The Trial of a Nation

#138 by r.a.janjua on December 3, 2005 10:34pm PT


his genius scientists and government begging the u.s. congress for technology they could`nt develop on their own.


Sour grapes? Your military dictator asked for the same deal as was signed with India...

Mr. Khan is not charged with understanding nuclear technology in sixteen days, but with making xerox copies of classified technical documents, and smuggling those xerox copies. There is no clear reason why other scientists in Pakistan could not have worked on the information contained in those copies.

Urs Truly,

Whether AQKhan stole the technology or replicated it back in Pakistan through his own genuis that he obtained in sixteen days at Urenco, or whether he is being eulogized by people as the self-styled father of the bomb, he is not the father of the bomb, let alone the nuclear program. To call him that is outrageously stupid and non-sensical, notwithstanding the volume of propaganda he managed to heap on the nuclear-ignorant people of Pakistan through his paid propaganda writers.

Now, Pakistan`s nuclear program began in 1956 with the establishment of the PAEC. In the 1960s, two important milestones were achieved which provided the technical basis of a basic civilian nuclear program infrastructure, namely, the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH) with its two atomic research reactors, (PARR-1 & 2) and KANUPP. This was done in the tenure of Dr. I.H.Usmani as PAEC Chairman from 1960-71.

The nuclear weapons program was initiated on January 20th, 1972 at the Multan Conference where a nuclear engineer, having specialized in nuclear engineering from the Argonne National Laboratories in the U.S, Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan was appointed head of the nuclear program and PAEC Chairman. Munir had served with distinction as Head of Nuclear Reactor Engineering Division at the IAEA from 1958-1971, being the only Pakistani, and the first Asian to serve on the staff at the IAEA. Munir was involved in the establishment of nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes in all countries at that time under the US. Atoms for Peace Program, and had vast technological, managerial and scientific experience by virtue of his position at the IAEA and had cultivated vast international contacts there. When he was appointed PAEC Chairman, he was the best choice for Pakistan, whereas A.Q.Khan had only completed his PhD in Physcial metallurgy in 1972. He did not have any scientific, research, managerial or technical experience because he was a middle level technician-cum-metallurgist employed by FDO. His sixteen day stint with the centrifuge documents does not qualify him to be the father of the nuclear program, because the program had begun long before his arrival in Pakistan.

A.Q.Khan was not involved in the initiation or establishment of the PAEC or any of its projects.

He was not involved in Giving Pakistan complete mastery over the nuclear fuel cycle, which is the basis of any sustainable nuclear program, which Iran is still struggling with, and AQKhan`s help has not been able to enable Iran complete the fuel cycle. The nuclear fuel cycle is the PAEC`s singular accomplishment under Munir Ahmad Khan.

AQKhan did not start the Kahuta uranium enrichment project. It was started in 1974 by Munir Ahmad Khan with Bashiruddin Mahmood as project incharge of code name project-706 of the PAEC. The PAEC had begun extensive Research and Development with Italian Centrifuge Designs as early as 1975 when the first pilot scale centrifuge plant was successfully run at Sihala. The drawings that A.Q.Khan brought from Urenco were of First generation centrifuge machines, which were so low in efficiency that they could not have produced the required levels of enriched uranium. Therefore his input was only a small portion of the enrichment effort. The PAEC had on its own established a surreptitious nuclear suppliers network in Europe with the brilliant S.A.Butt as the man incharge of procurement who reported directly to Munir Ahmad Khan, who enabled PAEC to acquire and develop the balancing rotors used in centrifuges, the mass spectrometers and the high frequency inverters used to supply power to the centrifuges. Centrifuge is just one link in a long chain of enrichment technology. It is a small part of the enrichment process, let alone the nuclear program as a whole.

Munir Ahmad Khan had acquired maraging steel in 1975-6 worth Rs. 50 million which is used in the development of centrifuges and their cascades.

It was the PAEC that produced the uranium hexafloride gas or UF6 at is plant at D.G.Khan, which is the crucial raw material and Feed for enrichment, without which the centrifuges would be useless. It is this UF6 gas which is enriched to weapon grade through the gas-centrifuges at Kahuta. This plant was begun and completed long before AQKhan came on the scene.

The enriched uranium would be useless without developing a workable nuclear bomb design, its triggerring mechanism and implosion techniques in addition to cold testing and hot testing facilities. The PAEC began work on this in March 1974 and the first bomb design was ready by 1978. AQKhan did not come up with any workable design which also failed cold tests.

