DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: BEHIND THE TREASON ALLEGATIONS
SUBSECTION: NATIONAL SECURITY PAKISTAN
Revised 8/20/99
GENERAL
RECENT ACTIVITY
GENERAL
Clinton permitted the sale of satellite and missile technology to China. China provided nuclear assistance to Pakistan and Iran. That prompted India to boost its nuclear weapons program. And today Pakistan is once again upping the ante. "China has had a major hand in what happened today," said R. James Woolsey, former CIA director. Transfers: nuclear weapons design information, ring magnets, M-11 short-range missiles and equipment used in setting up a missile production facility, expertise, industrial furnace and high-tech diagnostic equipment with military applications. India has said that its nuclear tests were conducted in response to threats posed by China. China stepped up military cooperation with Pakistan in 1995 in retaliation for the United States' allowing Taiwan's president, Lee Teng-hui, to visit Cornell University.
Lanny Davis, Clinton's chief spokesman during the campaign finance investigations is now serving as a foreign agent for Pakistan, representing the Islamabad government at a time when White House officials are making key decisions on how to address the threat of a nuclear arms buildup between Pakistan and India. As of June 16th, 1998 he had not registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent.
1/21/93 President's instructions to staff requires all senior appointees to pledge they will refrain from:."Lobbying during the five years after they leave government any agency where they have served or which they have had any responsibility for as a member of the White House staff; . Engaging in any activity on behalf of any foreign government at any time after they leave government service;.Representing any foreign government or foreign corporation in any way within five years of being involved in a trade negotiation on behalf of the U.S. government" v Lanny Davis/Pakistan Mark Middleton/Asian business interests, and Webster Hubbell/Lippo
Congressional Record 8/7/98 Rep Rohrabacher ".I disclosed information that indicated that American aerospace firms, with the acquiescence of officials in the Clinton administration, and perhaps the President himself, had facilitated the transfer of sophisticated rocket technology to the Communist Chinese.First and foremost, since my first address, nothing has emerged that suggests that my original statements were inaccurate… The document is from a leadership document of the Communist Chinese themselves. It was released last week. This white paper details China's own goals. It calls the United States and its alliance with democratic countries in Asia as `the main threat to world peace and stability.'…China is also staking out its claim to all the territories in the South China Sea, including islands just off the coast of the Philippines, almost within view of the Philippines and Malaysia as well.. In this, China, while cozying up to this dictatorship, actually supporting the dictatorship in Burma, is building a chain of military naval installations in Burma along the Indian Ocean that, in part, have lead India, have lead India to become more aggressive in developing its own conventional and nuclear weapons policies. While China was assuring the world that it was against this nuclear arms race, and we have seen that in Pakistan and in India and what a threat it is, but while China says it is against that arms race, what has it done? It continues to ship and to smuggle components to Pakistan for their nuclear weapons program and their missile delivery systems. This is really, perhaps, the thing that China is doing that perhaps causes a short-term threat, even greater than the long-term threat of their own missiles. If Pakistan and India began exchanging rockets and atomic bombs, millions of people will die, and it will be a tragedy beyond all description. China is helping people put these weapon systems together…..."
RECENT ACTIVITY
On June 4, 1998 - the Nihon Keizai Shimbun - a financial daily - reported that North Korea may have at least one nuclear bomb. The daily also quoted a report saying that the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan might tempt North Korea to resume its nuclear program. Pakistan and North Korea have close ties. China and Pakistan have close ties.
The U.S. Customs Service has opened an investigation into the sale of super computer upgrades to India by IBM, in violation of US export laws. U.S. law requires an American company to obtain an export license before selling and shipping overseas any computer that performs more than 2 billion operations per second. The computer that was sold operated at 1.4 billion operations per second when installed in 1994. The Clinton Commerce Department oddly granted a license for the sale of the sensitive computer, despite knowledge the buyer was a missile site. IBM then upgraded it in March 1997 to perform 3.2 billion operations per second and again in June 1997 to 5.8 billion, making it possibly the most powerful computer in India.
Former UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick noted that the danger of nuclear war is "greater now than any time since Hiroshima.." and that President Clinton takes a "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" attitude toward nuclear proliferation.
According to a Pakistan news source, the nuclear blast has "created new and interesting opportunities for the country to embark upon a major foreign policy initiative in the Middle East and particularly among the Gulf states. The growing Indo-Israeli relations can go a long way in making through to the circles concerned the real Indian designs in this region..It could mean Pakistan exports to the region rising and could also mean more Pakistani manpower in the region."
A recently retired CIA top intelligence officer, Gordon Oehler told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June 1998 that the CIA was ``virtually certain'' that China transferred 34 intermediate-range missiles to Pakistan from 1992 to 1996, and that China also assisted Pakistan in developing its nuclear weapons. He said that although China promised reforms, it was still "a major proliferator." He further identified the National Security Council for dismissing the CIA evidence as preliminary or incomplete to avoid triggering sanctions. He also said the CIA was pleased with the 1996 decision to move U.S. satellite decisions to Commerce since the CIA then had a chance to review the licenses.
The June 15th, 1998 article from Economic Times (India) reveals a clear sense of betrayal: "THOSE gullible people who ask what is the threat from China should now wake up after President Clinton's statement: ``Because of its history with both countries, China must be a part of any ultimate resolution of this matter''. This was with reference to India and Pakistan resolving their differences, including Kashmir, through dialogue. In other words, President Clinton was clearly signalling that from now onwards South Asia will, in the US view, be the Chinese sphere of influence and China will be the hegemonistic power of this part of the world as the US is over Latin America and Europe. This is the first time the US President has come out openly to advance China's hegemonic interests. In fact, the Indian nuclear tests were meant to block that contingency."
North Korea publicly revealed for the first time on Tuesday that it was selling missiles and demanded that the United States pay compensation if it wanted the arms exports to stop. Defense analysts said Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria are among countries which have received the missiles.
Maheshwar Singh Deo and his associates were arrested June 14 1998 for uranium smuggling at Salanpur and Raghunathpur in West Bengal in a deal trading heroin for uranium, a component of a nuclear bomb. The uranium seized was in a satchel stamped with the Ashoka Pillar and the official stamp of the Jaduguda Mines and embossed on it was the word 'isoltope-238'.
Continuing to express a feeling of betrayal, India's defense minister said 6/18/98 that President Clinton should explain why the United States believes that it can "trust China with nuclear weapons" while imposing economic sanctions on India for seeking a nuclear de
The Heritage Foundation 6/19/98: China has provided Islamabad with ``highly enriched uranium, ring magnets necessary for processing the uranium and education for nuclear engineers. Pakistan's nuclear bomb is widely believed to be based on Chinese blueprints.'' In 1990 and 1992, China provided Pakistan with nuclear-capable M-11 missiles'' and also the technology for Islamabad ``to build a missile that could strike targets within a 360-mile (576-km) range.'' The memo clearly noted that ``China's deep involvement with Pakistan's nuclear programme contributed to the new Indian government's decision to test nuclear weapons last month.''
The U.S. Commerce Department approved exports of American nuclear technology (from high speed computers to radiation warning badges) to India over the last few years despite Pentagon objections (September 14, 1995): "The provision of such technology serves to undercut international and U.S. counter-proliferation policies.''
India plans, with help from Russia, to build its first nuclear powered submarine by 2004 and arm it with Sagarika nuclear warhead missiles - estimated by 2005
On 6/27/98 - in a prompt, strongly-worded reaction, India rejected the US-China joint statement on South Asia, saying the approach was reflective of "hegemonistic mentality" of a bygone era in international relations that was completely unacceptable and out of place in the present day world.
Iftikhar Chaudhry Khan, 29, a Pakistani nuclear scientist fled to the US because he felt his country was considering a first nuclear strike against India. Four associates also concerned are believed to be in England. Pakastani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khab said that this man is an impostor. A person of that name worked for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Agency (PAEC) in 1980 - but this man is 29. He also said the other 4 were impostors.
7/6/98 Charles R. Smith softwar "Last month U.S. intelligence sources revealed that a Chinese freighter, bound for Pakistan, contained a load of anti-tank missiles. However, recent information published in the Pakistan Observer on June 23, 1998 asserts that China also transferred a large number of depleted uranium tank shells designed for the Pakistani armored forces. .The new systems were supplied by a Chinese arms company, NORINCO, which is owned by the Chinese army General staff. NORINCO has it's headquarters in Islamabad. NORINCO is one of several companies owned by the PLA. One of NORINCO's brother companies, Poly Technologies, had it's CEO, Wang Jun, in the White House along with Charlie Trie. President Clinton had his picture taken with Jun. Trie made a large donation which was later returned by the DNC as tainted. A U.S. Poly Technologies facility was later raided on the west coast by the BATF. The raid netted 2,000 automatic AK-47 rifles.."
China Today 7/10/98 "China urged India on Thursday to halt its nuclear weapons program and sign two major global nuclear weapons control pacts. ."The most urgent task for India is to immediately abandon its nuclear program and sign the CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) and the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) unconditionally and as soon as possible," Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang Guoqiang told a news conference..Tang was responding to a reporter's question regarding a report that India had offered to sign a nuclear weapons no-first-use pact with China. .."
DAWN 7/10/98 Pakistan "US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Thursday that it was not right to blame China for Pakistan's nuclear programme as it stemmed from the dispute with India over Kashmir and from India's nuclear programme. She told the senate's finance committee that China had played a significant and helpful role in trying to move India and Pakistan back from the brink of a nuclear arms race.
The Hindu 7/8/98 "The United States has given Chinese companies the green light to sell missile technology to countries like Pakistan and Iran, Mr. Gary Milhollin, a nuclear expert, has testified before a U.S. parliamentary committee.Officials here said the American nuclear expert's testimony confirmed India's concerns of Washington pursuing a policy of duplicity on the issue of nuclear non-proliferation.."
London Telegraph 7/11/98 Hugo Gurdon "The economic sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan to punish them for their nuclear weapons tests collapsed yesterday after the US Senate voted to resume farm exports. Only two months after President Clinton expressed "grave displeasure" over the 11 underground tests, he has backed legislation ending restrictions on the bulk of American trade with the two states. At the same time, the World Bank has resumed aid to India, with his blessing. The about-turn has taken place even faster than predicted by sceptics, who said a mild slap on the wrist was the worst that India and Pakistan need fear."
Hindustan Times 7/13/98 "The United States Senate's legislation exempting the US farm credit programmes from the purview of the economic sanctions against India and Pakistan is more aimed at bailing out the crisis-ridden Pakistan economy and taking care of the immediate interests of the US farm lobby rather than giving any real benefit to India..The fact that as high a member of the government as the US Commerce Secretary himself is talking against mandatory sanctions speaks eloquently of the acute embarrassment being faced by the Clinton Administration on this issue."
7/13/98 Hindustan Times/Indian Express "Palestinian president Yasser Arafat today supported Pakistan's nuclear-tests saying if Israel possesses nuclear weapons then why Pakistan cannot have the nuclear capability. Addressing mediapersons at Islamabad airport during his brief stopover before leaving for Beijing, Arafat said Arab and Muslim countries backed Pakistan for its nuclear tests. There was a very positive and strong reaction from the Muslim world to Pakistan's nuclear tests, he added.."
Nando.net 7/13/98 "The Clinton administration asked Congress on Monday for authority to waive the economic sanctions just imposed on India and Pakistan, saying it would give the United States more leverage in slowing the arms race in South Asia. "Our purpose is not to punish for punishment's sake, but to influence the behavior of both governments," Karl F. Inderfurth, assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, told a Senate hearing.."
7/16/98 Far East Economic Review Ahmed Rashid ".On June 24, Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers received an urgent call from a senior IMF official whose message was simple but stark: Pakistan was likely to default on its foreign debt before the end of July. If the U.S. was interested in organizing a bailout for Islamabad, it had better move fast. ."
7/17/98 Hindustan Times (from N. C. Menon) "State Department spokesman James Rubin yesterday confirmed that India's Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Dr Chidambaram had applied on June 29 for a visa to attend a scientific conference in Atlanta, and his passport and application fee had been returned to him on July 9 on the ground that current visa procedures were under review as a result of the May nuclear tests by India and Pakistan. "This isn't technically a refusal," Rubin insisted. "We told them it was under review. He hasn't persisted in his effort," he added."
WorldNetDaily Charles Smith 8/4/98 "New documents from the files of Ron Brown reveal that secure satellite communications systems, super-computers and even turbine engines for the most advanced U.S. ARMY helicopters were sold to India. The documents provide detailed information on advanced U.S.military technology sold during the 1994 Brown trade mission to India. The newly released information was obtained from the U.S. Commerce Department using the Freedom of Information Act. The January 1995 Commerce Dept. document, titled "OGC (Office of the General Counsel) Summary of India Trade Mission Deliverables" provides information on advanced technology sales to India. In 1994, the U.S. Commerce Department authorized Allied Signal -- Allison Engine Company -- to sell T800 Comanche turbine engines to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) for a mere $35 million dollars. The turbine engines were slated for India's Advanced Light Helicopter. The U.S. Army did not get the T800 until two years AFTER the engine was exported to India. .. Furthermore, advanced U.S. telecommunications helped India conceal the 1998 A-bomb tests from the prying eyes of U.S. intelligence.. In 1998, however, India successfully used advanced satellite communications purchased through the Brown Commerce Department with encryption security to mask their A-bomb activity. CIA officials were blocked from listening in on Indian A-bomb peparations and were caught unaware by the blasts. . "
Electronic Telegraph 8/9/98 Julian West "SHELLING along the 450-mile Line of Control dividing Indian and Pakistani Kashmir has increased fears that the region is heading for all-out war. Given that both India and Pakistan have recently tested nuclear devices, the conflict could be catastrophic. Two of India and Pakistan's three wars have been fought over Kashmir. The present border bombardment, which locals describe as heavier than that during the entire 1948 and 1965 wars put together, has seen an estimated 50,000 rounds of ammunition expended so far, and heavy artillery used for the first time.."
