Pakistan's motive for pursuing a nuclear weapons development program is never to allow another invasion of Pakistan. President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq summed it up in 1987 when he stated to Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi: "If your forces cross our borders by an inch, we are going to annihilate your cities".
Pakistan has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). According to the U.S. Defense Department report cited above, "Pakistan remains steadfast in its refusal to sign the NPT.
Consequently, not all of Pakistan's nuclear facilities are under IAEA safeguards. Pakistani officials have stated that signature of the CTBT is in Pakistan's best interest, but that Pakistan will do so only after developing a domestic consensus on the issue."
The organization authorized to make decisions about Pakistan's nuclear posturing is the NCA. It was established in February 2000. The NCA is composed of two committees that advise the present President of Pakistan, on the development and deployment of nuclear weapons; it is also responsible for war-time command and control. In 2001, Pakistan further consolidated its nuclear weapons infrastructure by placing the Khan Research Laboratories and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission under the control of one Nuclear Defense Complex. In November 2009, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari announced that he will be replaced by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani as the chairman of NCA.
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Showing posts with label OSAMA BIN LADEN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OSAMA BIN LADEN. Show all posts
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Pakistan: Musharraf to be tried for assassination of Bhutto
A Pakistani court has ordered former president Pervez Musharraf's financial assets to be frozen and confiscated, a prosecutor said.
A hearing in Adiyala prison in the garrison town of Rawalpindi on Saturday ruled for his property to be confiscated and his Pakistani bank accounts to be frozen, Chaudhry Azhar, a public prosecutor, told the AFP news agency.
The hearing is adjourned until September 10, Azhar said.
Musharraf, the former military ruler, has been living in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai since leaving office in 2008.
He is alleged to have been part of a "broad conspiracy" to have Benazir Bhutto, ex-premier and his political rival, killed in 2007 before presidential elections.
Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant in February over what they said was his failure to provide her with enough security.
The exact nature of the charges against him, however, has not so far been made clear.
"This is a criminal case and it’s most ridiculous that my name has been added because I’m supposed to have been in charge or that I failed to provide security," Musharraf told Al Jazeera on Saturday.
"In this, I have to appear personally in court [as] it can not be done through any lawyer appearing in the court."
"Because of many other reasons I am outside the country and I don’t want to appear in the court but when I go on the 23rd of March, when I go back to Pakistan I certainly will go in and appear in the court and answer questions," he said.
Bhutto was shot dead on December 27, 2007 as she was leaving an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
At the time, Musharraf's government blamed Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, for Bhutto's assassination.
Mehsud, who denied any involvement, was killed in a US drone attack in August 2009, one of the most high-profile casualties of the covert American campaign targeting al-Qaeda and its allies in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border.
Bhutto, who served two terms as prime minister, had returned from exile two months before she was killed to stand for election.
Her widower Asif Ali Zardari led her Pakistan People's Party to election victory in February 2008 and is now president.
A hearing in Adiyala prison in the garrison town of Rawalpindi on Saturday ruled for his property to be confiscated and his Pakistani bank accounts to be frozen, Chaudhry Azhar, a public prosecutor, told the AFP news agency.
The hearing is adjourned until September 10, Azhar said.
Musharraf, the former military ruler, has been living in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai since leaving office in 2008.
He is alleged to have been part of a "broad conspiracy" to have Benazir Bhutto, ex-premier and his political rival, killed in 2007 before presidential elections.
Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant in February over what they said was his failure to provide her with enough security.
The exact nature of the charges against him, however, has not so far been made clear.
"This is a criminal case and it’s most ridiculous that my name has been added because I’m supposed to have been in charge or that I failed to provide security," Musharraf told Al Jazeera on Saturday.
"In this, I have to appear personally in court [as] it can not be done through any lawyer appearing in the court."
"Because of many other reasons I am outside the country and I don’t want to appear in the court but when I go on the 23rd of March, when I go back to Pakistan I certainly will go in and appear in the court and answer questions," he said.
Bhutto was shot dead on December 27, 2007 as she was leaving an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
At the time, Musharraf's government blamed Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, for Bhutto's assassination.
Mehsud, who denied any involvement, was killed in a US drone attack in August 2009, one of the most high-profile casualties of the covert American campaign targeting al-Qaeda and its allies in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border.
Bhutto, who served two terms as prime minister, had returned from exile two months before she was killed to stand for election.
Her widower Asif Ali Zardari led her Pakistan People's Party to election victory in February 2008 and is now president.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
The U.A.E. – our USA ally (who also provided to 9/11 bombers and harbored bin Laden)based Anham LLC Billed Pentagon $900 for $7 Part!