Munir Khan conducted the first cold tests on March 11, 1983 and completed the Chaghi test sites by 1980.

Plutonium is another route to nuclear weapons. The PAEC had completed its own reprocessing plant at PINSTECH called New Labs by 1981 which gave Pakistan the ability to produce enough plutonium for atleast one bomb a year. The PAEC conducted over 24 cold tests between 1983 and 1990, during which plutonium weapons may also have been tested.

The Khushab heavy water plutonium production reactor was inititated by Munir Khan in 1985 which is now commissioned and has given Pakistan the ability to produce enough plutonium for many bombs and tritium which is used to boost fission devices. This was despite sanctions and despite the French backstabbing the Chashma contract.

After the Canadians put sanctions on KANUPP in the wake of the Indian test of 1974, the PAEC scientists and engineers developed the spare parts and nuclear fuel for KANUPP indeginously. AQKhan had nothing to do with any of this.

Munir also established the Centre for Nuclear Studies in 1975, before AQKhan came to Pakistan, and CNS provided over 5000 nuclear scientists, engineers to the nuclear program, inclucing KRL,when the world had closed its doors to Pakistani scientists. today CNS is a university called PIEAS.

So when A.Q.Khan had no role in any of the above mentioned achivements, which were all accomplished during Munir Khan`s tenure as PAEC Chairman from 1972-1991, then how is AQKhan the father of the nuclear program? He was never even head of the program, as he never was the PAEC Chairman.


Regards.

re: 104
the opinions of arabs should not matter to us. baigharat, backstabing little buggers that they are.

re: 102
``What`s your point re Pakistan`s nuclear weapons? (Please be brief and succinct.)``

be brief & succinct after spending so much time on wiki becoming an expert on nuclear physics in general
and nuclear weapons in particular? now that`s asking AlephLull too much. be nice to him - it is hard for AlephLull to see his genius scientists and government begging the u.s. congress for technology they could`nt develop on their own.

re: 77 (hp)

hp, munir ahmed did`nt have a phd (if i remember correctly) - here are a couple of articles on him which
are fairly decent and were published on chowk:

http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00000573&channel=university%20ave&threshold=1&layout=0&order=0&start=0&end=9&page=1 http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00003421&channel=civic%20center&threshold=1&layout=0&order=0&start=0&end=9&page=1#32

pakistan atomic energy commission comprised of four members - chairman, member finance, member
weapons and one other title which i can`t remember. when the chairman retired it was almost certain that the
member weapons would become the next chairman. krl and aq khan were involved with uranium enrichment
initially but later were competing with paec on the weapons design - a competition that they lost - and the paec
member weapons at that time was samar mubarakmand. if anyone was paying attention at that time, he/she
would have noticed samar mubarakmand`s irritation at aq khan stealing his show. aq khan on the other hand
thrives on taking credit for things he did`nt do.

re: 71

urstruly, whether he stole the technology or not, does`nt matter - he probably did`nt -
and you are right - it is hard to believe that he ran that circus without the knowledge of people in power.
since pakistan is not a signatory to npt, what he did was not criminal, it was just plain stupid.

rsridhar:

Re: # 135

There is another strong opinion in US establishment. Just like Pakistan helped the USA against USSR in Afghanistan leading to its division, it now wants Pakistan in the same way against Iran. Furthermore, USA and Israel want to have a friendly relationship with Pakistan so that in future Pakistan could also be used to assist the USA to disintegrate India. The disintegration of India is an issue that has been discussed historically in the US congress. The US-India military exercises were also undertaken so that US could familiarise itself with Indian capabilities for a possible showdown in future. Previously conspicuous by their absence in India, American CIA is firmly entrenched in there.

There are two questions that you should ask yourself:

1. Why would the USA like to help India become a superpower knowing fully well that it is going to be another competitor (non-white this time) like China, France and Russia can be for scarce resources.

2. Optimistically speaking, if USA wants to develop India as a check against China, then certainly it would like to have Pakistan as a check against India. Surely, the US has also noticed the political weight Pakistan carries through the role that we played in the reformation of the UN through the support of countries that we did not have any relations with till now, the support that we enjoy in the Muslim countries, in the ASEAN, etc. Even Australia that had no relations with us till now has executed trade agrements because of the minerals they found Kashmiri soil exposed during the recent earthquake.