Deccan Herald (Press Trust of India) 9/8/98 "In an acknowledgment of India`s security concerns, a US government-owned defence institute has said Washington failed to stop technology and weapons of mass destruction-related traffic between China and Pakistan, an issue repeatedly conveyed to Clinton administration by New Delhi. These were some of the strongest arguments India had advanced for its need to carry out nuclear explosions, but the Clinton administration did not accept them, the in- house think tank on defence issues, the national defence university`s institute for national strategic studies said in its ''strategic assessment 1998.`` .."
AP K.N. Arun "In exchange for signing a nuclear test ban treaty, India wants the nuclear energy technology that it has been denied because the material also has military uses, the prime minister said today. Atal Bihari Vajpayee's comments to reporters confirmed speculation that ongoing talks about the treaty with U.S. officials involve opening the flow of nuclear technology to India."
Indian Express Press Trust of India 10/2/98 "China has transferred M-11 missiles to Pakistan and poses a threat to the United States as a significant proliferator of weapons of mass destruction, according to a high-powered U.S. Congressional commission. The commission, in its report, notes that China has supplied Pakistan with "a design for a nuclear weapon and additional nuclear weapons assistance. It has even transferred complete ballistic missile systems to Pakistan (the 350-km range M-11) and Saudi Arabia (the 3,100-km range CSS-2)." Stating that "China poses a threat to the U.S. as a significant proliferator of ballistic missiles, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and enabling technologies," the commission headed by former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and including America's top missile and intelligence experts, said the ballistic missiles armed with wmd payloads "pose a strategic threat to the U.S." PTI report.."
StratFor Intelligence Briefing 10/13/98 "At a news conference in Delhi on October 10, the leader of the regional All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Khazagham (AIADMK), Jayaram Jayalalitha, warned that some 200 Afghan-trained supporters of Osama Bin Laden were "roaming" in Tamil Nadu and other southern Indian states. Jayalalitha claimed that Bin Laden's agents might have been responsible for bombings in the city of Coimbatore on the eve of parliamentary elections, earlier this year. She said that suspicions that Bin Laden may be active in India were reinforced following the recent arrest and interrogation of a Moslem terrorist in Hyderabad. The prisoner reportedly confessed that he had received six months' training in Afghanistan, and that Bin Laden himself had been in Hyderabad recently. ...As such, Moslem militants trained by the Taleban and, allegedly, by Bin Laden have begun to appear in the disputed Kashmir and in China's Xinjiang region. As Bin Laden begins to recover, not from the U.S. missile attacks, but from the damage done to his operations by the capture and interrogation of several of his associates, the question is, where will he strike next? His operational foray into India, with Pakistani blessings, provides not only a new set of targets but also a new jumping-off point for actions in Asia and beyond..To begin with, while it has been partially exposed, Bin Laden already has a network in Southeast Asia. He has followers in Malaysia, where he also banks a portion of his money, and in the Philippines, where he finances the Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization and other Moslem militant groups both directly and through Islamic charitable associations. "
The Hindu 11/8/98 Amit Baruah ".The U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton, today wrote a letter to the Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, informing him of the American decision to lift some sanctions against Islamabad. In his letter, Mr. Clinton stated that he intends to ``lift restrictions on private U.S. bank lending and to authorise the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Trade and Development Agency to resume financial and commercial activities in Pakistan''. A Pakistani release said the U.S. would also exercise its influence with international financial institutions to meet Pakistan's economic difficulties. ``The United States will also work with the international community to permit lending from the multilateral development banks to support an emergency agreement negotiated between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund.'' ."
Newsday 11/12/98 Charles Hutzler AP ".Washington suspects China may have transferred missile technology to Iran and Pakistan despite Chinese pledges to strengthen missile export controls, a U.S. official said today. U.S. concerns about possible transfers were aired during a day and a half of meetings between senior Chinese and American arms-control negotiators, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Undersecretary of State John Holum, who led the U.S. team, said he and Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and senior military commander Gen. Zhang Wannian also discussed North Korea's threatening launch of a rocket over Japan in late August. Suspicions of Chinese nuclear and missile proliferation have been a constant irritant in U.S.-China relations. The potential dangers crystallized this spring with South Asia's nuclear arms race. Within two months, Pakistan, China's staunch ally, tested a ballistic missile and exploded a nuclear bomb.Washington also determined that Pakistan received North Korean, not Chinese, help in developing the Ghauri missile launched in April, he said.."
The Hindu 11/14/98 ".In a punitive move, the Clinton administration has publicly identified almost all of India's nuclear installations, defence research institutions and some private companies with a view to denying them right to import goods from the United States, expecting a crippling effect on their activities. The list, which has been under preparation for the last five months and released here yesterday, covers every single major Indian entity even remotely linked to defence or military related functions. A similar action has been taken against about 100 Pakistani Government and private companies. They include Kahuta's Khan Research Laboratories; Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission; Centre for Nuclear Studies, Islamabad; Chasma Nuclear Power Plant and Khushab Reactor. The action was in pursuance of the Glenn Amendment, an American law, under which the administration had slapped economic sanctions on India and Pakistan in protest against their nuclear tests in May.."
Washington Post 12/14/98 Gary Milhollin ".The Department of Energy has issued a new warning about the nuclear weapon efforts of China, India and Pakistan. In June, the department found that for these countries to improve their bomb designs, they will need supercomputers able to perform about 4 billion operations per second. Computers in this range, unfortunately, are the ones that the Clinton administration decided to free for export to these countries in 1996. The Energy Department concluded that access to supercomputers "would have the greatest potential impact on the Chinese nuclear program." The result has been what you would expect. China has imported more than 100 U.S. supercomputers since 1996, many of which have gone to nuclear and military sites. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, which helps develop China's nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, got a machine from Silicon Graphics that performs about 6 billion operations per second. It is now the most powerful parallel processing computer in China. India also has imported DEC and IBM supercomputers for the Indian Institute of Science, a leading missile research site. None of this should be happening. The General Accounting Office concluded in September that the administration had no basis for decontrolling supercomputers in 1996. The GAO found that the decision to decontrol was based on a faulty study in 1995 that "lacked empirical evidence or analysis" and failed to "assess the capabilities of countries . . . to use high-performance computers for military and other national security applications." .."
FoxNews AP 1/20/99 ".U.S. counter-terrorism experts have arrived in India to assess what police say was a plot by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden to bomb the U.S. Embassy and two consular offices, an embassy spokeswoman said today..Police have arrested four people, including a Bangladeshi man accused of working for Pakistan's intelligence agency, according to newspaper reports in New Delhi.."
Global Intelligence Update 1/20/99 ".New Delhi police announced on January 20, 1999 that they had arrested Sayed Abu Nasir, a Bangladeshi citizen reportedly linked to Osama Bin Laden. According to a police spokesman, Nasir was part of a seven-man team that planned to attack the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, as well as consulates in Calcutta and Madras. The other members of Nasir's team, believed to be from Myanmar, Egypt, and Sudan, have yet to be apprehended... The presence of Bin Laden's network in India is not a new development; we first reported the possibility of an attack against U.S. facilities in India last October (http://www.stratfor.com/services/giu/101398.asp). The report of Nasir's arrest comes on the heels of a reported violation of Pakistani airspace by U.S. aircraft. On January 18 the Pakistani newspaper "Jang" published an account of U.S. Navy P-3 Orion aircraft flying over Pakistani territory. According to Jang, the aircraft were detected over Pakistan on January 14 and 15 by Pakistani civil aviation authorities.."
According the 6/98 reports from Ken Bacon at the Pentagon, North Korea's No Dong missile is operational and has a range of about 1,000 kilometers. Pakistan and the DPRK had ballistic missile contracts, engineers and advisors from both countries worked on Iranian missile programs.
To a joint hearing on National Security and International Relations, John D. Holum, acting undersecretary of state for arms control, called U.S. space commerce with China a "carrot" to encourage its leaders to slow or halt their sales of missiles to nations such as Iran and Pakistan. In a 1997 memo by Holum, "There's been no evidence to date that this [trade] policy is having any effect.. Carrots have gotten us nothing." Holum addressed the difference in his position by pointing out that in 1997 he was head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency but now he is also is an undersecretary of state.
China (MFN) v Sales of chemicals to process Plutonium to Pakistan
8/16/98 AP "Maintaining an unusually high level of alert, the State Department on Sunday issued an updated "worldwide caution'' to U.S. travelers because of the recent bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa and threats to U.S. interests abroad. An accompanying statement specifically warned "against all travel to Pakistan'' and announced that it has ordered the departure of all non-emergency personnel and families of employees from the embassy at Islamabad. It also ordered U.S. personnel in those categories out of consulates in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.."
The Nation Lahore, Pakistan 8/22/98 "US missile strikes on alleged terrorist targets in eastern Afghanistan killed 26 people and injured around 40, Afghan sources and hospital officials in Pakistan said Friday. So far 21 bodies had been recovered but the final toll may go up, a Taliban spokesman told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP). He said more than 30 people were injured in the missile strikes in Khost, around 120 kilometers south of Kabul. Hospital sources in the nearby Pakistani town of Miran Shah said another five people, all of them Pakistani nationals, were also killed and eight were seriously injured and were in hospital.."
Hindustan Times 8/22/98 "American Tomahawk missiles targeted terrorist bases in Afghanistan run by Pakistanis who were sending militant youth to fight "anti-Muslim forces" from Bosnia to Kashmir, according to privileged sources. Senior intelligence officials in their preliminary report to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reported that the US missiles, though targeting the Harkat-ul Jihad Islami camp of Osama bin Laden, also hit Jamait-ul Mujahideen and Harkat ul-Ansar camps, both run by Pakistani nationals, almost 21 kms away from Osama's exclusively Arab camp in Khost."
Reuters 8/24/98 "A U.S. cruise missile fired at guerrilla camps in Afghanistan has been found unexploded in southwest Pakistan and a bomb disposal team has been sent to the site, officials in Baluchistan province said on Monday. The missile was found by local people in Shatinger Baluch Abad, in the Kharan district around 250 km (155 miles) southwest of Quetta.."
Hindustan Times 8/26/98 "In a significant development, Pakistan has confirmed that the US deputy chief of joint staff visited Islamabad on the night of the US missile attacks on Afghanistan and hinted at the impending action, and that the matter was brought to the notice of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif immediately. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said Gen. Joseph Ralston had stopped over at Islamabad from 0730 hrs to 1030 hrs (local time) on Aug. 20 and was received at the airport by army chief and chairman of joint chiefs of staff committee Gen. Jehangir Karamat. The same night around 1030 hrs the US launched Cruise attacks on suspected terrorist camps run by Saudi exile Osama Bin Laden inside Afghanistan leading to widespread protests in Pakistan and the government was blamed of being in the know of the attack. The Sharif Government had, however, vehemently denied this charge.."
Uri Dan New York Post 8/23/98 "TERROR boss Osama bin Laden escaped the U.S. missile attack because double-dealing Pakistanis warned him to flee just days earlier, sources said. The Muslim extremist chieftain received a clear signal that he was a target for kidnap by U.S. Special Forces - rather than the missile attack - just days before the U.S. took action Thursday, according to reports from Islamabad.."
8/28/98 Times of India "Pakistan could face a coup led by Islamic extremists in the military, inspired by anti-US street protests, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said. ``Anything could happen and I fear whether the army can maintain its unity in the present situation,'' she said in an interview this week.
Hong Kong Standard 9/3/98 "The Saudi Arabian government is secretly funding the Afghan Taleban militia, according to a report. The Independent newspaper quoted an ex-senior Pakistani official as saying: ``The US provided the weapons and the know-how, the Saudis provided the funds and we provided the training camps . . . for the Islamic legions in the early 1980s and then for the Taleban.'' .Had US intelligence operatives ``had a deeper understanding of the religious situation in Saudi Arabia'', says Obaid, they might have been able to prevent the 1996 bombing at Dharan."
Stratfor 10/20/98 "The endemic violence in Pakistan between Sunni and Shiite Moslems accelerated last month with the killings of several leaders of the Sunni organization, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). Throughout October, the tit-for-tat killings continued, culminating on October 17 with the assassinations of Hakeem Mohammad Saeed, a former governor of the southern Sindh Provinces, and Maulana Mohammad Abdullah, the chief prayer leader of the main Sunni mosque in Islamabad. These killings, as well as recent military and political events, are the result of a rapidly accelerating slide by Pakistan towards a fundamentalist Taleban-like state. The long-running conflict between the majority Sunni and minority Shiite Moslems in Pakistan is an ongoing source of concern in the country. But this conflict has been exacerbated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's embrace of activist, fundamentalist Sunni leaders, as his regime has come under fire for weak leadership and alleged corruption and mismanagement. Accusations that Sharif was incapable of maintaining internal stability led him in early October to force the resignation of the head of the military along with several other generals. Although the change in command put generals sympathetic with Sharif in charge of the military, the ousted generals maintain ties within the military and are unlikely to settle into quiet retirement. Shortly after the military shakeup, Sharif succeeded in pushing through a new constitutional amendment making the Islamic Sharia the supreme law of the land. Sharif's reliance on radical Sunni elements and his consent to formally adopt the Sharia, as defined by those elements, has raised the concerns of many that Pakistan will soon be enforcing Islamic law in the same way as the Taleban do.."
