Thursday, March 10, 2005
Losing track of centrifuges
Pakistan persists in its claim that Khan was on a frolic and detour, working on his own time and without the knowledge of the government.
"He had given centrifuges to Iran in his individual capacity and the government of Pakistan had nothing to do with this," Rashid said in response to a question at a seminar on political reconciliation in the country.
Rashid said it was duly acknowledged that Dr. Khan was involvedin proliferation at the individual level but added the Pakistani government would not hand him over to any other country.
Which is worse, that Pakistan is lying and its government collaborated with Khan's atomic black market, or that Pakistan's security was so unbelievably lapse that it couldn't keep track of centrifuges?
Wouldn't we all be much happier if it turned out that Pakistan was collaborating with Khan? Isn't the idea that Pakistan can't keep track of its machines and materials much more terrifying? It is, but an admission by Pakistan that it was complicit with Khan would work against American security, which depends (for the moment) on our ability both to cajole and coerce Islamabad. If Pakistan were to admit that it helped Khan, we would be required both politically and legally to respond with sanctions and oprobium. That response, in turn, would weaken rather than strengthen our ability to coerce Pakistan to do what we want against the jihadists.
So Pakistan lies about its support for A.Q. Khan and we give it a pass, because to call the Pakistanis out would hurt our interests.
UPDATE: Pile On observes in the comments that this may explain why Pakistan was running such a big victory lap last weekend over the capture of a few crummy insurgents. Sharp guy, that Pile.
UPDATE: Opposition members of Pakistan's parliament walked out Friday morning to protest the government's admission that Khan gave centrifuges to Iran. The intensity of the "pro-nuke" sentiment among the Islamist parties in Pakistan is scary. It also explains why the United States has not stamped its feet harder over A.Q. Khan's crimes.
UPDATE (March 12): "Misquoted." Furthering the Muslim tradition of destroying the credibility of their "information ministers," Pakistan's is now claiming that he was "misquoted."
3 Comments:
By 
Pile On®, at
Thu Mar 10, 08:16:00 PM:
Well, this answers your question from a few days ago about why Pakistan needs to look like they are huning Bin Laden.
By Pile On®, at
Fri Mar 11, 04:47:00 PM:
Oh yeah, I am sharp. You come up with the theory, and then draw me a picture. Then you report on evidence to support your original theory and I am the sharp one.
Wait you were being sarcastic......see what I mean?
By TigerHawk, at
Fri Mar 11, 10:09:00 PM:
Actually, Pile, I wasn't being sarcastic! When I posted this story, my beignet-addled brain had already forgotten the earlier question I had asked! True story -- otherwise I would have been blogger enough to supply the link to the earlier post. You supplied the connection that the whole thing needed to hang together.
