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World Posted On Sunday, November 15, 2009 | Agencies
Washington, Nov 15:
Not for the first time, the United States has downplayed reports of alleged Pakistan's nuclear transgressions and promotion of terrorism even as American lawmakers are getting increasingly restive about a nominal ally having become the crossroad where terrorism and nuclear proliferation meet.
Because Washington is largely dependent on Islamabad for getting supplies to its 68,000 troops in landlocked Afghanistan, US officials are glossing over worrying reports ranging from clandestine nuclear transfers between Pakistan and China, to the Pakistani military running terror camps under the CIA's nose, in order not to offend Islamabad.
On Friday, US officials had to again bat for Pakistan after embarrassing disclosures on the eve of President Obama's visit to Beijing about the long-running China-Pakistan nuclear nexus, even as two US Congressmen demanded a probe into the Pakistani connection of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged gunman who mowed down 13 people at a military base in Texas.
Demanding a Congressional inquiry, the lawmakers Pete Hoekstra (a former CIA Director) and Michael McCaul (a former prosecutor) spoke of money transfers Major Hasan (who is a US citizen of Palestinian origin) had made to Pakistan, recalling another famous money transfer from Pakistan to 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta that was never adequately probed or explained.
Major Hassan's ''Pakistani connection'' comes on the heels of several other terrorist investigations in the US, including those involving Denver truck driver Najibullah Zazi, a jihadi mob in Virginia, and the Chicago duo of Daood Gilani and Rana Tawassur, where in each case the trail has led to Pakistan.
Washington also had the mortification of having a French investigator claim last week that the CIA winked at a Lashkar-e-Taiba terror camp run by the Pakistani military as long as it did not train westerners. The shocking allegation comes on the eve an expected visit to New Delhi next week of CIA Director Leon Panetta to discussed terrorism and security-related issues.
US officials brushed aside fresh disclosures about the China-Pakistan nuclear exchanges, suggesting it was all so long ago (during the Reagan era, one official pointed out) and all was hunky-dory now.
''This is about something that happened in the early '80s, I believe. And I don't have any comment on that specific incident,'' State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said about disclosures that China had given Pakistan 50 kilograms of bomb grade uranium and a do-it-yourself kit to enable Islamabad go nuclear in the 80s.
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Sunday, August 01, 2010