Global Intelligence Update 12/15/98 summary by Freeper Brian Mosely ".The pro-Islamic Pakistani newspaper "Khabrain" reported on December 12 that "teams of American commandos returned from Afghanistan to the U.S. after their futile two-week operation to arrest the mujahid of the Muslim nation, Osama Bin Laden." The newspaper went on to say that these teams were sent to Afghanistan through Pakistan and that the operation was carried out with information obtained from recently arrested associates of Bin Laden. The newspaper also cited alleged CIA reports that Bin Laden goes to Kandahar or Jalalabad for Friday prayers and also resides part of the time in Zail, Kandoza and Khost. However, he had reportedly changed his routine following the arrests of some of his closest aides."
The Hindustan Times 12/28/98 AP-Karachi ".Pakistani authorities today stopped former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from going to Dubai, saying she cannot travel abroad because of ongoing corruption cases against her. "They (authorities) showed me a written order that I can't go abroad because there are (corruption) cases against me," Mrs Bhutto told reporters at the Karachi airport as she wiped her tears with tissue paper. Mrs Bhutto was going to Dubai to celebrate new year with her three children who are studying there.."
America's Future 7/20/98 F.R. Duplantier "."China's nuclear and missile aid to Pakistan has ratcheted up tensions across the subcontinent, sparked a dangerous arms race, and increased the prospects of a nuclear war." "Since the 1970s, China has been instrumental in Pakistan's nuclear and missile programs," observe Richard Fisher and John Dori of the Heritage Foundation."A dangerously destabilizing arms race is developing among India, Pakistan, and China," they warn. "China's deep involvement with Pakistan's nuclear program contributed to the new Indian government's decision to test nuclear weapons.".The President who made that dire development possible, of course, is the same President who prevents implementation of a U.S. missile defense system. What possible motivation could Bill Clinton have for transferring to our most dangerous potential enemy the technology necessary to improve the accuracy of missiles targeted against us? What possible motivation could he have for deliberately leaving our nation defenseless against missile attack? Can sheer ineptitude excuse either of these suicidal missteps, considered separately? Taken together -- the upgrading of China's missile capability, the commitment to U.S. vulnerability -- do they not suggest something far more sinister than imbecility? Clinton in his reckless cleverness may think that he's in the clear, so long as treason cannot be proven. But the only other explanation for his actions is an incompetence so colossal that it might as well be treason. Either way, he cannot continue as President."
Mark Hosenball Newsweek 8/3/98 "Michael Armstrong had a $240 million problem. In 1993, the chairman of Hughes Corp.--the giant aerospace company--was putting together lucrative deals with Beijing to launch two of his company's U.S.-made communications satellites atop Chinese rockets. But when American intelligence agencies caught China sneaking missile technology to Pakistan that year, a violation of international antinuclear agreements, the administration clamped down. The State Department announced all satellite exports to China would be banned for two years. Just six months later, however, the Hughes deals with China were back on track--with the administration's blessing.
7/28/98 FR Duplantier ""U.S. military intelligence discovered in 1993 that China had sold missile technology to Pakistan," reports Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum. "Because of bipartisan Congressional demands, President Clinton barred the U.S. space industry from using Chinese rockets to launch their satellites." That ban appears to have been the basis for a fiendish fundraising effort.Schlafly identifies the prescribed penalty for a President's reckless disregard of national security. "The fact that Clinton personally issued the waivers to allow shipments of U.S. technology that greatly improved the accuracy and reliability of Communist China's missiles is grounds for impeachment," she asserts, "regardless of whether or not there was any quid pro quo for those decisions. U.S. space technology was just what China needs to make intercontinental ballistic missiles and point them more accurately at U.S. cities," Schlafly emphasizes. "And he did it despite the objections of the U.S. State Department, Defense Department, Justice Department, and intelligence agencies." ."
Washington Weekly 1/24/99 Ricki Magnussen Marvin Lee ".QUESTION: Now the Cox Committee report... TIMPERLAKE: .. And it's no surprise that there seems to be now a move to show that all administrations, dating God knows how far back, did much of the same thing. I will disagree with that completely, because our investigation shows that money changed hands directly in the Clinton White House. And we never heard any of those accusations (under Reagan and Bush). There weren't even accusations made. They may have had bad policies in the other administrations that we disagreed with, but no one ever accused them for doing it for graft reasons that they accuse the President of the United States and his team of. That's the difference. Bill and I believe that, because we have seen that it's an order of magnitude greater. By that I mean a lot of the fixes and upgrades in strategic systems and the selling of satellite technology and the upgrades in the missile ranges have been pretty dramatic in this president's time in office. The failure to invoke and kind of sanctions for The People's Republic of China, who are trading weapons to rogue nations, that is very telling and very bad for the men and women in uniform who may have to fight against those weapons some day. You know, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya--the People's Republic of China has dealings with them. They also have dealings in south Asia. And we now have a major nuclear arms and missile race down there between India and Pakistan. That is a great concern. The world is a far more dangerous place now thanks to the President of the United States. Directly. I'm very blunt in saying that..."
Chinese President Jiang Zemin ". is tying more guarantees of non-proliferation regarding Pakistan and the Islamic world to Washington cutting down weapons sales to Taiwan . Jiang knows this is a potent card as China has more leverage in this part of the world than the US." Leaders including Mr Jiang and Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan have asked Mr Clinton to spell out formally Washington's opposition to Taiwan independence and to agree to curtail arms sales to Taipei.
7/27/98 AP Charles Hutzler " In its first public defense policy review in three years, China renewed a threat today to retake Taiwan by force, criticized nuclear tests by India and Pakistan and hinted that the United States is a potential menace to the country's security."
8/14/98 Fred Weir Hindustan Times "Russia may use its air force to bomb Taliban positions in northern Afghanistan in order to offset Pakistani military aid to the advancing Islamic militants, a senior Russian Parliamentarian says. "We cannot rule out any preventive measures against the Taliban, including air strikes on their bases located along our borders, "the official ITAR-Tass agency quoted parliamentary Security Committee chairman Viktor Ilyukbin as saying Thursday night."
November 1994 APEC Conference in Jakarta: Hosted by President Suharto, included Pauline Kanchanalak, Charlie Trie, Gene and Nora Lum (all related to Moctar Riady, Indonesian billionaire.) Per Charles Smith Softwar: ". The number one priority for Ron Brown was the sale of U.S. weapons such as F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighters to Indonesia. The Commerce Department documentation states "F-16 Fighter Aircraft Program ... Sale of 11 (ex-Pakistani) aircraft completed. Indonesia may purchase the remaining 17 Pakistani aircraft". Brown convinced the Indonesian defense ministry to purchase U.S. built F-16 Fighting Falcons which were originally sold to Pakistan in 1992. The Falcon sale to Pakistan was canceled during the last days of the Bush administration because Pakistan had openly purchased nuclear weapons technology from China. The Chinese nuclear technology forced an embargo of U.S. arms sales to Pakistan, including the previously ordered F-16s.Ron Brown was directly involved in arms transfers to Asia. The documents show that big buck foreign donors with a vested interest in buying U.S. weapons were also involved. At APEC 1994 the international arms trade was business-as-usual. The tasking of U.S. Commerce officials to push a massive arms build up in Asia says volumes about the Clinton administration. Ron Brown wasn't just secretary of Commerce -- he was secretary of war."
NY Times David Sanger 8/17/98 "U.S. Intelligence agencies have detected a huge secret underground complex in North Korea that they believe is the centerpiece of an effort to revive the country's frozen nuclear weapons program, according to officials who have been briefed on the intelligence information. The finding has alarmed officials at the White House and the Pentagon, who fear that the complex may represent an effort to break out of a 4-year-old agreement in which North Korea pledged to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for billions of dollars in Western aid. The finding also follows a string of provocations by the North, including missile sales to Pakistan and the incursion of a small North Korean submarine carrying nine commandos off the South Korean coast this year.."
Washington Times Bill Gertz 9/14/98 "North Korea delivered several shipments of weapons material to Pakistan this summer, including warhead canisters for the new Ghauri medium-range missile, The Washington Times has learned. Pakistan's premier nuclear weapons development center, Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) in Kahuta, received the shipments in mid-June, according to U.S. officials familiar with secret intelligence reports circulated to senior Clinton administration officials last month. The reports highlight the close cooperation between North Korea and Pakistan on missiles and raise new worries among U.S. officials that Pakistan is developing nuclear warheads for the Ghauri missile. Other reports indicate Pakistan is moving ahead rapidly with plans to develop weapons-grade fuel for nuclear weapons from several facilities.The KRL facility is in charge of the Ghauri missile program, which conducted the first flight test of the 900-mile-range missile April 6. Two weeks later, the State Department quietly announced it was imposing sanctions on KRL and a North Korean missile manufacturer for violating U.S. export laws related to the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international export control accord.Former CIA Nonproliferation Center chief Gordon Oehler told a Senate hearing June 11 that Pakistan since 1992 has shifted from buying missile systems to producing its own. Mr. Oehler testified that the Clinton administration covered up evidence indicating China had sold M-11 short-range missiles to Pakistan to avoid having to impose sanctions under U.S. export laws. State Department and Pentagon spokesmen denied at the time that any M-11s were in Pakistan, noting that the U.S. government had not determined yet whether the missiles were present."
AP David Briscoe 11/23/98 ".A Pentagon review of the U.S. military commitment in Asia says 100,000 troops must remain in the region to meet any crisis. Much has changed in the region since the last review of U.S.-Asian defense policy in 1995, including the deterioration of Asian economies, growing concern over North Korea's nuclear weapons potential and nuclear tests by India and Pakistan
."New York Times 5/29/98 "…To the rest of the world, Pakistan's decision to set off nuclear tests looks like an unfortunate but inevitable reaction to India's nuclear tests earlier this month. "We had no choice left to us" was how Pakistan's Prime Minister, Nawiz Sharif, put it yesterday. But Pakistan did have a choice. India went ahead with its nuclear tests only after Pakistan changed the power equation on the subcontinent by launching its intermediate-range ballistic missile, the Ghauri, on April 6. At the time, Pakistani spokesmen said that with the development of the Ghauri -- brazenly named for the Afghan invader who established the first Muslim kingdom in north India in 1193 -- no Indian city was safe from a Pakistani attack. The creator of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, A. Q. Khan, proclaimed that Pakistan now had the ability to hit 26 Indiancities. Then, a few days later, Pakistan announced that it would soon test a longer-range missile, named the Ghaznavi for the first Afghan to invade western India in search of plunder at the end of the 10th century. The aggressive intent behind the naming of the missiles, and the harping on the ability to hit Indian cities, sent shivers of apprehension through India…..Indian policy makers were always skeptical of Chinese assertions that they were not selling equipment or technology to Pakistan for its nuclear and missile programs, and preferred instead to believe the host of American intelligence reports that confirmed this cooperation. What forced India to reassess China's intentions is that this cooperation seemed to increase after India and China signed an agreement resolving their border dispute in 1993. There was the sale of ring magnets for Pakistan's gas centrifuges in 1994, the sale of M-11 missiles in 1995, and the presence of Chinese scientists at the Pakistani nuclear research site in Kahuta. Moreover, the Indians believed that the intermediate-range Ghauri was not a product of North Korean technology, as widely reported, but of Chinese technology. Not only has North Korea flatly denied any such sales to Pakistan, but the modified Scud it developed in 1991 had a range much shorter than that of the Ghauri. Since the North Koreans test-fire all their missiles into the Sea of Japan, these tests cannot be kept secret….Lastly, Indian intelligence believed that Chinese scientists were helping Pakistan to make its nuclear weapons small enough to mount on a warhead…."
Washington Times 3/11/99 Bill Gertz "…North Korea is working on uranium enrichment techniques and will be able to produce fuel for nuclear weapons in six years or less, according to a U.S. intelligence report. The program involves a North Korean trading company that recently sought to buy enrichment technology from a Japanese manufacturer, and connections between North Korea and Pakistan, according to a Department of Energy intelligence report made available to The Washington Times. According to the report, the technology sought by Pyongyang is a clear sign that North Korea, known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), "is in the early stages of a uranium enrichment capability." "On the basis of Pakistan's progress with a similar technology, we estimate that the DPRK is at least six years from the production of [highly enriched uranium], even if it has a viable centrifuge design," the report said. "On the other hand, with significant technical support from other countries, such as Pakistan, the time frame would be decreased by several years." The report is a further sign the communist regime in Pyongyang has abandoned the freeze imposed on its nuclear weapons program by a 1994 agreement with the United States. Underground construction spotted by U.S. intelligence agencies last year at Kumchangni, North Korea, is believed to be a new facility for nuclear weapons production in violation of the agreement…Pakistan purchased uranium enrichment technology from China in 1996 when it bought 5,000 special ring magnets used as bearings in gas centrifuges. The sale violated China's international commitment not to sell weapons technology to non-nuclear weapons states. It was dismissed by the Clinton administration after an investigation determined senior Chinese leaders were unaware of the technology transfer…."
