by Byrne » Tue Jun 06, 2006 5:32 am
I think that A.Q. Khan is behind the stitch up of the case against Iran's Nuclear programme, driven by the US.<br><br>The IAEA has stated the following:<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>During a meeting on 12 January 2005 in Tehran, Iran showed the Agency a handwritten one-page document reflecting an offer said to have been made to Iran in 1987 by a foreign intermediary. <br>...<br>The document also reflects an offer to provide auxiliary vacuum and electric drive equipment and uranium re-conversion and casting capabilities. Iran stated that only some of these items had been delivered, and that all of those items had been declared to the IAEA. This information is still being assessed. The Agency has requested that all documentation relevant to the offer be made available for the Agency's review."</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>One of the 'sticking points' is that Iran has not provided the documentation to the IAEA.<br><br>For further info on this, see here: <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=5087" target="top">What Noncompliance? by Gordon Prather <br></a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> Links therein.<br><br>It appears that AQ Khan/Pakistan was the 'foreign intermediary' behind this offer.<br><br>It appears that the US has been meddling around in this area for a while - that would link in with a US refusal to assist the investigation into AQ Khan's network, in case the US connections were exposed (& there is the Plame business, I don't know if that is linked but there is word that she was working on Iran Nuclear Issues).<br><br>Look at how AQ Khan (the Nuclear Blackmarketeer) was let off lightly for illegal Nuclear proliferation, the stuff that the US is now threatening Iran with war over.<br><br>Another article on the subject of US intrusion in Iran is <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact" target="top">here</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>THE COMING WARS<br>What the Pentagon can now do in secret.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br>by SEYMOUR M. HERSH<br>Posted 2005-01-17<br><br>The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer. Much of the focus is on the accumulation of intelligence and targeting information on Iranian nuclear, chemical, and missile sites, both declared and suspected. The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen, and perhaps more, such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids. “The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible,” the government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon told me.<br><br>Some of the missions involve extraordinary coöperation. For example, the former high-level intelligence official told me that an American commando task force has been set up in South Asia and is now working closely with a group of Pakistani scientists and technicians who had dealt with Iranian counterparts. (In 2003, the I.A.E.A. disclosed that Iran had been secretly receiving nuclear technology from Pakistan for more than a decade, and had withheld that information from inspectors.) The American task force, aided by the information from Pakistan, has been penetrating eastern Iran from Afghanistan in a hunt for underground installations. The task-force members, or their locally recruited agents, secreted remote detection devices—known as sniffers—capable of sampling the atmosphere for radioactive emissions and other evidence of nuclear-enrichment programs. <br><br>Getting such evidence is a pressing concern for the Bush Administration. The former high-level intelligence official told me, “They don’t want to make any W.M.D. intelligence mistakes, as in Iraq. The Republicans can’t have two of those. There’s no education in the second kick of a mule.” The official added that the government of Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani President, has won a high price for its coöperation—American assurance that Pakistan will not have to hand over <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A. Q. Khan</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, known as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, to the I.A.E.A. or to any other international authorities for questioning. For two decades, Khan has been linked to a vast consortium of nuclear-black-market activities. Last year, Musharraf professed to be shocked when Khan, in the face of overwhelming evidence, “confessed” to his activities. A few days later, Musharraf pardoned him, and so far he has refused to allow the I.A.E.A. or American intelligence to interview him. Khan is now said to be living under house arrest in a villa in Islamabad. “It’s a deal—a trade-off,” the former high-level intelligence official explained. “ ‘Tell us what you know about Iran and we will let your <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A. Q. Khan</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> guys go.’ It’s the neoconservatives’ version of short-term gain at long-term cost. They want to prove that Bush is the anti-terrorism guy who can handle Iran and the nuclear threat, against the long-term goal of eliminating the black market for nuclear proliferation.”<br><br>The agreement comes at a time when Musharraf, according to a former high-level Pakistani diplomat, has authorized the expansion of Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons arsenal. “Pakistan still needs parts and supplies, and needs to buy them in the clandestine market,” the former diplomat said. “The U.S. has done nothing to stop it.”<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Another article on the subject :<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=8087" target="top"> Without Discrimination, by Gordon Prather </a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> Links therein.<br> <p></p><i></i>
