Allies: With Friends Like These....? Part 2

According to the New York Times, President (General) Musharraf, in his memoirs published on Monday, states that he now believes that some of the equipment sent to North Korea by Abdul Kadeer Khan, Pakistans nuclear chief, was among the most advanced of its' kind. Of course he is adamant that this was done without his knowledge or approval.

He says he was first suspicious as early as 1999, the year that he seized power, that Dr. Khan was illegally selling nuclear secrets to the North Koreans, Lybians, and Iranians.

He says in his book: “I received a report suggesting that some North Korean nuclear experts, under the guise of missile engineers, had arrived” at Pakistan’s nuclear laboratories “and were being given secret briefings.”



According to another article , this in the Guardian newspaper dated Feb4, 2004, Dr Khan was reported to have admitted to investigators that, "What ever I did, it was in the knowledge of the bosses." He later recanted this statement before he was sent home. Neither he nor anyone else connected with the charges were sent to prison. He is considered a hero of Islam by many Muslims and is free to this day.

The same article says: Many analysts and most Pakistanis suspect the government of seeking to pin the blame on Mr Khan for a potentially lucrative trade of which, they say, the country's all-powerful army chiefs must have been aware.

It has been reported that Pakistani military aircraft were used to transport centrifuges and other sophisticated equipment to the various countries that Dr. Khan was supplying. Could he have done this without the knowledge or agreement of Pakistani military chiefs? And wasn't General Musharraf the biggest of all cheeses in the Pakistani larder?

Pakistan, which supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and still provides refuge to many Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters today, is also home to the infamous Madrassas, the Saudi (another staunch ally) financed religious schools, which educated many of the Taliban and provide a breeding ground for hatred of the West and venemous anti-semitism.

But now they are our staunch allies in the war on terror...according to George W. Bush anyway. But one has to question the quality of an alliance with a country which has to be threatened into joining the alliance or being "bombed back into the stone age". This is also a country that has provided nuclear technology to the greatest enemies of that same alliance.

Dubya....Keeping America safe by making strong alliances with determined partners. Right. One only has to look at the backgrounds of the 9/11 (New York) and 7/7 (London) terrorists to question the nature of, and security provided by, these so-called allies in the "War on Terror".

With friends like these...who needs enemies?