WorldNetDaily 3/25/99 Ahmar Mustikhan "...Pakistan is widely being suspected as the culprit behind the supplier of unexploded U.S. cruise missiles to China, as Beijing's ties with Washington marked its lowest ebb since Richard Nixon went on his ping-pong diplomacy with the "Yellow Giant."... One of the three unexploded missiles had landed at a place not very far from the Chagai hills, where Pakistan conducted its nuclear tests last May in a tat-for-tat to the Indian tests that very month. Interestingly, Chinese "technicians" had for nearly a decade been working at the gold-cum-copper project in a neighboring district named Saindak. Pakistan had retrieved at least two other unexploded cruise missiles from the strategic coastal Mekran district of Balochistan. Mekran is the backyard to the Strait of Hormuz, from where most of the Gulf oil is shipped to the West, including United States, and Japan. Islamabad experts also helped defuse an unspecified number of the missiles that landed on the Afghan territories. Analysts do not rule out the possibility that China may have helped Pakistan develop the world's first-ever "Islamic bomb" in the guise of technicians working on the Saindak copper-cum-gold project. What gives credence to this theory was the fact that a Belgian offer to develop the mines at a 40 percent lower rate was turned down by Islamabad in spite of its resource crunch in 1990......"
The Pioneer 4/3/99 K.P.S. Gill "... The tragedy that is being played out in Yugoslavia has critical lessons for India, especially when it is viewed, not in isolation and within the context of the hysteria that naturally attends a war, but in a perspective that accommodates the larger patterns of emerging geopolitics. The most obvious of these lessons regards the utter irrelevance of the United Nations in general, and of the Security Council in particular, once the US and its "allies" ("subject states" would be more accurate in at least some cases) -- who now unilaterally express the "will of the international community" -- have made up their mind on a particular course of action. It is, consequently, high time that India discarded its pitiful hankering for a permanent seat in the Security Council -- the position is quite worthless. A second and more important lesson arises out of the elaborate and relentless campaign that created the opportunity for NATO's intervention. There is now increasing evidence that claims of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Kosovo were grossly exaggerated, ignoring entirely the atrocities committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), in a process of the demonisation of Serbs orchestrated through the Western media. This is not to say that Mr Slobodan Milosevic is free of sin, but only that there is another side to the picture, and it has been substantially suppressed. Indeed, so great is the distortion that when Mr Clinton chose to describe what was happening in Kosovo as "genocide", the United Nations saw fit to clarify that "there was not enough firm evidence" to term the events in the province a "genocide"...."
The Indian Express 4/13/99 "...The successful test firing of the upgraded Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) Agni-II signifies that India is almost catching up on China in the longer and shorter range missile technology, according to western military experts here. Western military experts, who earlier used to proclaim that Indian missile programme would start an arms race in the south Asian region, for the first time have commented that, the full range of about 3,700 km of Agni-II indicated that Pakistan was not the target, but the missile represented a deterrent to Chinese missile programme in recent months, reports PTI. Experts said that recently China had declared two new missiles operational and that both could hit India from Chinese mainland. ''There is even a third programme underway with a mobile launched missile, which could fly all the way to United States,'' missile expert, Paul Beaver commented in 'The Scotsman' magazine. Beaver quoted 'the father of the Indian missile program,' Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalaam, secretary of the DRDO, confirming that the India government, ''has approved the long range Agni missile system for launch as well as deployment''..."
http://www.ConservativeNews.org 4/8/99 Akhtar Jamal "...Pakistan, in response to an informal request from the United States, has expressed its willingness to send troops to Kosovo as part of a multi-national peacekeeping force. A Pakistan government source, who requested anonymity, told CNS that President Bill Clinton has asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to "contribute to the Kosovo crisis"....."
AP 4/11/99 Freeper frankm "…India tested an upgraded version of its nuclear-capable intermediate-range missile Sunday, going against the advice of the United States, local news agencies reported. Information Minister Pramod Mahajan was quoted as saying that India had informed Pakistan before the launch, as it had agreed to do when the prime ministers of the two countries met in January…."
Inside China Today Reuters 4/9/99 "…The Beijing Military Academy has recommended China redeploy medium-and long-range missiles against India following New Delhi's nuclear tests last year, Indian newspapers said on Thursday. "One important recommendation, which China has put into action, is to redeploy medium- and long-range missiles against India to 'ensure nuclear balance in Chinese favor'," The Pioneer said in a front-page article. The Times of India, quoting defense sources in New Delhi, said the military academy paper recommended China seek Western sanctions against India, led by the United States, and seek to isolate India on the international stage. "The document says that China should penalize India for its alleged 'anti-China' stance and highlight 'India's hegemonistic designs'," it said…."
The Times Of India 4/15/99 Freeper lyonesse "...The fact that Islamabad has done it again would imply that Pakistan is not engaged in developmental testing (unlike India) but is firing with confidence, tested and proved missiles, the origin of which, according to US literature, is North Korea. So far as India is concerned, Pakistan's missiles are a factor in our security calculus. It does not, however, matter whether these were indigenously developed or obtained from abroad. That is a matter for self-appointed global policemen to worry about. India has long been reconciled to the failure of the Missile Technology Control Regime and to US connivance at missile proliferation by China and North Korea...."
The Hindustan Times 4/15/99Editorial Freeper lyonesse "...By using Pakistan against India, China keeps India not only confined to the subcontinent but can patronisingly talk, as it did in reaction to the Agni-2 test, about the need to avert an India-Pakistan arms race. Ever since the first Prithvi test in 1988, China has been quick to help Pakistan equalise Indian advances. For example, the transfers of M-11s to Islamabad began barely two years after the Prithvi test, but several years before India started serially producing that missile. The delivery of ready-made missiles was followed by Chinese aid in the domestic production of Hatf-2 and Hatf-3 - Pakistani names for the M-11s and M-9s. Now comes the Ghauri-2, exactly a year after the Ghauri-1 test. As intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), the Ghauris can help Islamabad to strike deep into India, nullifying this country?s real military advantage over Pakistan - its strategic depth...."
Rediff 4/17/99 Seema Sirohi "....From India's perspective, the picture looked distorted, even skewed. No matter how much China violated international norms, proliferated nuclear technology or used its spies against the United States, it was the guest of honour at the party. As if to rub it in, Clinton, who granted China the status of "overseer" in South Asia during his visit to Beijing, publicly thanked Zhu for helping "curb" proliferation in South Asia. Zhu completed his summit meeting with Clinton without the agreement he most sought - US support for China's entry into the World Trade Organisation. He also received mild rebukes for China's human rights record and uncomfortable questions on Taiwan. But the underlying message was one of working together as Clinton continues down the course of "constructive engagement" with the superpower-in-waiting. ....The depth of the engagement policy was most evident in a report timed for release with Zhu's arrival. The report showed that China received $15 billion worth of strategically sensitive US exports, ranging from super computers to oscilloscopes, over the past 10 years. The array of high-tech equipment legally exported to China could be used for designing nuclear weapons, processing nuclear weapons material, building missile parts and transmitting data from missile tests. The endless list of export licenses granted to China presents a sharp contrast to the "deny, deny, deny" policy toward India. While sophisticated technology is sold directly to the Chinese military, even paper clips are denied to the Indian defence department after last May's nuclear tests. The restrictions against India, already many-layered because of New Delhi's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, multiplied after Pokhran-II, effectively choking the flow of technology. China, meanwhile, enjoys American trust and buys cutting-edge equipment despite its record of supplying nuclear technology and missile components to Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq and other countries over the years. The buying spree continues even in the face of at least two serious instances of Chinese nuclear espionage which recently came to light. Chinese moles allegedly stole the design of W-88, the most advanced American nuclear warhead, and data on the neutron bomb from US government labs.....But what China allegedly stole pales in comparison to what it legally bought through regular channels under Clinton's "trade-first" policy. The report prepared by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a Washington-based think tank, said that lax Commerce Department rules allowed China's military establishment to purchase dual use items, many of which later turned up in Pakistan and Iran. The damage to US national security from such legal largesse was far greater than China's nuclear espionage. China bought more than 11,000 computers on the restricted list worth $7.7 billion after 1993 when the definition of what constitutes a "supercomputer" was changed by the Clinton administration. The bar was raised, allowing for a seven-fold relaxation in supercomputer export controls. By February 1994, the Clinton administration leaning under industry pressure and trying to promote trade, defined a supercomputer as a machine performing 1.5 billion operations per second from the earlier 195 million operations per second. By 1996, the controls were relaxed even further, allowing export of computers performing 2 billion operations per second. "If a Chinese buyer did not admit to being a nuclear, missile, or military site, it could import computers performing up to 7 billion operations per second. Such computers are used, among other things, to encode and decode secret messages, to design and test nuclear warheads and to simulate the performance of missiles from launch to impact," the report says....."
IZVESTIA 4/20/99 Navaz Sharif, Eduard Babazadeh Freeper khatch "...IZVESTIA carries an interview by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Navaz Sharif, who granted it before starting his official visit to Russia yesterday [April 19]. Asked to estimate the present state of relations between the two countries, he said they were at a new stage of development. The important thing was to break the inertia of the past and build a new type of relations based on the realities of a new world. His present visit to Russia provided a fine opportunity for both to lay a foundation of firmer and more comprehensive ties. He had a good mind to discuss it with President Boris Yeltsin and Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov...."
Asia Week 4/30/99 Ajay Singh "....SHORTLY BEFORE PRIME MINISTER ATAL BEHARI VAJPAYEE completed a year in office on March 19, he made a boast about his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. "We have arrived," he said, "and we are here to stay." Barely a month later, India's poet-premier was eating his words. "I feel free," he told reporters, minutes after losing an April 17 parliamentary vote of confidence that led to the collapse of his BJP-led coalition government. "Only the future will say how stable the next government will be." Stability is on the mind of just about every Indian these days - and for good reason. Vajpayee's 18-party coalition was the third to fall prematurely in less than three years. Even though its rule lasted longer than the previous two administrations it was by far the most fractious of the lot. Almost from the day it took power, the government had been blackmailed and bullied by its second-largest constituent, a party based in southern Tamil Nadu state. Its mercurial leader, onetime actress Jayalalitha Jayaram, is facing prosecution in 53 separate cases of alleged corruption. It was she who precipitated the collapse of Vajpayee's now-caretaker government by withdrawing the support of her 18 MPs..... New Delhi decided to flex its military muscle. In a thinly disguised attempt to shore up political support, it test-fired a new ballistic missile, the Agni II, whose name means "fire" in Sanskrit. With an average range of about 2,500 km, the nuclear-capable missile can reach the heartland of China. A previously existing missile, the Agni I, can strike all of Pakistan. New Delhi was hoping that the test would subdue dissent in the coalition - just like its nuclear blasts had done in May last year. But it underestimated Jayalalitha, dubbed "the political psychopath" by the newsweekly India Today...IF THE TAMIL "MISSILE" from the south caught the BJP by surprise, another one from the north did not. Three days after New Delhi launched the Agni II, Pakistan fired its latest nuclear-capable missile, Ghauri II (named after an Afghan invader of India), which can hit targets deep in Indian territory. The tit-for-tat tests came less than two months after Vajpayee's "bus diplomacy" with Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif. ..."
The Hindu 5/2/99 Sridhar Krishnaswami "...The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, has told administration officials and Members of Congress that the U.S. should tell Pakistan to stop abetting cross-border terrorism. He also said the killing of innocents must stop. To a question at the National Press Club on Friday, Dr. Abdullah said that he had discussed a number of issues with officials and law-makers including India-Pakistan talks, terrorism and sanctions. Dr. Abdullah also brushed aside the constant reference here to Kashmir being a ``nuclear flashpoint'', making the point that it was necessary for India to demonstrate to its neighbours its capabilities. He said the country would not be using these weapons ``just for the heck of it''. Arguing that he did not see a situation in which India or Pakistan resorted to the use of nuclear weapons, Dr. Abdullah maintained that it was important for them to have it...."
The Hindu 5/12/99 UNI Freeper Jai "...On the anniversary of the Pokhran explosion, Chinese ambassador to India Zhou Gang has called for closer ties between India and China. ''The military attack of the US-led NATO against Yugoslavia, a sovereign State, has once again proved that hegemonism and power politics remain the major root cause threatening world peace and security, and that the new 'gunboat policy' is rampant today...."
The Hindu 5/16/99 "...India and Russia today decided to enhance their cooperation to defuse the Kosovo crisis as part of an effort to create a "multipolar world." Both sides decided to jointly push an international effort to resolve the Yugoslav question during interaction between the Russian President's special envoy, Mr. Sergei E. Prikhodko, and top Indian leaders today..... Both sides declared that an end to the "unjustified" military action by NATO on Yugoslavia was necessary so that a congenial atmosphere for the negotiated settlement of the crisis could be created. Mr. Prikhodko's visit saw the two countries reviewing the entire gamut of bilateral relations....."
The Age 5/17/99 PAUL DALEY CANBERRA and JENNIFER HEWETT "... The Federal Government has launched a top-level inquiry into the security of Australia's spy networks after the United States charged a rookie intelligence expert from Melbourne with trying to sell US defence secrets to another country. Jean Philippe Wispelaere, 28, appeared in a US court yesterday accused of selling the secrets to an FBI agent posing as a spy from another country...... It is alleged that Mr Wispelaere received $US120,000 ($A180,000) from the FBI agent in exchange for hundreds of classified US documents, which he stole while working for Australia's Defence Intelligence Organisation in Canberra for six months until last January. He was arrested in Washington on Saturday after a joint operation by the FBI, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation...... The sources said that some of the stolen material related to the procurement of biological, chemical, nuclear and ballistic missiles by Asian countries and America's theatre missile defence program in North Asia. While neither America nor Australia would name the country to which Mr Wispelaere allegedly tried to sell the material, sources said he was believed to have approached both the Pakistan and Indian embassies in Bangkok within a week of his sudden resignation from the DIO in January.... The FBI affidavit against him claims that he provided top secret documents that could cause ``serious and exceptionally grave damage to US national security interests if disclosed to unauthorised entities''.... His attempt to sell the material backfired when the targeted country informed the US.....He made the first approach to the Bangkok embassy on 18 January, less than a week after resigning from the DIO. The FBI affidavit alleges that he handed 713 classified documents to an undercover agent in Bangkok on 3 April....."
