Tiassa
03-01-04, 09:49 PM
"Quid Pro Quo" - U.S. Strikes Deal to Hunt for Bin Laden in Pakistan
Some things stick out like a sore thumb in this age of awkward politics and strange bedfellows. Not the least of which is a recent Reuters report that the United States government has struck a deal with Pakistan to allow U.S. troops to move inside the Pakistani border in their hunt for Osama bin Laden.Thousands of U.S. troops will be deployed in a tribal area of northwest Pakistan in return for Washington's support of President Pervez Musharraf's pardon of the Pakistani scientist who this month admitted leaking nuclear arms secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote in the issue that goes on sale on Monday.
Full disclosure of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's activities would have exposed him as "the worst nuclear-arms proliferator in the world," an intelligence official is quoted as saying.
"It's a quid pro quo," according to a former senior intelligence official. "We're going to get our troops inside Pakistan in return for not forcing Musharraf to deal with Khan." (Reuters (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29327659.htm))I just have to ask.
What was the alternative? How would we "force" the Pakistani leader to "deal with Khan"?
Just curious.
• Reuters AlertNet. "Report: Deal for US to hunt bin Laden in Pakistan." February 29, 2004. See http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29327659.htm
Some things stick out like a sore thumb in this age of awkward politics and strange bedfellows. Not the least of which is a recent Reuters report that the United States government has struck a deal with Pakistan to allow U.S. troops to move inside the Pakistani border in their hunt for Osama bin Laden.Thousands of U.S. troops will be deployed in a tribal area of northwest Pakistan in return for Washington's support of President Pervez Musharraf's pardon of the Pakistani scientist who this month admitted leaking nuclear arms secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote in the issue that goes on sale on Monday.
Full disclosure of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's activities would have exposed him as "the worst nuclear-arms proliferator in the world," an intelligence official is quoted as saying.
"It's a quid pro quo," according to a former senior intelligence official. "We're going to get our troops inside Pakistan in return for not forcing Musharraf to deal with Khan." (Reuters (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29327659.htm))I just have to ask.
What was the alternative? How would we "force" the Pakistani leader to "deal with Khan"?
Just curious.
• Reuters AlertNet. "Report: Deal for US to hunt bin Laden in Pakistan." February 29, 2004. See http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29327659.htm