Therefore, by posting such posts as # 135, you can continue to masterb#te with pleasant self satisfying thoughts, I will seriously advise you that doctors have warned that during the process of mas****ation, one has a very high probability of having a heart failure, especially in the older age. I would suggest you caution.

Faisal:

Re: # 104

Thank you for this post. It was very encouraging.

I have been requesting Chowky Pakistanis not to malign Arabs on any site. Let Indians do whatever they want to do, but we should never post anything against any nationality. Arabs, French, Americans, Turks, Israelis, Iranians, moderate Indians, we hate no body and mean no harm to anyone. It is in our national interest that we seek harmony and peace.

Unfortunately, due to lack of sanitation in India (reference your next post), some fundoo Indoos, very well known to us, have started defecating on Chowk. Just use a bit of more air freshner when you find them actively taking a **** here.

re:#134 by faisaluno
While Pak may have acquired nuclear technology by ``hook or crook``, that technology is not considered safe in Paki hands. Pak has shown that it is an indiscriminate proliferator. It has had dealings with N.Korea, Iran, Libya. Mushy`s argument that it was all done by one single person A.Q.Khan and that he or the Army had no personal knowledge of it does not cut ice with the strategic thinkers. Mushy is needed today, so he is being tolerated.
However, there is real fear that Pak`s nuclear arms may fall into wrong hands once Mushy goes away (or is eliminated) and a terrorist takes over, as the following article implies:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_7-10-2004_pg7_6
(A new report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) on nuclear terrorism said, “The fear regarding Pakistan is that some members of the armed forces might covertly give a weapon to terrorists or that, if President Musharraf were overthrown, an Islamic fundamentalist government or a state of chaos in Pakistan might enable terrorists to obtain a weapon.” While, the report concedes, it would be difficult for terrorists to mount a nuclear attack on a US city, such an attack is plausible and would have catastrophic consequences, in one scenario killing over a half-million people and causing damage of over $1 trillion. “Terrorists or rogue states might acquire a nuclear weapon in several ways. The nations of greatest concern as potential sources of weapons or fissile materials are widely thought to be Russia and Pakistan.”)
In such a scenario, contingency plans are in place to take over the nuclear reactors in Pak by a combined US-Israeli commando units that have trained for this eventuality for sometime now. US is already there in Pak, so this possibility is very real. Pak is safe as long as Mushy boy is in control and does US tells him to do.
Sridhar

people who played a role in pak`s nuclear program deserve our thanks because the capability to successfully deter external aggression was necessary for pak`s progress. and since that has now been achieved, its time to move on, to shift focus to other important areas for a man cannot live by security alone. man also needs food, water, shelter, health care, job etc for survival. by this measurement, the performance of pakistanis has been well below par especially when measured against that achieved by people in s.e. asia.

there are signs however that things are turning around on the economic front and people driving the turn around deserve the same recognition accorded to nuclear scientists. in fact i would argue that on a day-to-day basis, the actions of governor of state bank of pak (sbp) have a far more impact on the lives of ordinary pakistanis than the work of nuclear scientists. in this respect, the recently retired governor of sbp has done an absolutely stellar job. check out the performance of rupee under his tenure vs the performance of the rupee in the 1st six years of decade of democracy - from 1990 to 1999.

pkr under ishrat hussain. note that it takes about two years for the impact of policy to filter through:



pkr under decade of democracy. note that pkr had lost 60% of its value in the first 6 years of the last decade although real damage came much later. in comparison rupee lost around 7-8% of its value this decade. however all the depreciation that took place this decade was in the first two years.



there is also some more good news ahead. the new governor of sbp also has a stellar reputation and will bring a no nonsense approach to her job. she is also like qadeer khan, a true son of the soil who made her reputation abroad. she is also a khatoon although this is immaterial in my opinion. she can howver be a good role model provided she gets due attention from the media like qadeer khan has received.

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/

ISLAMABAD: For the first time in country`s history, a woman economist, Dr Shamshad Akhtar, with entire experience of development banking was appointed Governor State Bank of Pakistan for a three-year term.

...She has been involved in the restructuring process of banks in the East Asian economies and has interacted regularly with Bank of International Settlement on Basel Standards. Dr Akhtar worked with the World Bank for 10 years, before joining Asian Development Bank in 1990, where she was holding the top position, overseeing Bank`s operations in a number of countries.