The Times Of India 5/19/99 K SUBRAHMANYAM "....A new situation is developing with the international system becoming unipolar and serious imbalances developing in terms of weapon capabilities between NATO and the rest of the world. The US is now able to wage a war devastating the infrastructure of Yugoslavia without itself suffering any combat casualties....The type of war waged against Yugoslavia is specifically tailored to subdue countries which have reached a certain stage of industrialisation..... The war is against the whole of the Yugoslav nation to cripple its infrastructure, its power and water supply, its industries and to pollute extensively air, soil and water. This is a crime worse than that which Slobodan Milosevic is accused of....... Accompanying this high technology campaign is the shrill international propaganda war through the international media to project to the world that black is white. While the suffering of refugees is extensively portrayed, not much is shown on the effects of thousands of bombs rained on Yugoslavia..... George Orwell's doublespeak and Aldous Huxley's conditioning are today practised with a vengeance. Information is shaped and used to have maximum psychological impact to mislead both one's own and the adversary populations. Carefully doctored images portrayed on TV have a powerful effect on popular opinion. Having manipulated public opinion, the politico-strategic establishments cite that to justify their predetermined aggression..... The NATO document spells out that nuclear weapons are essential political instruments and their role is to create uncertainty in the minds of aggressors and demonstrate that aggression of any kind is not a rational option. If that is their purpose, what is wrong in India creating uncertainties in the minds of potential aggressors and persuading them that aggression of any kind is not a rational option. That kind of insurance has become all the more imperative in the light of the widening gap in the sophisticated conventional technology of war using accurate long-range missiles. The issue before India is whether it wants to preserve its sovereignty won after a long freedom struggle and should try to develop one sixth of mankind economically, socially, politically and technological according to the democratic wishes of the Indian people without the threat of foreign intervention of the type we see in Yugoslavia. There were a number of Indians who considered Gandhi as a violator of British law and order and they were content to enjoy the benefits of the British rule. That was not acceptable to the Indian population as a whole..... In the last one year, our relations with Pakistan have improved and the Chinese are coming round to appreciate the need for India, Russia and China taking a common stand against unipolarity and the wanton aggression against Yugoslavia. Those who talked about international trends towards disarmament should explain the thundering NATO document asserting the centrality of nuclear weapons and why an ecocidal war against Yugoslavia is being waged with hardly any protest from the peace movements. The international security environment has never been more threatening to the rule of law and autonomy of nations. The Indian credible minimum deterrent is the only insurance for our autonomous development in a hegemonistic unipolar world....."
The Indian Express 5/26/99 "...The Clinton administration is concerned that a U.S. Congressional report accusing neighbouring China of stealing American nuclear weapons secrets may spark off a new arms race between India and China. "The (congressional) report will be looked at very closely in India to see what implications that report has for security concerns," assistant secretary of state for south Asian affairs Karl Inderfurth admitted to a senate foreign relations subcommittee, reports Reuters...."
The Indian Express 5/26/99 "...Pakistan's top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan called for the country to acquire the ability to launch its own satellite to match rival India. "Launching of a satellite is necessary for Pakistan," Khan said adding it was essential for communications, enemy surveillance and remote sensing. He said his team of scientists had the ability to arrange the facility. "We need only government patronage," he told journalists here, as reports from India said the countdown for today's launch of a rocket which will signal New Delhi's entry into the satellite launch market continued trouble free, reports PTI...."
Fox News Wire 5/26/99 "...India said Wednesday its airstrikes against "infiltrators'' who have dug themselves in on mountains in Kashmir were effective and were not carried out near the cease-fire line that divides it from Pakistan. "The strikes were effective as per first reports from our ground personnel,'' Brigadier Mohan Bhandari, deputy director general of military operations, told reporters after the dawn raid in the bitterly disputed Himalayan region. "We are restricting our operations well clear of the LoC (Line of Control),'' Air Commodore Subash Bhojwani said. "There is no case of damage to anything across the LoC.''..."
5/26/99 BBC News Freeper Thanatos "...India has successfully launched its first commercial rocket. The unmanned rocket carried into orbit three satellites - one Indian, one German and one South Korean - from the southern island of Sriharikota in the Bay of Bengal. The launch marks India's entry into the lucrative satellite delivery business. A number of nations around the world are now developing low-cost systems that are taking business from the more established players in the market. India's new commercial rocket service could attract millions of dollars to the Indian economy. The chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), K Kasturirangan, said its launch charges could be about 25% cheaper than other countries such as the US, Russia and China...."
NY Times 5/26/99 AP "...Indian air force jets and helicopters fired on suspected guerrillas in the disputed Kashmir province today, marking the most serious escalation of fighting in the region since India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons last year. Pakistan charged that Indian aircraft bombed its territory in the raids today and an army spokesman said the country is ready for ``all eventualities.'' ``We think it is a very grave escalation and Pakistan armed forces reserves the right to respond,'' said Brigadier Rashid Quereshi, a military spokesman told The Associated Press...."
NY Times 5/27/99 AP "...Two Indian fighter jets went down in Pakistan today as India launched a second day of rocket attacks in Kashmir to dislodge Pakistan-backed guerrillas from the disputed frontier. Pakistan said it shot down the jets, but Indian officials said one crashed due to mechanical failure and the other was shot down when it tried to rescue the first pilot. The downing of the planes and the use of Indian air power indicated a major escalation in the battle over Kashmir, a Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan...."
The Times of India 5/28/99 "...Beijing - India and China have signed an agreement to cooperate in key areas of science and technology, including information technology (IT), to give a boost to bilateral scientific ties between the two countries. The agreement was signed here Wednesday at the conclusion of the fourth meeting of India-China Joint Committee on science and technology cooperation, which met for the first time since April 1993. The priority areas of cooperation identified by the two sides are bio-technology, medical science and technology, material science and technology, including advanced metals, earth sciences, electronics, hardware and information technology, official sources said...."
The Indian Express 5/28/99 Freeper Jai Agencies "...Pakistan today warned that peace in the world's newest nuclear region was at risk and Sharif's ominous message to the nation boomed in tandem with Indian Howitzers across the border: "Last year's nuclear tests has given Pakistan the confidence to counter 'any enemy attack'"...."
Investor's Business Daily 5/28/99 John Berlau "...Pakistan and India are in a shooting war. And it looks like Pakistan may have bought some of its most modern weapons know-how from China -possibly violating arms control laws. What's more, 19 such weapons transfers to Pakistan or Iran were reported to the Clinton administration, which chose to punish China only twice. Those are just some of the striking findings highlighted Thursday by Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa. Weldon's a member of the special House committee probing Chinese espionage in the U.S. that's chaired by Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif. Weldon released a summary of his findings, which went further than the panel's 900-page report in charging that dealings with the Chinese government have damaged U.S. security. He blames the Clinton administration for loosening controls on technology exports to China at a time it knew Beijing was selling military know-how to potential bad actors like Pakistan and Iran....."
The Express 5/29/99 JASON BURKE "...INDIA and Pakistan's conflict over Kashmir could become a full-scale nuclear war threatening a billion people, it was claimed last night. Chaudhry Sultan Mahmood, prime minister of the Pakistan-held part of Kashmir, warned: "The situation is getting very serious, volatile and dangerous. I think there is a very, very great chance of all-out war." He added: "Unfortunately, both countries now have the bomb, and when it escalates to the extent of violating air space then you use more, stronger weapons. The time comes that you feel you better do it first, you attack first." ..."
AP 5/29/99 "...The government expelled an Indian scientist who worked in a U.S. weapons lab because he was connected with India's nuclear-weapons program, Newsweek reported Saturday. The magazine did not report the scientist's name or reveal its sources for the man's removal from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. "Last year Los Alamos expelled an Indian scientist when it was discovered he had ties to India's nuclear-bomb program,'' Newsweek said it has learned....."
Rediff On The Net 5/30/99 Chindu Sreedharan in Shrinagar Freeper Jai "...After maintaining for 20 days that the infiltrators in the Kargil-Drass-Batalik area were "militants supported by the Pakistani army", the army on Saturday revealed that they were regular Pakistani troops...."
Rediff On The Net 5/29/99 George Iype "...While the fresh face off between India and Pakistan over the Kargil conflict has nearly killed the historic Lahore Declaration, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government has successfully blocked Islamabad's efforts to internationalise the issue. In a diplomatic coup, India announced on Saturday that four permanent members -- the United States, Russia, France and the United Kingdom -- of the United Nations Security Council have assured New Delhi that they will not raise the Kargil issue in the apex body...."
The Hindustan Times 5/31/99 Freeper Jai "...The Western intelligence report that British Islamic fundamentalists are allegedly among the insurgents who have intruded in India's territory in the Kargil sector has only confirmed the fact that Britain is being used as a training, brain-washing and fund-collecting centre for Islamic terrorism...."
The Hindu 5/31/99 Sridhar Krishnaswami Freeper Jai "...Officials of the Indian Embassy in Washington are saying that the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Mr.Karl Inderfurth, has denied that the United States had offered to mediate in the dispute between India and Pakistan..."
Itar-Tass 5/30/99 "...Over 20 people died in the town of Krusevac during an air raid of NATO on Sunday afternoon. The bombs blasted near the St. Trinity Church and a street market flooded by people celebrating the Trinity Holiday. The official target of the air raid was the local bridge...."
NY TIMES 5/30/99 Ian Fisher "...What happened to the thousands of ethnic Albanian men -- from boys barely of fighting age to grandfathers -- who were separated from their families in recent weeks in Kosovo, shoved into trucks and who then disappeared? A partial answer to one of the scarier questions in the devastation of Kosovo has been staggering across the border here. The fear was that the men were killed by Serbian militias, and perhaps some were. But in the last week, about 2,300 men crossed the border into Albania, most unshaven, some weeping, with no money or belts around pants that have recently grown baggier...... "One of my neighbors, a Serb, was the one who beat me," he said. "He wanted to kill me but the others wouldn't let him." Like all the accounts of the men who came across the border this week, Selimi's remarks could not be independently verified. But the individual accounts, given separately over several days, suggested that the men were routinely subjected to interrogation and some to beatings....."
5/30/99 AP Freeper Thanatos "...In the mountains of Pakistan, thousands of Islamic militants are preparing for a holy war next door in India. They crawl on their bellies, plant land mines and practice marksmanship. Their enemies are the Indian soldiers trying to crush a decade-old insurgency in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, the only Indian state that has a Muslim majority...."
5/29/99 RAHUL BEDI in New Delhi "...India is battling well-armed Pakistan-backed Islamic militants who have taken control of Kashmir's civil war for an independent homeland because local recruits can no longer be attracted. Military and intelligence officials say the militants entrenched in the Kargil-Dras region were mostly Afghans and Pakistanis. Some of the militants are believed to be associated with Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire who is allegedly one of the key financiers of global Islamic terrorism and blamed by the United States as being behind last year's bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania...."
Agence France-Presse 6/1/99 "... Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said on Tuesday that there could be no constructive talks with Pakistan without Islamabad first stopping "its aggression" in Kashmir. Pakistan has said it was willing to send its Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz to New Delhi for talks with Singh this week but India has said it was yet to receive a time-frame. "We will use the opportunity to convey the sense of outrage at the manner in which Pakistan had blatantly violated international norms and resorted to what could only be described as an armed intrusion amounting to aggression," Singh told a private television network...."
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT 5/30/99 Eric Margolis Freeper jasoos2000 "...India's repeated claims to have virtually crushed the Kashmiri intifada were plainly contradicted by this week's dramatic events. In spite of deploying a third of its army and 300,000 paramilitary police in Kashmir, India has failed to extinguish the revolt, which has caused at least 50,000 deaths since it spontaneously erupted in 1989. India has been widely condemned by human rights organizations for routinely using torture, mass executions, arson, and gang rapes to break Kashmiri resistance. Unable to quell the uprising, India has turned its wrath on Pakistan, and frequently threatened a full-scale war against its smaller, weaker neighbor...."
The Times of India 6/2/99 "...The Pakistan foreign secretary's statement that "we will not hesitate to use any weapon in our arsenal to defend our territorial integrity" has been interpreted by some sections of the international media as a veiled nuclear threat. While Indian National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra has described the pronouncement, if true, as utterly irresponsible, other reports from Pakistan have denied the statement. Common sense suggests that the remark be discounted: A country resorting to nuclear blackmail is not likely to make its foreign secretary the mouthpiece for the threat. However, this does not rule out the possibility of Islamabad using the tactics of psychological warfare within the nuclear context. Subtle nuclear blackmail has long been part of Pakistan's strategy to invoke UN and US intervention in the Kashmir issue...."
5/31/99 BBC News Freeper Thanatos "...India and Pakistan are to hold talks over Kashmir in the first sign that the two sides might be trying to defuse escalating tensions. India has agreed to host Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz in Delhi after dates for the visit are worked out through diplomatic channels. The announcement came during the sixth day of India's combined ground and air operations against what it claims are Pakistani-backed infiltrators...."
The Pioneer 6/1/99 Editorial Freeper Jai "...Now that the autopsy report has established that Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja of the Indian Air Force (IAF) was shot twice from close range and killed by Pakistani soldiers, the Indian Government must urge the international community to exert the strongest possible pressure on the Pakistani Government to institute an inquiry into what amounts to a cold blooded murder of an officer. . . . relevant international organisations, such as the International Red Cross, the International Human Rights Commission, and the Geneva Conventions relating to the Treatment of Prisoners of War must be approached...."
