Editorial touching on possible Pakistan connection in Hersh/Iran Story

[TexasLawyer]

Jan 19, 2005

From Asia Times

Once more, the heat's on Iran
By Ehsan Ahrari

<snip>

What are chances that Pakistan is cooperating with the US? It is possible that Pakistan is busy making the best out of the worst situation related to Khan's involvement in nuclear proliferation. More to the point, considering the fact that there is ample suspicion in Washington that Khan might not have acted as a loose canon on his own, and that the government of Pakistan might have tacitly approved his activities at least in the case of North Korea, Musharraf cannot afford to become a target of US sanctions in the future.

Besides, Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's unilateral decision to take a "tell-all" approach regarding his own nuclear aspirations has shaken up Pakistan's own nostalgic and starry-eyed perspectives regarding Islamic solidarity. So, establishing a clear distance between itself and Iran might have been just a Machiavellian approach of Pakistan to save its own hide.

If the US really wanted to seek hard evidence about Iran's nuclear intentions, one wonders how much damage Hersh's story has done. Considering that its platter is currently full with the problems related to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush administration might not want to create another unmanageable mess by destabilizing Iran. There is also an outside chance that Hersh might have been given this story as a larger campaign of the US to forewarn Iran about the consequences of developing nuclear weapons.

Ehsan Ahrari, PhD, is an Alexandria, Virginia, US-based independent strategic analyst.