WHAT'S HOT? –– ANALYSIS OF RECENT HAPPENINGS

Pakistan's Special Status With America

An IDC Analysis

New Delhi, 06 August 2004

India is always smarting as USA never acknowledges India's fight against terrorism and is more supportive of America's stance than Pakistan. The India–US group had reported its assessment of the current U.S. policy towards Pakistan and it's defects are well articulated in many pieces of writing by IDC and the Center For American Progress more recently, but the latest is that Osama Bin Laden may be delivered. The remedies, or the alternative policy outlined, however, are difficult to articulate as Musharraf is playing his cards well.The U.S. has much more leverage on Pakistan than it exercises. As it is, the U.S. uses too much of a "carrot" approach. Pakistan skillfully exploits this US weakness and blackmails the U.S. and the world. A bad example has already been set by giving Pakistan major non NATO ally status. Pakistan will continue to play a double game.

A quote from the Centre For American Progress

"Joseph Cirincione, director for non-proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, believes that the U.S. has much more leverage on Pakistan than the Bush administration claims to have. In particular, F-16 aircraft and continued U.S. financial aid are both things that Pakistan urgently wants and thus provide powerful bargaining chips for the United States to use when demanding Pakistan’s full disclosure of information on Khan’s network".

This is a dangerous recommendation –– exchanging information on the Khan network for F-16s

This will result in the U.S. getting bad or even misleading information on proliferation while at the same time creating a more dangerous Pakistan with F-16s in it's arsenal. Why does Pakistan need F-16s? Against whom will they be used? The arms race in the sub continent is on and here is another bold article on Pakistan's nuclear status from Dawn reproduced below.

No accord with US to share information: N-fissile material

Dawn, August 3, 2004

No agreement exists between Islamabad and Washington on sharing information about production of any new fissile material by Pakistan, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said at a press briefing here on Monday.

When asked about a US decision to monitor Pakistan's nuclear programme through an Act of Congress which authorises the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to oversee implementation of a number of conditions, the spokesman said he would need time to study the "Intelligence Authorization Act For the Fiscal Year 2005" before replying to the question.

The spokesman avoided making any comment when asked if the CIA would be conducting clandestine intelligence operations on nuclear-related facilities of Islamabad if the information-sharing agreement on fissile material production did not exist between Pakistan and the US.

Passed by the US Congress in July, "The Intelligence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2005" in its section 304 directs the director of CIA to submit reports on Pakistan's nuclear-related activities for the next five years till 2009.

When asked if the US had asked Pakistan to stop production of any new fissile material, a senior foreign office official said "No". The official dismissed as 'out of question' any monitoring of Pakistan's nuclear facilities and programme by any agency of the US.

The official said no mechanism existed between Islamabad and Washington to share information about safeguards of Pakistani nuclear facilities. The Intelligence Authorisation Act 2005 gives a mandate to US intelligence apparatus to gather information about the "size of the stockpile of fissile material of the Government of Pakistan and whether any additional fissile material has been produced."

The "classified" reports gathered by the CIA would be submitted to the US Congress committees on armed services, intelligence, foreign relations and others. According to the act, the CIA would submit confidential reports to the Congress on Pakistan's production of any additional fissile material and the size of the stockpile of fissile material in Islamabad's nuclear arsenal.

The Act authorises CIA to monitor any efforts by the government, or individuals or entities in Pakistan to acquire or transfer weapons of mass destruction and related technologies, or missile equipment and technology, to any other nation, entity, or individual.

The act makes it mandatory for CIA to inform the US Congress about steps taken by Pakistan to combat proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and technologies related to chemical, biological and radioactive materials.

The CIA has been assigned the job to list the steps taken by Pakistan to safeguard nuclear weapons and related technologies in the possession of the government. Besides monitoring of the nuclear related activities in Pakistan, the CIA has been assigned two additional tasks of submitting reports on efforts by Pakistan to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban as well as steps taken by Islamabad to dismantle terrorist networks operating inside he country.

The efforts by Pakistan to establish and strengthen democratic institutions would also form part of monitoring by the US intelligence agency. Sources said Pakistani and US officials had already held their first meeting to discuss the safety of Islamabad's civilian nuclear reactor programme.

Senior officials related to Pakistan's nuclear programme are reported to have held three days of talks in Washington in July with US Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman and other US officials to share information about safety of civilian nuclear facilities of Pakistan. The two sides are said to have discussed reactor risk issues, fire safety mechanisms, inspection and enforcement activities, said a source.