THE Hindu 6/2/99 UNI "... Pakistan has announced that it is going to equip its navy with nuclear weapons. This disclosure was made by Pakistani naval spokesman in Karachi, according to the 'Voice of Russia'. Regretting the report in practically every broadcast on Tuesday, the State radio expressed concern over the turn of events in nuclear arms race in south Asia...."
The Telegraph 6/3/99Seema Sirohi "...Washington, June 2 - The Clinton Administration has told Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in no uncertain terms to get the infiltrators out from Kargil and move quickly toward normalisation with India to save whatever remains of his country's international reputation. The tough message was delivered by secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who talked to Sharif over the weekend, well-informed sources told The Telegraph. Albright asked him to use every means possible to "get these men out" from Indian territory and re-establish the Line of Control (LoC). The clear and concise message from Washington is like a breath of fresh air for Indian officials who often are dismayed by the administration's refusal to take sides...."
The Pioneer 6/5/99 "...For the first time, Indian troops on Friday got hard evidence of the involvement of Pakistani Infantry soldiers in the Kargil intrusions when they recovered three of their bodies from the Batalik sector. Officials said it was also becoming clearer that at least two battalions of invaders, including Pakistan Infantry, had set up positions inside the Indian territory with adequate supply lines and sophisticated weapons. In terms of sheer numbers, the invaders would be more than 1500...."
Agence France-Presse 6/5/99 "...The Indian air force Saturday bombed Moslem guerrillas in Kashmir for the 11th day, 24 hours after Pakistan freed a captured Indian pilot as a "goodwill" gesture, officials said...India says the guerrillas include Pakistani troops and claimed Friday that it had seized the bodies of three Pakistanis killed in fighting. ...."
Freeper Red Jones reports 6/7/99 "...Congress didn't let them [Clinton/Albright] impose sanctions in the end and Clinton backed off as though it were his idea to avoid sanctions as always, but the offense to India was symbolic. All India did was try to defend themselves from known enemies. They've faced 2 wars with China in the last 40 years. Pakistan has been actively murdering Indian citizens in Kashmir for years. Many thousands are dead. The US has helped China gain militarilly with Clinton's treason. The US also favors trade with China by putting only a 2-3% tarriff on Chinese products while the Chinese tax our products at 30-40%. India doesn't have that type of trade favoritism from US government. It is India that is the democracy that respects freedom of religion. It is China that is totalitarian and throws christians in jail. Clinton has turned our values upside down and done immeasureable harm...."
The Hindu 6/6/99 "... India today virtually ruled out the possibility of a war with Pakistan, saying it did not share Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif's views in this regard. "This is not an assessment we share," an External Affairs Ministry spokesman told reporters when his attention was drawn to Sharif's reported statement in Lahore yesterday in which the latter accused New Delhi of thwarting peace talks and warned that war between the two countries was a possibility. The spokesman said India had become a victim of armed intrusion from Pakistan in the Kargil sector which it was determined to vacate. "....a'
The Deccan Herald 6/8/99 Freeper Jai "...Bhashyam Kasturi The harsh Himalayan terrain, long lines of supply and communication, intensive manpower operations and well- entrenched enemy are the main constraints facing the Indian Army in Kargil sector of Jammu and Kashmir. On the international front there remains the challenge of dispelling the view in the US and other nations, that Kashmir is a "nuclear flashpoint" and that this crisis is likely to blow up anytime. After initial setbacks, diplomacy has moved on to creating an "understanding" in world capitals that it is Pakistan which is the intruder and India has every right to undertake military action..."
The Far Eastern Economic Review 6/10/99Ahmed Rashid, Pramit Mitra, and Sadanand Dhume "....A domestic power play by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif helped trigger the fighting in Kashmir. Indian electoral politics aren't helping to calm it. .... The springtime infiltration of Islamic militants from Pakistan to fight a guerrilla war against Indian troops was nothing new--it has been going on since the insurgency in Kashmir broke out nine years and 30,000 lost lives ago. But this time there was a marked difference. The militants numbered not the usual few dozen but 700, according to Indian intelligence officials. They were equipped and supplied well enough to survive several months in deep snow at heights of 5,000 metres. They were there not to conduct guerrilla attacks, but to occupy strategic heights and cut the sole supply route for the Indian army from Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir, to Leh further north. To India it seemed ominously like "Operation Gibraltar" in 1965, when Pakistan infiltrated large numbers of militants into India. In response to that incursion, New Delhi declared war...."
The Hindu 6/8/99 UNI "...India must maintain maximum restraint in the Kargil operations and should not take the adventurist step of humiliating Pakistan that it had intended to do during the 1971 Bangladesh war, said the visiting former American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger...."
IRNA 6/9/99 "..."the lahore process should be sustained in search for a comprehensive improvement in relations with pakistan. at the same time, india must be prepared for all eventualities in the fluid situation prevailing today", an official statement said after a joint meeting of national security council, strategic policy group and national security advisory board.....while noting that the international community had shown greater understanding of india's position on the kargil conflict, the meeting emphasised for more intensive diplomacy so as to neutralise pakistan's effort to mislead and disinform public opinion. it was also felt that india should highlight the forebearance it has shown so far in the face of grave provocation...."
http://www.southam.com/ottawacitizen/newsnow/cpfs/world/990608/w060818.html 6/9/99 Canadian Press Freeper Thanatos "...With no resolution in sight to gunfire traded by India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir, the world worries about a full-scale conflict breaking out on the Indian subcontinent that could lead to nuclear war. Not likely, says Col. Joe Stevens, the eyes of Canada's military in India. As the Canadian military attache for India, Stevens' job is to observe India's army from New Delhi and advise Ottawa on its policies for South Asia. He said in a telephone interview that although India and Pakistan are arch rivals, neither country would resort to nuclear weapons to win the battle in Kashmir. "Everyone here in India and Pakistan are shaking their heads over the way the nuclear threat has been overstated," Stevens said ..."
Electronic Telegraph 6/10/99 Rahul Bedi "...A wave of intense nationalism not seen since the war against Pakistan 28 years ago is sweeping across India. With few exceptions, Indians are burying their differences as the army fights hundreds of Islamic guerrillas in Kashmir. Most believe that Pakistan is actively backing the fighters dug in on top of ridges well inside Indian territory in Kashmir's remote Kargil region and must be taught a lesson....."
India Today 6/10/99 Freeper Jai "...A tale of barbarism of the Pakistani army has unfolded with the handing over of bodies of six Indian soldiers, which were without their vital parts. "Their eyeballs have been dug out, the noses, ears and genitals chopped off," a senior defence official told agencies here, expressing shock and anguish. . . ."
The Pioneer 6/11/99 IANS "...US Congressman Gary Ackerman has called for Pakistan to be blacklisted as a terrorist state if it does not immediately cease assistance to terrorists in Kashmir. The Democratic co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India said if Islamabad does not eschew helping "Islamic terrorists in the Kargil and Dras area of Jammu and Kashmir and (unless it) withdraws its forces from the region, the State Department must add Pakistan to its annual list of state sponsors of terrorism." ..."
6/10/99 WorldNetDaily Ahmar Mustikhan Freeper Thanatos "...KARACHI, Pakistan -- The specter of a nuclear war is haunting the South Asian landscape as a month-long, low-intensity war between rivals India and Pakistan may escalate at any moment. United Nations experts are particularly worried since the two belligerents are the youngest members of the nuclear club...."
International Herald Tribune 6/11/99 "...Foreign ministers from the West, Japan and Russia called Thursday for India and Pakistan to end the fighting in Kashmir and said they could not take a bystander role in the conflict. ''We cannot allow ourselves to take a bystander role,'' Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany said after a two-day meeting here of the Group of Seven nations - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - and Russia. They also called on India and Pakistan to adhere to the nuclear test ban treaty....."
The Hindu 6/12/99 PTI "...The post-mortem report of the six Indian soldiers has revealed that they were barbarically tortured before being killed about a week ago. The men, led by Lieutenant Saurab Kalia had been captured by Pakistan last month and their badly mutilated bodies handed over to the Indian forces at Kargil yesterday. ..... Describing the killings as `unpardonable', Mr. Fernandes said it was a blatant violation of the international war conventions and open disregard for the uniform. "Today we have proof of the soldiers having been tortured in the worst possible manner before being killed," he said....."
The Hindu 6/13/99 Sridhar Krishnaswami "...The United States-India Business Council has welcomed the Senate action on India-Pakistan sanctions saying that this would open the door to more normal commercial relations with India while significantly increasing the diplomatic tools available to American negotiators in South Asia. "The U.S.-India Business Council believes that this step represents a major breakthrough in U.S. foreign policy. It will strengthen U.S. diplomacy and help the U.S. negotiators achieve the goals set out after the May 1998 Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests. And it establishes the foundation for broad based, bi- partisan consensus on the U.S. approach to a region where the U.S. has large and rapidly increasing commercial and national security interests," the Chairman of the U.S.-India Business Council, Mr. Dean O'Hare, said in a statement. This week, the Senate moved to suspend sanctions against India and Pakistan for a period of five years...."
6/13/99 BBC News "....Pakistan has accused India of firing chemical shells in its campaign to dislodge hundreds of militants from positions on the Indian side of the line of control in Kashmir. India - a signatory of the Chemical Weapons Convention - has denied the accusation. The military statement from Islamabad also accused India of making heavy artillery bombardments deep into Pakistan's territory...."
The Indian Express 6/13/99 "...The stage is all set for complete normalisation of India-China ties with external affairs minister Jaswant Singh's visiting Beijing today for positive interaction with the Chinese leadership on a host of issues. "We do look forward to a very positive interaction between the two countries during the visit of the external affairs minister to China," Indian ambassador to China Vijay K. Nambiar told PTI here ahead of Singh's two-day trip, reports PTI....."
The Times of India 6/15/99 Dinesh Kumar "...The Army, the Navy, the Air force and the Coast Guard are all in a state of ``high alert'' following Pakistani troop movements along both the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and the entire India-Pakistan border. The Indian movements, however, are defensive and precautionary in nature following Pakistan's mobilisation of its army and air force in the border regions. ``We are aware of the moves by the enemy (Pakistan). We have taken requisite measures,'' said Army spokesman Colonel Bikram Singh. However, military officials were tightlipped about details...."
6/15/99 Irish Times "....Despite the Indian army's various successes in driving out Islamic mercenaries from its territory in northern Kashmir state over the past week, military planners are increasingly of the view that without a swift "surgical strike" across the line of control with Pakistan, the intruders' supply lines cannot be effectively sealed. If this is not done, the strategically located infiltrators - which India claims are Pakistani soldiers and Islamic mercenaries - can play havoc on army assault teams and threaten the military highway that services Indian troops along the northern borders with Pakistan and China. Pakistan denies India's allegations. It claims the intruders are local "freedom fighters" who have been waging decade-long civil war, in which over 20,000 people have died, for an Islamic homeland...."
The Indian Express 6/15/99 "...Torture and mutilation of six Indian soldiers in Pakistani custody before they were killed amounts to a violation of the Geneva accord and should be "dealt with accordingly," chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Hugh Shelton has said, reports PTI. The General was replying to a question at a weekend press conference on reports that an Ante-mortem report that bodies of the soldiers returned by the Pakistani army showed they were tortured, their eyes gouged out and noses, ears and other parts cut off before being killed. "If the condition (of the soldiers) is as you have described it, and if it were in fact done by the other side, then, of course, it is a violation of the Geneva Convention, and it should be dealt with accordingly," he said...."
The Hindu 6/15/99 Kesava Menon "...Apart from initial offers of mediation by Egypt and Iran and the usual proforma statements of concern at escalating tension, there has not been much of a reaction from the Muslim world to the Kargil developments....The Iranian offer of mediation was at least understandable, even if not acceptable, to India, since Teheran believes it can play such a role between India and Pakistan...."
6/15/99 AFP "...India and China, whose relations nose-dived after New Delhi's nuclear tests last year, have agreed to constitute a "security dialogue mechanism," New Delhi Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh was quoted as saying Monday. Singh, speaking on the first day of a two-day official visit to Beijing, did not give details of what the mechanism would be, India news agencies said. Singh held talks with his Chinese counterpart Tang Jiaxuan and said both countries would hold talks "at an appropriate time" to discuss the modalities of the security mechanism, the Press Trust of India reported..."
The Times of India 6/17/99 Dinesh Kumar "…Declaring that the Indian Navy had been put on high alert in the western theatre (Arabian Sea), Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sushil Kumar on Wednesday said that this had been done to ensure that the Kargil conflict did not spill over into the seas. ``The Pakistani navy has been building up its force levels for some time. It has been in a state of very high alert since June 11. Although it has currently adopted a defensive posture, it is in a position to launch an offensive at short notice,'' he said in an interview to The Times of India here….."
6/17/99 The Hindustan Times "...In a tactical move, the Pakistan Army troops are believed to have started withdrawing from pockets that have been encircled by the Indian forces, while at the same time despatching reinforcements to back their stronger positions in the Kargil sector. This assessment is based on radio intercepts made by the Indian forces in Tololing area in the Drass sector and in enemy positions east of Batalik sub-sector...."
The Times of India 6/20/99 "…Indian troops on Saturday launched the final assault to recapture Jhubber and Kokerthang ridges while fierce fighting was on in Batalik, Drass and Tiger Hills areas. The troops also killed eight intruders and destroyed four enemy ``sangars'' (field fortifications). A large quantity of ammunition and three universal machine guns were recovered from the area north of Tololing…."