Based on the questionable costs identified in a $300 million contract with Dubai-based Anham LLC, the U.S. should review all its contracts with the company in Iraq and Afghanistan, which total about $3.9 billion, said Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen.
“The audit found weak oversight in multiple areas that left the government vulnerable to improper overcharges,” Bowen wrote in the forward to his 30th quarterly report, released today. The contract in question was funded with a combination of money earmarked for Iraqi Security Forces and Army operations and maintenance funds.
Among the “egregious examples of overbilling” by Anham were $4,500 for a circuit breaker valued at $183.30, $3,000 for a $94.47 circuit breaker and $80 for a small segment of drain pipe valued at $1.41.
Bowen’s office called for an in-depth review of the entire contract after discovering “significant weaknesses” in government oversight, questionable competition practices and possible undisclosed ownership affiliations between Anham and some of its subcontractors.
Those costs, it said, “appear to be not fair and reasonable or were not properly documented.”
In one case, Pioneer Iraqi Trading Co., an Anham subcontractor, charged the U.S. $900 for a water level control switch that a competitor had offered for $7.05.
A member of the family group that owns, through a subsidiary, 50 percent of Anham also owns a 90 percent share in Pioneer, though this relationship was never disclosed to the Defense Contract Management Agency, which oversees military contracts, Bowen’s office found.
“The lack of transparency regarding the relationship between Anham and its subcontractors calls into question whether Anham used due diligence to ensure that the U.S. government received a fair price for the goods and services it purchased,” the inspector general’s report concluded.
In other cases, Anham used subcontractors to purchase items that could have been bought directly from the manufacturer at lower prices, the report said.
When Anham was asked to buy a loudspeaker system to alert warehouse employees of any danger, it chose not to buy the system directly from the manufacturer at the retail price of $44,615, the report said.
Instead, Anham sought bids from subcontractors and paid a company called Knowlogy $90,908. That price included $20,000 for installation, even though the system setup meant little more than wheeling it into place and plugging it in.
Privately held Anham LLC is a contracting firm for projects throughout the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and North Africa. It provides vehicle, transportation, construction, facilities management, procurement, food, power generation, health management, surveillance and training services.
Based on all the questionable costs it found, the special inspector general “believes that all costs under this contract should be carefully examined, as well as all contracts awarded to Anham,” the report said.
“The audit found weak oversight in multiple areas that left the government vulnerable to improper overcharges,” Bowen wrote in the forward to his 30th quarterly report, released today. The contract in question was funded with a combination of money earmarked for Iraqi Security Forces and Army operations and maintenance funds.
Among the “egregious examples of overbilling” by Anham were $4,500 for a circuit breaker valued at $183.30, $3,000 for a $94.47 circuit breaker and $80 for a small segment of drain pipe valued at $1.41.
Bowen’s office called for an in-depth review of the entire contract after discovering “significant weaknesses” in government oversight, questionable competition practices and possible undisclosed ownership affiliations between Anham and some of its subcontractors.
Those costs, it said, “appear to be not fair and reasonable or were not properly documented.”
In one case, Pioneer Iraqi Trading Co., an Anham subcontractor, charged the U.S. $900 for a water level control switch that a competitor had offered for $7.05.
A member of the family group that owns, through a subsidiary, 50 percent of Anham also owns a 90 percent share in Pioneer, though this relationship was never disclosed to the Defense Contract Management Agency, which oversees military contracts, Bowen’s office found.
“The lack of transparency regarding the relationship between Anham and its subcontractors calls into question whether Anham used due diligence to ensure that the U.S. government received a fair price for the goods and services it purchased,” the inspector general’s report concluded.
In other cases, Anham used subcontractors to purchase items that could have been bought directly from the manufacturer at lower prices, the report said.
When Anham was asked to buy a loudspeaker system to alert warehouse employees of any danger, it chose not to buy the system directly from the manufacturer at the retail price of $44,615, the report said.
Instead, Anham sought bids from subcontractors and paid a company called Knowlogy $90,908. That price included $20,000 for installation, even though the system setup meant little more than wheeling it into place and plugging it in.
Privately held Anham LLC is a contracting firm for projects throughout the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and North Africa. It provides vehicle, transportation, construction, facilities management, procurement, food, power generation, health management, surveillance and training services.
Based on all the questionable costs it found, the special inspector general “believes that all costs under this contract should be carefully examined, as well as all contracts awarded to Anham,” the report said.
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