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YelliChink 11/13/2009 2:28:50 PM

You can't really blame Reagan for that. They've politely asked, but the US just isn't in position to shut the operation down. They needed Pakistan to drag CCCP further into the Afghanistan quagmire. Even without Afghan War, the US still can't do much on Pakistan.

Nevertheless, Reagan administration acted swiftly and decisively in shutting down Taiwan's nuclear program.

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Hamilcar Your title is misleading. 11/13/2009 3:59:40 PM

What follows is internal comment and opinion annotated in blue. The key points in the article will be underlined.

"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/12/AR2009111211060.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&S834;=AR"

Washington Post News story....

"h8tp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/12/AR2009111211060.html?wpisrc=newsletter"

A nuclear power's act of proliferation

Accounts by controversial scientist assert China gave Pakistan enough enriched uranium in '82 to make 2 bombs

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Joby Warr...

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 13, 2009

In 1982, a Pakistani military C-130 left the western Chinese city of Urumqi with a highly unusual cargo: enough weapons-grade uranium for two atomic bombs, according to accounts written by the father of Pakistan's... nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and provided to The Washington Post.

This was virtually impossible to stop at the time. What could be done, go to war? Russia was still the main threat and Afghanistan was still very much a Russian "victory", or so thought, and they were rampaging in the Caribbean via proxy with their Cuban and Nicaraguan surrogates. THAT sort of fixated a US on defense at the time. Besides if the blame belongs anywhere, like with 9-11, the debacle belongs to the President who really did nothing to stop it, JIMMY CARTER. Why? It takes years to arrange such chicanery.

The uranium transfer in five stainless-steel boxes was part of a broad-ranging, secret nuclear deal approved years earlier by Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto that culminated in an exceptional, deliberate act of proliferation by a nuclear power, according to the accounts by Khan, who is under house arrest in Pakistan.

U.S. officials say they have known about the transfer for decades and once privately confronted the Chinese -- who denied it -- but have never raised the issue in public or sought to impose direct sanctions on China... for it. President Obama, who said in April that "the world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons," plans to discuss nuclear proliferation issues while visiting Beijing on Tuesday.

Noise means nothing. Why Obama, who will do nothing, is mentioned in this piece is even mentioned makes no sense as to the topic. he cannot change historic outcomes with these thugs, so why even bother.

According to Khan, the uranium cargo came with a blueprint for a simple weapon that China had already tested, supplying a virtual do-it-yourself kit that significantly speeded Pakistan's bomb effort. The transfer also started a chain of proliferation: U.S. officials worry that Khan later shared related Chinese design information with Iran...; in 2003, Libya confirmed obtaining it from Khan's clandestine network.

And what is news about this? Its long been known that the PRCs are the ultimate proliferators and criminals responsible for the Pakistani bomb.

China's refusal to acknowledge the transfer and the unwillingness of the United States to confront the Chinese publicly demonstrate how difficult it is to

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CJH 11/14/2009 6:47:59 PM

"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/12/AR2009111211060.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR"

Although Chinese officials have for a quarter-century denied helping any nation attain a nuclear capability, current and former U.S. officials say Khan's accounts confirm the U.S. intelligence community's long-held conclusion that China provided such assistance.

The phrase, "U.S. intelligence community's long-held conclusion", sure implies this all took place "under Reagans nose". Oh yeah, this makes clear both what policy makers were being told and when as well as which policy makers, doesn't it?

Obama is definitely knowledgeable and responsible in a way that Reagan cannot be claimed to have been at the time.

Fred McGoldrick, a senior State Department nonproliferation official in the Reagan and Clinton administrations, recalls that the United States learned in the 1980s about the Chinese bomb-design and uranium transfers. "We did confront them, and they denied it," he said. Since then, the connection has been confirmed by particles on nuclear-related materials from Pakistan, many of which have characteristic Chinese bomb program "signatures," other officials say.

In other words, someone heard a story that could not be confirmed and was not admitted to.

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Nanheyangrouchuan 11/14/2009 7:29:28 PM

@ Yellichink

Kudos to Reagan for stopping the Taiwanese menace from gaining tactical yield nukes. And Clinton/Obama was bought and paid for? Reagan was paving the way for 30 more years of kowtowing, started by Nixon when he sold out both Taiwan and Tibet.

@ the rest of the drivel.

1. piss poor job trying to spin an article with sad, pathetic, empty commentary.

2. The US became aware of the program in the early 80s, under Reagan. China was a black hole where people lived in fear of being ratted out by their neighbors, friends, spouses and kids for expressing anything that might be taken as anti-revolutionary or anti-Mao. China was a big, black hole intelligence wise. Even the Russians had piss poor intel. China was in fact a supersized NK.

3. Yeah, Obama is responsible for China's proliferation, 10 months into his first term. He was in his 20s. CJH, you are a moron grasping for straws.

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Le Zookeeper So Iran has a bomb(not missile capable or maybe) 11/14/2009 8:41:52 PM

Libya and Iran received the bomb design from the Khan network that got it from China in 1982. Noko probably tested for Iran for their missile delivery bomb. Oh well we knew that a while ago.

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sentinel28a 11/15/2009 4:10:19 AM

Let's see if I can translate the Nanspeak here:

1) Reagan was a conservative. Therefore, he was evil.

2) Reagan was a Republican. Therefore, he was really evil.

3) Reagan didn't nuke China the first chance he got. Strike three.

4) Therefore, since Reagan was an evil conservative, a really evil Republican, and didn't turn Beijing into radioactive glass, the proliferation of nukes from China into Pakistan is his fault. Never mind the fact that other than occupying Pakistan and declaring war on China the technology transfer couldn't be stopped--it has to be some conservative's fault, since liberals are perfect.

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