The Star (Malaysia) 6/19/99 "…More than 80,000 terrified people from border villages in India's northwestern state of Punjab have fled to safety following troop movements along the border with Pakistan, police said
yesterday. Inspector General of Police (Border) J.P. Birdi said 90% of the population of about 200 villages had moved out. "We are trying to persuade them to stay but we can't stop them forcefully," he said. "As per our estimate, more than 80,000 people have left." …"
The Associated Press 6/18/99 Hema Shukla "…Artillery moved forward and air force jets roared high above the Himalayan peaks of Kashmir today as the Indian army prepared for a frontal assault on an almost vertical rock face held by Islamic militants. India wants to build on military gains it claimed earlier this week after a month of fighting the militants in the Indian-controlled part of the divided region of Kashmir. Meanwhile, Russia joined the United States in urging Pakistan to withdraw the forces that crossed the cease-fire line dividing the region into Indian and Pakistani-held areas. Moscow said tensions were caused ``above all'' by the infiltration into Indian territory. Pakistan denies it has any control over the militants, who it says are Kashmiri Muslims fighting for the region's independence from predominantly Hindu India…."
The Times of India 6/18/99 "…India admitted to firing across the Line of Control (LoC) into Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) to destroy a Pakistani military base. The base had been providing infiltrators and Pakistani army regulars in the Kargil region with supplies in the conflict against Indian troops. The post, in Skardu, is opposite the Turtuk valley, which Pakistani troops tried unsuccessfully to capture just days ago. In a major series of offensives, India has also regained 5 military posts that were earlier in control of the ..."
The Hindu 6/19/99 "…The U.S. Administration may go public with more evidence of Islamabad's involvement in Kargil if the President, Mr. Bill Clinton's personal messages to the Pakistan Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, go unheeded, according to a leading American think-tank. ``The Clinton administration could have more to say in public about the evidence that has shaped its views if private messages to Islamabad prove ineffective,'' Mr. Michael Krepon, president of the Henry L. Stimson Centre in Washington, said. In an exclusive written for the weekly Outlook, he said Pakistan's claims that Kargil developments were the handiwork of mujahideens have not been accepted in the U.S., a release from the weekly said today ``Afghans and other jihadists may well be involved in this operation, but they could not, by themselves, have managed to seize the mountain ridges dominating the road to Ladakh and the base camps to Siachen. ''The scope and planning of this operation, as well as the equipment, logistics, artillery and communication support necessary to Carry it out, all point to the direct involvement of the Government of Pakistan, its Army and Intelligence services,`` he said…."
The Pioneer Arun Bajpai 6/18/99 "…For the Pakistani Army and its ally ISI, conducting proxy war against India for the last one decade, it was too much of a temptation to resist occupying the desolate barren hills ranging in heights from 15,000 ft to 17,000 ft. The area is across the LoC in Batalik-Kargil-Dras region and adjacent to Siachen sector, which the Indian Army vacates in winters to again return back when the snow melts in summer. In this sector, the LOC is nearest to the Indian National Highway 1A, connecting Srinagar to Leh and the lifeline for troops deployed in Siachen and Ladakh. The plan involved occupation of these ridges before the return of the Indian Army in summer. The ranks of the battle hardened mercenaries of Afghan wars were beefed up with Pakistani Army led by its officers. The aim was to alter the alignment of LoC in Batalik-Kargil-Dras sector by occupying these ridges and then cutting off Srinagar-Leh highway, thereby making a big dent in the successful conduct of Siachen war by India due to choked supply lines. Besides, Kargil and Dras townships would have been at the mercy of these infiltrators. It would have also been a big blow to the Indian prestige….."
LA Times 6/17/99 Dexter Filkins "…Contradicting weeks of official denials, a Pakistani military leader here acknowledged Wednesday that his nation's soldiers have been playing a major role in operations against Indian troops since fighting broke out along the disputed Kashmiri border last month. The admission came as military and diplomatic sources reported heavy troop movements along the Indo-Pakistani border, suggesting that the two nations, which tested nuclear devices last year, may be preparing for a larger war…."
The Indian Express 6/20/99 "…Indian troops launched the final assault to recapture Jhubber and Kokerthang ridges while fierce fighting was on in Batalik, Drass and Tiger hills areas. The troops also destroyed four enemy 'Sangars' (field fortifications) north of Tololing during the past 24 hours. Official sources here said ten Pakistani soldiers were killed or wounded. An army spokesman in New Delhi however, said eight infiltrators were killed in the Tololing operation. The body of a Pakistani regular, Mohammed Noor, of Northern Light Infantry, was recovered, reports UNI.
The spokesman, Col. Bikram Singh, said six Indian soldiers also lost their lives and seven were wounded in the operation during the past 24 hours. With this the total number of Indian army personnel killed in 'Operation Vijay' so far has gone up to 112. As many as 249 are wounded while eight are reported missing in action. At least 313 Pakistani infiltrators are also reported killed…."
India Today 6/19/99 "….. United Nations (UN) observer in Srinagar General Josef Bali has confirmed that heavily-armed Afghan warriors have crossed over the Line of Control (LoC) into India via Pakistan, media reports said here on Saturday. "There is a lot of indication that former Afghan fighters from the war against Russia are now fighting here. Weapons provided for Afghanistan with large help from the Americans and the CIA are now in the hands of the militants," Bali was quoted by the New York Times as saying. Bali also appealed to great powers "not to sit back and let this situation play out" "Where there is a great imbalance of conventional forces (between India and Pakistan), the nuclear threshold may be very low. The big powers cannot afford to sit back and let this situation play out," he said.
Despite incontrovertible evidence, Pakistan has rejected India´s charge that it is directly responsible for the infiltration and claims that the militants holed up in Drass and Kargil are freedom fighters fighting for Kashmiri self-determination. The paper also quoted militants from countries as apart as Indonesia, Sudan and Bahrain, fighting in Drass-Kargil, as saying that they were using skills learnt from the Americans to carve out an Islamic state in Kashmir….."
Reuters, The New York Times 6/20/99 "...India won key diplomatic support from the G8 group of major powers on Sunday in its battle with arch-foe Pakistan over Kashmir, as its troops wrested a key Himalayan height from guerrilla infiltrators. The G8 condemned the breach of the Line of Control in the territory and called for an end to the weeks-old fighting which has raged in the Kargil area inside the ceasefire line dividing the bitterly disputed region between the two nations...."
The Indian Express Agencies 6/22/99 "...In one of the strongest indictments of Pakistan by any foreign government yet, Germany has termed as "irresponsible'' Pakistan's attempt to change the status quo on the Line of Control. Wolfgang Massing, head of the Asia desk at the Germany ministry of foreign affairs, says he has information that apart from Afghan militants, the Pakistani Army was involved in the intrusion in Kargil, violating the LoC...."
AP 6/22/99 "...India's heavy artillery guns stare across the barbed wire fence at Pakistan, its enemy in three wars. From their towers, the Pakistani heavy weapons stare back. For the first time in nearly 30 years the border between the uneasy neighbors is taking on signs of another possible war. The Pakistani military warned today that hopes for peace in the region are ``fading.'' There are reports that India has deployed 35,000 fresh troops on their side of the border. Residents on both sides have been fleeing border villages. The tensions have centered on India's campaign to drive hundreds of Islamic fighters from mountain positions they seized in the Indian-controlled part of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. But the hostilities over Kashmir have led to direct clashes between the world's two newest nuclear powers, who have fought two wars over the divided territory since their independence in 1947. In fighting since early May, Indian forces have been making slow but steady progress in close combat to push back the fighters in Kashmir, going peak to peak to seize back positions....."
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/23home1.htm 6/23/99 Seema Guha "...Going by the rhetoric on both sides, India and Pakistan appear one step closer to war. Stung by its isolation in the international community, Pakistan on Tuesday mounted a fresh diplomatic putsch even while its army belted out a stiff warning to India. The Nawaz Sharif government has come under fire at home for the G-8 statement which clearly took into account the Indian position in Kargil. Reports from Pakistan suggest extraordinary security arrangements in the wake of the Pakistan foreign ministry accusing India of being on the ``war-path'' and warning that any ``misadventure'' across the LoC would be ``rued'' by New Delhi...."
The Indian Express 6/23/99 "...Two influential senators in the U.S. congress have squarely blamed Pakistan for the infiltration into Kargil and called for bipartisan support for "the actions taken by the state department aimed at compelling Pakistan to immediately withdraw its troops from India." "The responsibility for the unnecessary deaths and casualties as well as displacement of thousands of innocent civilians resulting from the recent fighting (in Kargil) falls squarely on the infiltrators and their patrons in the Pakistani military," republican Bejamin Gilman and democrat Sam Gejdenson said in a letter to fellow congressmen...."
The Indian Express 6/24/99 "...In a major development, U.S. president Bill Clinton has rushed one of his top military generals to Islamabad for talks with Pakistan's civil and military officials ''to pursue the United States' concern about ending the fighting in the Kargil sector of Kashmir.'' Commander-in-chief of the United States' central command general Anthony Zinni is accompanied by deputy assistant secretary of state Gibson Lanpher. Lanpher is in the office of assistant secretary of state for south Asian affairs Karl Inderfurth, reports UNI...."
The Associated Press 6/26/99 S M Quereshi "...Pakistan appeared to admit for the first time today that it had a hand in troops battling Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region, but it rebuffed U.S. calls to withdraw its forces. ....Until today, Pakistan denied any role with the fighters, saying they were Kashmiri Muslims battling for independence from India..... New Delhi claims Islamabad backed the incursion to change the 1972 cease-fire line dividing the Himalayan region, which has been at the center of two previous wars between the two new nuclear powers. Pakistani Army chief Parvez Musharraf was asked by journalists in the port city of Karachi today if Pakistan would withdraw its forces from the Kargil area of Kashmir. He replied: ``It is too early to say (but) it's a government decision. It is the prime minister's decision. We will not withdraw unilaterally.'' ...."
The Indian Express 6/27/99 "...About 80 million people, two-thirds of Bangladesh's population of 125 million, face arsenic poisoning from drinking well water, a new study has said. The three-month study published yesterday tested water from 12,000 wells across Bangladesh. Sixty percent were tainted by arsenic poisoning up to four milligrams per litre of water, said Mahmudur Rahman of the private Dhaka community hospital, which conducted the study with researchers from India's Jadavpur University. The World Health Organisation's (WHO) safety standard for arsenic in water is a maximum of 0.01 milligrams per litre...."
The Indian Express 6/27/99 "...A senior U.S. official has hinted at blocking a $100 million IMF loan to Pakistan unless it quickly withdraws from the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir. "Impoverished Pakistan cannot afford a full-scale war and is counting on receiving a $100 million loan next month from the IMF. Washington could hold up those funds to pressure Pakistan," the Washington Post quoted the State Department official as saying, reports PTI....."
The Times of India 6/28/99 Sumir Kaul "... The personal bodyguards of Saudi billionaire terrorist Osama Bin Laden, better known as ``Al Quaida'', are reported to be fighting in Kargil and Drass areas of north Jammu and Kashmir even as some of the cadres have conveyed their displeasure in carrying on with the battle, official sources said here on Sunday. The bodyguards are fighting along with Harkat-ul-Ansar, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Al-Bad groups besides Pakistani army regulars, the sources said...."
BBC News 6/24/99 "...Pakistan has urged the American government to "broaden their view" on the fighting in Kashmir after a repeated call from a top-level US delegation for Pakistan to disengage in the region of conflict. A Pakistani foreign office spokesman made the comment after the US delegation had been discussing the situation with Pakistan's military leadership in Islamabad..... If the US did not take a wider view on the conflict, the Pakistani spokesman added, it would risk encouraging India to think about the war option. His remarks were seen as a reference to the American call for the militants fighting in Indian-administered Kashmir to be withdrawn - a request which Pakistan says it does not have the ability to enforce. For the past six weeks, India has conducted a military campaign to oust Islamic guerrillas from mountaintops inside its area of control in Kashmir...."
AFP 7/2/99"... Indian customs have detained a North Korean ship in the western port of Kandla on suspicion of carrying arms for arch-rival Pakistan, officials said Friday.Officials at the Kandla Port Trust told AFP the ship, Ku Wol Sun, was detained on Wednesday and was currently being searched by teams from the Customs and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence."A team of defence experts are also expected today to search the ship," the official said...."
Fox News (REUTERS) 7/2/99 "...Pakistan warned India Friday of ''serious consequences'' if it widened the current conflict between the two nuclear-capable rivals in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. A statement after a meeting of the key Defense Committee of the Cabinet that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired said Pakistan was "prepared to deal with any eventuality and to give an effective response to any action of aggression.'' ..."
UNI 7/2/99 "...India has scored a decisive diplomatic victory with a US congressional panel rejecting plebiscite, most favoured by Pakistan, as a possible solution to the 50-year-old Kashmir dispute. The House International Relations Committee yesterday defeated by an 8-20 vote an amendment moved by Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher asking the US to encourage India and Pakistan to hold a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, as envisaged in the 1948 U.N. Security Council resolution, to decide the future of the territory...."
Rediff On The Net 71/99 UNI "...India has received overwhelming support for its stand on the Kargil issue with the United States, China and Britain -- three permanent members of the UN Security Council -- asserting that the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir must be respected. At the end of a meeting of G-8 foreign ministers in New York, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright yesterday said her country had been stressing that the Kargil issue must be resolved diplomatically She said the US desired that infiltrators, especially those being supported by Pakistani forces, be withdrawn from the LoC...."
