Pakistan Downplays CIA Report on Leaks

[Rose Siding]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan on Saturday downplayed suggestions that a new CIA report indicates that a renegade scientist provided more help to Iran's nuclear weapons program than previously disclosed.

Abdul Qadeer Khan, who was considered a national hero for leading the development of Pakistan's nuclear deterrent against rival India, admitted in February to passing nuclear technology to other countries. He was pardoned by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who cited his service to the nation, but he is under virtual house arrest in Islamabad.

The CIA this week posted on its Web site an unclassified report to Congress, "Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions." It details reported efforts by Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Syria to obtain chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons technology.
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"The writer of the report has spun a strange web based on flimsy evidence, hearsay and snippets of conversations," Khan said Saturday. "The CIA report does not mention any `designs for weapons or bomb-making components.' Weapons and bomb-making are the writer's own creative insertions.

"In the past year, Pakistan has conducted an inquiry to unearth an illicit network of international black-marketeers, dismantled it and shared the results of the inquiry transparently with the people of Pakistan," Khan said. "Pakistan has been cooperating with the IAEA and the international community to thwart international black-marketeers from proliferating sensitive nuclear technology."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-pakistan-nuclear,0,5932095.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[lovuian]

1. It sounds like CIA under Goss is looking for WMD!!!

and they have found them!!! PNAC continues Bush will stay the course!!!

[Barkley]

2. America's allies/ friends are WMD proliferators too

Israel helped S. Africa's nuclear weapons and missile program.
Pakistan is helping Iran.

Germany scientists helped helped build Iraq's missile program.

China sold M-11 and M-9 to Pakistan