...She hails form rural Sindh and is the first woman to be appointed Governor State Bank of Pakistan, the statement added.

Re: # 124 Rommel

So at least the essay that you have posted from Week Nucleonics, do corroborate the account of legal battle as narrated by S.M. Zafar. The verbiage is the matter of opinion and on what side you are on - atleast the events are verified.

Apart from that, logically, if AQK is a below avarage metallusrgist then he should not have enough intelligence to steal or comprehend a complex centrifuge technology in sixteen days while most of his day must spent translating certain documents which he was charged with. Conversely, if he is a man of extraordinary intelligence and he did comprehend the centrifuge technology somehow in sixteen days or did figure out exactly what to steel, then it does make him the father of nuclear program in Pakistan.

#88 Malik

Yes it is true that what really matters is that Pakisatn has what 191 countries of the world don`t. But the matter is not that simple. The truth of the matter is that there is an ideological war underway. It is a war between the Islam, which has emerged as the last hope for mankind to establish a rule of equality and justice among nations and on the other side is the kuffar which thrives on the inequity and injustice in the world. Propaganda is an essential part of this war. One essential part of this prapaganda is to discredit the icons and ideals of each other. While truth is on our side, as their lies expose themselves by no one else but by their own people everyday, it is important that we stick to the truth. This is our strength that they can never take away. Someone has to tell that truth because it is important to boost morale in our ranks. That is the reason this article was written.

#130 by faisaluno on December 3, 2005 7:11am PT

You mean diseases like congo haemorrhagic fever?

when are indians going to start acting like a civilised nation? the thread of them spreading disease is pretty serious.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:J7AtyBpPWOQJ:www.mid-day.com/columns/dilip_dsouza/2005/november/123876.htm+%22Thinking+out+of+the+pot%22&hl=en

Ajit Pawar has got it right. We have a big problem in this country that he has decided to tackle: something over two-thirds of us Indians have no access to reasonable sanitation.

This is a public hygiene issue, because what it means is that two-thirds of us lack toilets in our homes, and so must use the great outdoors for our morning ablutions and defecations.
Our evening ones too, naturally.

...That is, please dream up innovative solutions. Because through nearly six decades of Indian Independence, we have not been able to address this problem with any great success: two-thirds of us toilet-less after all that time is, by any standards, pitiful. So don’t come up with stale, boring answers like “build public toilets”, or “build private toilets”, or “promote constipation as a lifestyle choice” or even “ban defecation”

#104 by faisaluno on December 2, 2005 4:59pm PT

the citizens of the Organization of Irrelevant Camel-jockeys countries think France and Pakiland should be a super-power? That`s almost as pathetic as saying the KSE is the best performing index when no foreign fund with it`s salt is investing in it....

Re: # 122

Dear Romair:

[Kahuta is protected like a precious diamond. This I know of personally....... ] Were you contacted by the international atomic agency spies about this precious diamond?

[AQ Khan got too much into the limelight. That is not how real heroes should behave.]
Yet in an earlier post, you considered him as a hero. Double speak as usual, eh?

[ And he openly came on air to admit he did some dealings on his own. Which was a huge let-down for Pakistan. At the same time, Pakistan has broken no int`l law, neither has AQ Khan. He has broken Pakistani law........... ]

Then why the pardon? Gibberish or double speak, which one? You chose.

[AQ Khan was a hero for the right reasons.] Get your thoughts examined, for your own sanity.

[ And he is now a pardoned criminal for the right reasons also.] Get your thoughts examined, for your own sanity.


[ But he has been turned into a far bigger hero than he deserves to be.] Hero, my foot.... ``hero....hath may lay key phiro``

[ He lives in sector E-7 in Islamabad... We used to live in the area and knew this scientist. The most down to earth man you will ever see. Those are the true heroes............ ]

Then, what are you doing in the western world?

Romair, you are soooo confuuuused about this world. Your double speak is just hilarious.

Respectfully submitted,

Morality at the level of nations has no meaning. You have Bomb now, worry about its safety. Soon it will be realized that keeping bombs is more expensive than making them.

Re: # 125

Dear godot:


[rsridhar

I`ll contact you at charsi@smokeit.com ]

And don`t forget to get him some Bangladeshi khajoor injected sugar cane for his chikna madrasi b$tt. He needs to get his therapy.

Respectfully submitted,