'Bush winked at Pak nuke proliferation'

[struggle4progress]

5 Sep 2007, 0341 hrs IST,Chidanand Rajghatta,TNN

... The disclosures in the book Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, which is to be released next week, are nothing short of stunning ...

Describing the episode in which US officials confronted Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf with evidence of its nuclear proliferation, the authors say "American officials knew that Musharraf had known about the nuclear trade all along. And Washington had itself not only turned a blind eye to Pakistan's nuclear bomb project for decades but had covered it up for imperative geopolitical reasons, even when Islamabad began trading its secret technology."

The authors credit then Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage of conceiving the drama in which Musharraf would promise to shut down Pakistan's nuclear black market in return for winning continued US support for his unelected regime.

It was agreed that A Q Khan and his aides would be arrested and blamed for "privately" engaging in proliferation. "The country's military elite - who had sponsored Khan's work and encouraged sales of technology to reduce their reliance on American aid - were left in the clear," the authors say, adding that "Bush subscribed to the deceit." ...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/The_United_States/Bush_winked_at_Pak_nuke_proliferation/articleshow/2338421.cms