quarterly report studies the countries of ASEAN and gives a few recommendations.
Politics
Well it maybe a bit of hyperbole, but if Pakistan's nuclear proliferation isnt controlled, the US could be directly attacked using a very miniscule nuclear bomb and still lose over 1/2 million people and $1 trillion in economic damages.
Labels: proliferation, tv rights
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Politics
One of the offshoots of Dr AQ Khan's (and the ISI, the military and Pakistani government's) nuclear proliferation is that it is more than likely that in future, the US could display a more even handed treatment of Pakistan and India in nuclear policy related matters.
Labels: proliferation
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Politics
C Raja Mohan writes in 'The Hindu' on what India's strategy should be towards the implications of Pakistan's role in the global spread of nuclear weapons.
An aide close to Pervez Musharraf claims that Dr. AQ Khan had a complete blank cheque and that he could do anything, go anywhere, buy anything at any price.
Labels: aq khan, proliferation
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Politics
Excerpts from an interview with Pervez Musharraf where he accepted that he'd suspected Dr. Khan's nuclear proliferation but also added that the US hadn't supplied him with convincing proof.
Cmon Pervez, get off the high horse. Should the US provide you with proof that your nuclear weapons programme chief was smuggling technology with the connivance of the top brass in the military and political establishments? If Pakistan is a responsible nuclear state, as you (and other PMs in the past) have stated often, why didn't you have enough checks in place? Now any attempt by other countries to question the entire proliferation issue or the pardon given to Dr. Khan is brushed off as being an internal matter of Pakistan. Perhaps the US providing proof is also an internal issue? Musharraf brazenly claims that they had no idea this was going on since the 1980s. India has been shouting itself hoarse for the last 15 years about Pakistan's clandestine nuclear weapons programme and the proliferation to other rogue countries in exchange for missile technology. Yet, when the cat is out of the bag, does it make sense for the Indian government to strangely not go at full throttle, just because there is a thaw in Indo-Pak relations currently? Would staying silent help? Would the full details of Pakistan's nuclear programme be made public for the world to see? No. Then why not put pressure on Pakistan?
Musharraf proudly claims "We nipped the proliferation in the bud, we stopped the proliferation," he said of Dr. Khan's removal. "That is the important part.". No it isn't dear Pervez. The horse had bolted and the barn door was shut much later. Its like an Australian captain saying that when his bowlers and fielders sledged opposition batsmen, there was no need for the ICC to step in because they would handle it internally by imposing a fine that the sledger would buy beer for the team.
Cut to the US State Department daily briefing where spokesman Richard Boucher puts a few spokes in the wheel of the Pakistani government's claims (see above) that they weren't informed early enough about possible proliferation by Dr. Khan and his cohorts.
Pakistan's fingerprints continue to be found all over the international terrorist network. The Washington Times reports that Islamic radicals are being trained at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir as part of a conspiracy to send hundreds of operatives to "sleeper cells" in the USA.
With Democrat Presidential hopeful John Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, asking US President Bush to come clear on his military record, the White House had a press briefing resulting in the usual round-about answers.
Education
With Murli Manohar Joshi poking his nose into the IIMs by directing them to reduce their annual fees from Rs. 1.5 lakhs to Rs. 30,000, there is a raging debate on whether management education should be subsidized or not. The problem is that the government wants a subsidized high quality education at the engineering and management level while the real focus should be on ensuring quality primary education for all. It is a simple case of playing to the gallery and the votebank when it is election time. Dr. UR Rao, whose report was used as a justification for the decision to cut the IIM's fees is aghast at the whole direction his report has taken. Rasheeda Bhagat feels that the educational institutions must make it clear that they don't require grants from the government to escape from its clutches.
Oh, and whose money is being used to subsidize IIM education? Yours and mine (well, if you pay taxes in India, that is!).
Cricket
Mike Marqusee, who wrote a book War minus the shooting: Journey through South Asia during cricket's World Cup, comments on the India-Pakistan Test series which could still not happen!
