The New York Times is trying to sell the story that Iran was the primary client of the A.Q. Khan nuclear network, and received miniaturized warhead designs. http://www.nytimes.com/...

That is about as accurate as Judith Miller's stories that Iraq had WMDs.

The fact is, as James Risen told us, by the late 1990s Iran caught on to the fact that Khan's network operated as a CIA front.  A failed effort to transfer bogus warhead designs to Iran was code-named Operation Merlin.

The Agency had a major role in creating and nurturing A.Q Khan's nuclear program.  It was originally part of the 1976 deal that CIA Director George H.W. Bush made with Princes Kamal Adham and Turki al-Faisal, co-heads of Saudi external intelligence, the GID. In exchange for Saudi funding of U.S. intelligence operations banned by the Democratic Congress since the Church Commmittee hearings, the Agency looked the other way as the Saudis implemented their own covert operations around the world, including Pakistan's bomb program, influence operations and financial frauds inside the U.S., which included BCCI and the S&L scandals.

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CNN is bravely announcing the results of the brutal interrogation of a "...15-year-old detained near the Afghan border (who) has confessed to joining a team of assassins sent to kill Benazir Bhutto". As it turns out, the ISI's quid pro quo with the CIA required that they initiate a press-worthy "aggressive crackdown" on insurgents and Al Qaeda members, in exchange for CIA corroboration, on their bullshit explanation of Bhutto's assassination.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Mehsud is behind Bhutto's assassination. Because she posed such a threat, to Al Qaeda's interests in Pakistan, most particularly Waziristan. But if Mehsud did deliberately kill Bhutto, it was because he has no better possible ally than Musharraf. Who can play the Americans like taking candy from children. Who has played so many shell games and bluffs and lies, that no one knows what or who he's playing for anymore. He's the Paris Hilton of Global Politics.

The GOP of late has displayed a negative midas touch  -  everything they touch turns to toxic waste.

Not just Iraq, they are on the wrong side - morally and politically - of every issue, from Social Security to fair trade to stem cells to media concentration to  the energy bill to Terry Schiavo to Katrina to deficits to inequality to SCHIP.

Immigration will cost them far more Hispanic votes than they could ever hope to pick up of nativists who aren't already with them. They have alienated independents, seniors and young voters.  Their pervasive corruption and hypocrisy tends to demoralize even the fundamentalists.

The ONLY thing that can save the repugs now is another attack on US soil. The Dems need to take a leaf from Rove's book and relentlessly attack the GOP on their STRENGTH, the national security/antiterrorism issue.

         The United States and its allies will fail in the so-called "war on terror" without the support of Pakistan and its intelligence service, Pakistan's President  Musharraf said on Saturday.
        In an interview with BBC radio, Musharraf was asked for his response to the view that Pakistan was not a good ally in the fight against global extremism because of the links between terrorism and his country.
        "You will be brought down to your knees if Pakistan doesn't co-operate with you. That is all that I would like to say. Pakistan is the main ally. If we were not with you, you would not manage anything. Let that be clear," he said.

        "And if the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) is not with you, you will fail. Let that be very clear also. Remember my words: if the ISI is not with you and Pakistan is not with you will lose in Afghanistan." http://www.khaleejtimes.com/...
       Knowing what is below the fold, you tell me!
       

This is old news. This diary will show that the Bush Administration was asleep at the wheel (and probably still is) in dealing with the threat of al Qaeda and their sponsors. I intend merely to argue that the Bush Administration had adequate advance warning in their first eight months in office to be aware of the threat posed by al Qaeda and to try and stop it, and that they utterly failed to do so. I also pose the question of whether they can be trusted to defend the US in the future, given the many possible threats we face. While the reports featured in this diary are old, so were the stories of George Allen's racism. But Macaca got them back in the news cycle. I feel Path to 9-11 should bring these stories back as well. Indulge me.

When did this administration become so Un-American?  Was it just today, when the frameworks for legalized torture, and the legal suspension of habeas corpus were laid?  Was it when this administration first began to illegally torture, and illegally suspend habeas corpus?  Was it when this administration illegally wiretapped unknown numbers of American citizens without warrants?  Was it when the largely unread Patriot Act was passed?  No.  It turns out, this administration's disdain for Democracy and American values began on 9/13/01, at the latest.  Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, on the other hand, had to defend his own country's adopted version of American values...from America.

The Bush administration is determined to overturn established law and the Geneva Conventions when it comes to detainees in its gulags.  I believe the reason is that virtually all the detainees and the evidence would point to Pakistan as the nexus for training, supply and financing of international terror.

Before 9-11 Pakistan was regarded as hostile to the USA and complicit in international terrorism against the USA.  The terrorist training camps funded by the CIA and Saudis and run by Pakistan's ISI to resist the Soviets in Afghanistan had morphed into the world's leading terrorism resource.  

Since 9-11 Pakistan has been embraced by the Bush administration as an ally and received billions of dollars of grants, loans and weaponry.  Given that Pakistan is linked to ALL major terrorism attacks before 9-11, on 9-11 and since 9-11, you have to wonder whose side they are on.

The reason for secret trials and secret evidence may be the risk in open court that we would find out.  We need a transparent judicial process if we are to discover the truth.

Timeline and request for help below.

 Amazing news coming out of Pakistan in the last few days of Peace Treaties with the Talaban Militants in Northern Pakistan. People in the MSM and others are looking at these latest developments as not making any sense. There is sense to be made of these developements however, and it isn't "incompetence". The 911 widows have been trying to get these questions out for five years.
http://video.google.com/...

Conspiracy Theory......

That is the first thing that pops into my mind whenever I hear of any film challenging the official version of 911 as presented in the 911 Commission Report. The Loose Change crowd scares people away from seriously questioning their Government, and frankly, as cynical as I am of the Government of the United States of America, I am not in any way ready to conclude that 911 was an inside job.  

How can one speak of a "thwarted" plot when intelligence agents were an inherent part in nurturing the conspiracy from the very beginning?  

When you put the pieces together, the following picture emerges about the liquid explosives conspiracy:

*  It was first penetrated by Pakistani intelligence in June 2005.
*  British intelligence have been actively involved for more than a year.
*  British intelligence had at least one double-agent inside the cell.
*  U.S.  intel was first made aware of the surveillance operation at   least several months ago.
*  The Bush Administration decided the timing of the arrests a few weeks ago.

That makes this terrorist conspiracy nearly as much a conspiracy of state as it is a real terrorist plot.

Furthermore, the timing of the arrests, as the article immediately makes clear, was chosen for political reasons.   That is simply an abuse of the intelligence process, one that should result in the cancellation of the security clearances of those US officials who interfered with what had been a UK and Pakistani counter-terrorism operation.

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