Link of the day
What if a telephone system could figure out that you were getting angrier waiting for the customer care operator to attend to you and instead of providing an automated menu or soothing music, urgently transfer you to the operator? That is exactly what Prof. Shrikanth Narayanan and his team in the Speech Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory at the University of Southern California have been working on. As is normal with a research project, it has a zany title: Rapid Development of Mission-Oriented Communication Skills.
Media & Technology
Just as we go to press, news comes in that Comcast Communications has proposed a merger with The Walt Disney Company and valued Disney at $66 billion. Slides of the proposal presented to the Comcast board on Feb 1, 2004.
Labels: aq khan, proliferation
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Politics
British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Jack Straw talks to N Ram about going to war in Iraq and other aspects of a the India-UK bilateral relationship.
The Hindu's editorial on the pardon granted to Dr. AQ Khan.
George Bush defends his actions on NBC's 'Meet the press' and the New York Times has an editorial while The Washington Post has a column.
Cricket
Australian wicket-keeper batsman (or batsman wicket-keeper?) Adam Gilchrist sums up the VB Series and mentions that there maybe a need to restructure the annual one-day triangular series.
The BCCI hasn't quite received a shot in the arm from the Indian team for the planned tour to Pakistan. Sourav Ganguly has expressed the team's concerns over the security situation, hastening to add that playing Pakistan wasn't the issue. Pervez Musharraf has pledged full support for administrative and security measures to ensure the tour is a success. Unconfirmed reports however suggest that the players are under tremendous pressure from their families not to go to Pakistan.
Labels: aq khan, proliferation, uk
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Politics
Minutes of evidence taken before the Liaison Committee by the UK PM Tony Blair.
According to Pervez Musharraf, the Kashmir issue would be resolved by the year end. If this isn't wishful thinking, nothing is. Clearly Musharraf is trying to put pressure on an Indian government which has chosen to engage Pakistan just when elections are due. An issue which has been boiling for half a century, over which several wars and skirmishes have been fought, several thousand lives lost on both sides, cannot be resolved just because of an overnight bonhomie. Resolving Kashmir will take time. It should take time, urgency in this matter will just leave us all with yet another half baked solution like partition.
As Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan seeks pardon, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei feels that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Read Dr. Khan's statement.
Link of the day
Amazon has launched a 1-Click payment mechanism to make a contribution to the various US Presidential election candidates.
Check out how quite a few now dead/defunct sites used to look.
Technology
Should you have a license to operate a computer? Should you be punished if you click on an attachment which has a virus in it?
Humour
The diary of Osama bin Laden.
Labels: aq khan, jammu and kashmir, proliferation
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Politics
More details revealed about Pakistan's role in nuclear technology proliferation. General Musharraf and Gen Jehangir Karamat, the army chief from 1996 to 1998, had known of and approved the barter of nuclear technology for North Korean ballistic missile technology. Warhead designs link Libya's nuclear program to Pakistan.
Compare search results for India with search results for Pakistan. Most of the search results for India are economy and technology related. Most of the search results for Pakistan are related to nuclear proliferation and terrorism.
In a shocking development, Peter Bleach, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, was released today on a Presidential pardon. It is totally hypocritical of a government which demands that Pakistan hand over 20 wanted terrorists. Peter Bleach, if public memory is short, is the prime accused in the air drop of an arms consignment, possibly to militant groups in Bengal. He was arrested along with five Latvian air crew in late 1995. They were all convicted in Jan 2000 and sentenced to life. However the Latvian crew were released six months later under a Presidential clemency. Random ramblings didn't exist then (even though the random rambler did), otherwise you'd have read about it here for sure!
Surely if it was proved that Bleach and his associates were guilty of trying to wage or aid a war against India, they cannot be let off. I think there maybe some dealings between the governments, possibly in extraditing criminals wanted by Indian law, who're seeking asylum from the UK.
Humour
This chap, whose resume you see below, is sure to put most UNIX gurus and wizards out of their jobs. Notice the 4th skill he lists: the one that is circled.
Link of the day
Who owns the moon? What are the traffic rules in space? The European Center for Space Law answers these and much more!
Economy
Former Singapore PM Lee Kuan Yew on the pitfalls of protectionism
Labels: aq khan, proliferation
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