The Associated Press 7/1/99 David Briscoe "...Coming down firmly against Pakistan, a House committee approved a resolution Thursday demanding the immediate withdrawal of Islamic forces that have pushed into Indian territory in the disputed region of Kashmir. One supporter praised India for its ``amazing restraint'' in responding to the crisis, even as Indian fighter jets and artillery struck the Islamic guerrillas that India said include Pakistani troops. Opponents said the resolution was unbalanced, but they failed in efforts to insert a call for India to hold free elections in Kashmir....."
The Associated Press 7/1/99 Krishnan Guruswamy "... Indian fighter jets pounded Islamic guerrillas entrenched on Himalayan mountaintops today, and ground troops inched toward a strategic peak near the Pakistan border. The round-the-clock airstrikes accompanied the fiercest fighting in seven weeks between Indian soldiers and secessionist Islamic fighters in Indian-held Kashmir. India says the opposing fighters include Pakistani soldiers who crossed the 1972 cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between the two neighbors...."
AP 7/1/99 "...India has gained control of five knife-edge Himalayan peaks in the fiercest fighting of a seven-week battle to oust separatist Islamic guerrillas, military officials said Wednesday. Indian soldiers hauled the bodies of 25 dead comrades down snowy cliffs Wednesday as Indian officers announced their forces had captured a key 16,830-foot peak following a night of shelling and gunbattles. That battle Tuesday claimed at least 65 lives, Indian officials said. The peak was the last of five on a ridge leading to strategic Tiger Hill, which overlooks India's National Highway 1, the lifeline for northern Kashmir...."
The Independent (UK) 7/1/99 "...Pakistan would use nuclear weapons if a full-scale war broke out, the country's religious affairs minister said yesterday, as a further 100,000 Indian soldiers were deployed along the Kashmir border. "Nuclear weapons were not meant to be kept on the shelf if the security of the motherland was threatened," Zafarul Haq was reported as saying by the semi-autonomous News Network International...."
The Times of India 7/1/99 "...Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said here on Wednesday that India was prepared to face a nuclear attack from Pakistan. Asked about Pakistan's reported threat to use the nuclear bomb, he said: ``We are prepared for all eventualities.'' ..... Mr Vajpayee sought to assure the people that India would effectively use the international support it had earned in the world by observing restraint despite the intrusion by Pakistan. The Kargil intrusion was separate from the Kashmir problem...."
Reuters 7/4/99 "...``I am delighted to tell you that a battalion of the Grenadiers recaptured Tiger Hill after a long and bloody battle,'' a senior defense official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, referring to the 15,060-foot peak that commanded a vital stretch of the Indian highway through northern Kashmir...."
Washington Post 7/13/99 Pamela Constable "…A somber and visibly tense Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said tonight that he was "trying to avoid a nuclear war" by asking Islamic militant groups to withdraw from the mountains of Indian Kashmir, where they have been battling Indian troops for seven weeks. In a televised speech to the nation, Sharif invited Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to meet with him, saying it was "very sad we have not resolved the Kashmir issue," even after India and Pakistan have fought two wars over the disputed territory….. Several major Islamic militant groups here continued to assert today they would not withdraw from the conflict along the Line of Control, and Pakistani officials continued to disavow any direct knowledge of their actions, insisting the groups are operating independently of Pakistani control. In New Delhi, Indian officials acknowledged that the withdrawal of Pakistani-backed fighters--whom the Indian government says include Pakistani troops--had begun, but they insisted it was "a mere formality" because Indian forces had succeeded in recapturing most of the terrain the militant groups occupied in April….."
The Indian Express 7/13/99 "…Major Afghan opposition groups have alleged that Pakistan military has amassed eight to ten thousand mercenaries and its regulars for a major summer offensive in Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan, and called on U.S. President Bill Clinton to impose punitive sanctions against the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Labelling the Kargil incursions as only a part of the "hidden agenda of ISI", Afghan opposition groups, including Jamaat-i-Islami of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, Hezb-i-Wahdat, Ismaili forces and Uzbek groups, said thousands of Pakistani mercenaries and army regulars had begun pouring into Afghanistan for an imminent offensive…."
Indian Express 7/11/99 Chianand Rajghata "…India's interception of a North Korean ship carrying missile parts and blue prints to Pakistan appears to have reopened a pandora's box and shown up conclusive proof of what the United States has been selectively fretting about in recent times: Proliferation of advanced ballistic technology and weapons between rogue and militaristic regimes.North Korea and Pakistan have long been prime suspects in the proliferation game, but Washington, rather than confront Pyong Yong, has been trying to buy out its advanced missile and nuclear program with food and aid. But the totalitarian regime itself has been having its food and selling its missiles too. In Pakistan's case, Washington has been winking at its acquisitions. But it now turns out that the Clinton administration can't help being concerned about the developments, particularly the possibility of Pakistan exporting its nuclear and ballistic advances, a move advocated recently by some of its more zealous leaders like former ISI (Pakistan's CIA) chief Hamid Gul…."
The Times of India 7/14/99 Mahendra Ved "…If the dead really tell a tale, there's probably good reason for the Pakistanis to refuse to accept the bodies of their countrymen sent out to capture Kargil. At last count, there were over 600 bodies of Pakistani infiltrators strewn over the vast expanse of the battle zone in Kargil. The matter was taken up with Pakistan's Director-General of Military Operations, Maj-Gen Tauqir Zia, when he met his Indian counterpart, Lt-Gen N C Vijh, at Attari last Sunday. But the former is understood to have washed his hands of the responsibility for receiving the bodies. Official figures are still being collected. Sources in the government say Indian troops have buried about 300 infiltrators in the past two months. ``They faced problems doing this in the midst of a war and inclement weather. It is difficult to dig a grave in rocky terrain. At times, bodies were simply covered up with boulders, or left in crevices. That was the best our boys could do,'' a senior officer said…."
Ft Worth Star-Telegram/New York Times 7/11/99 William Safire "…A cry for self-determination is again sending shudders through world capitals. This time it's in Kasmir, a lovely land coveted by autocratic Pakistan, most of it occupied by 600,000 troops of democratic India Pakistan unofficially sent a small force across the "Line of Control" to take up mountain peak positions, and the Indian army is fighting--literally uphill--to drive them back. The purpose of Pakistan's raid is to get world attention paid to India's unwillingness to negotiate the status of Kashmir, which both sides claim…."
The Pioneer 7/12/99 "…A day after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee asserted that the "enemy's intursion in Kargil had been decisively turned back", the Government on Sunday announced that Pakistani infiltrators had begun to withdraw from Indian territory in Kashmir. It also said that it expected the pullout to be completed in a week. The Government's announcement coincided with the meeting of Director General of Military of Operations (DGMOs) of the two countries at Atari. "We have some evidence of withdrawal already taking place in the Kargil region," National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra said. He said, "Within seven days the status quo ante of the Line of Control (LOC) will be restored if it goes according to plan"…."
Agence France-Presse; Rediff On The Net 7/13/99 Mukhtar Ahmad "…Crack Indian commandos rescued Wednesday 12 people taken hostage in Kashmir by Moslem separatists who stormed a high-security paramilitary camp, killing four people. A source in the Border Security Force (BSF) said men from India's elite National Security Guard, flown in from New Delhi on Tuesday, started the rescue operation at 5:30 a.m. (0000 UTC) in the BSF camp at Bandipur, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of the Kashmir summer capital Shrinagar….."
The Telegraph, India 7/14/99 Deepankar Ganguly "…Investigators probing the blast at New Jalpaiguri railway station have identified the explosive as the same that was used in the Oklahoma bombing in 1995 where 168 people were killed. They have also identified the six people suspected to be responsible for the June 22 blast, which took nine lives. They said the explosive was not RDX, as believed at first, but ammonium nitrate fuel oil (Anfo), used for the first time in the country…."
Reuters 7/16/99 "….Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will meet Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh in Singapore later this month in a bid to encourage the resumption of direct talks between New Delhi and Islamabad, a senior official said Friday. ``That meeting is on,'' the official said…."
UPI 7/17/99 Harbaksh Singh Nanda "….Indian troops have reached the border known as the Line of Control in several sectors of Kashmir, although some Islamic insurgents have not yet withdrawn from their mountain redoubts. The deadline for the guerrilla's departure passed today, but the Indian army is holding its fire this afternoon and giving them more time to pull out of the disputed mountain region. India had vowed to start shooting at any of the Pakistani-backed insurgents still on Indian soil at first light today…"
The Times of India 7/15/99 "…The discovery of missile components in a North Korean ship docked at Kandla should alert the West to the danger the Hermit Kingdom's northern half poses to not just East Asia but other parts of the world as well. The missile components were described in the ship's manifest as water purification equipment but inspection by DRDO experts has revealed their true purpose. The destination was listed as Malta but Indian intelligence sources are convinced the ship's deadly cargo was to have been unloaded in Karachi. It is well known that North Korea is a mercurial, unstable and highly unpredictable state. What makes it worse is that it is indigent as well. So indigent, in fact, that it compounded its sin of a clandestine missile sale to Pakistan with the folly of stopping in Bangkok to pick up a consignment of sugar for India…."
AP 7/17/99 "…Authorities have arrested the senior officers of a North Korean ship that was detained last month for allegedly carrying equipment to manufacture missiles, a newspaper reported Saturday. India suspects the shipment was headed for Pakistan…."
AP 7/16/99 "…The State Department said Friday it has received a growing body of information strongly suggesting that extremists based in Afghanistan are preparing to attack U.S. interests in Pakistan in the near future. In a travel warning, the department noted that reputed international terrorist Osama bin Laden, who is on the FBI's 10 most wanted list, lives in Afghanistan and has supporters in Pakistan. Bin Laden is wanted for bombings of American embassies last August in Kenya and Tanzania…."
Curt Weldon Los Angeles Times Editorials; Metro; Part B; Page 9; Op Ed Desk 5/21/98 "...Escalating tensions between India and Pakistan should come as no surprise to the Clinton administration. ...In November 1992, the United States learned that China had transferred M-11 missiles to Pakistan. The Bush administration imposed sanctions for this violation but Clinton waived them a little more than 14 months later. Clearly, the sanctions did not have the desired effect: Reports during the first half of 1995 indicated that M-11 missiles, additional M-11 missile parts, as well as 5,000 ring magnets for Pakistani nuclear enrichment programs were transferred from China. Despite these clear violations, no sanctions were imposed. And it gets worse. ..."
Curt Weldon Los Angeles Times Editorials; Metro; Part B; Page 9; Op Ed Desk 5/21/98 "...Not to be outdone by its sworn foe, India aggressively pursued similar technologies and obtained them, illicitly, from Russia. From 1991 to 1995, Russian entities transferred cryogenic liquid oxygen-hydrogen rocket engines and technology to India. While sanctions were imposed by President Bush in May 1992, the Clinton administration allowed them to expire after only two years. And in June 1993, evidence surfaced that additional Russian enterprises were involved in missile technology transfers to India. The administration imposed sanctions in June 1993, and then promptly waived them for a month, never following up on the issue...."
Curt Weldon Los Angeles Times Editorials; Metro; Part B; Page 9; Op Ed Desk 5/21/98 "...Meanwhile, Pakistan continued to aggressively pursue technology transfers from China. In August 1996, the capability to manufacture M-11 missile or missile components was transferred from China to Pakistan. No sanctions. In November 1996, a special industrial furnace and high-tech diagnostic equipment were transferred from China to an unprotected Pakistani nuclear facility. No sanctions. Also during 1996, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency issued a report stating that China had provided a "tremendous variety" of technology and assistance for Pakistan's ballistic missile program and was the principal supplier of nuclear equipment for Pakistan's program. Again, the Clinton administration refused to impose sanctions...."
Curt Weldon Los Angeles Times Editorials; Metro; Part B; Page 9; Op Ed Desk 5/21/98 "...Finally, in recent months we have learned that China may have been responsible for the transfer of technology for Pakistan's Ghauri medium-range ballistic missile. Flight tested on April 6, 1998, the Ghauri missile has been widely blamed as the impetus for India's decision to detonate five nuclear weapons in tests earlier this month. Again, no sanctions were imposed on China. Retracing the history of these instances of proliferation, it is obvious that Pakistan and India have been locked in an arms race since the beginning of the decade. And the race has been given repeated jump-starts by China and Russia, a clear violation of a number of arms control agreements. Yet rather than enforce these arms control agreements, the Clinton administration has repeatedly acquiesced, fearing that the imposition of sanctions could either strain relations with China and Russia or potentially hurt U.S. commercial interests in those countries....""
The Hindu 7/22/99 UNI "...India scored a major victory in the US House of representatives today when it rejected by a majority an amendment, seeking to deny American military assistance to New Delhi for its failure to support the United States in the United Nations' General Assembly. ..."
The Hindustan Times 7/26/99 Francois Gautier "…Bernard Imhasly in his piece Role of foreign correspondents, disagrees with me because I have written that most of the foreign correspondents´ interest in India is generally for "the macabre and the negative, the folklore, the superfluous, and the politically correct". I stand by that statement! And I am surprised that he says: "Although it is true that much of (foreign) reporting on India is negative, India is hardly alone in being singled out by journalists!" Because the truth is that when it comes to Europe or the US, Western journalists become singularly tolerant. Look at Kosovo for instance: the bias of the Western media for NATO was so blatant -- that at moments it became laughable! ….Unfortunately, journalists are playing one of the most dangerous roles at the end of the 20th century. We do not report on news, we make them. We even fabricate them when there is nothing to report about. We manipulate world opinion: When the West has a certain bias -- say against the Serbs -- powerful media like the BBC or CNN, are able to turn everybody against them. But when we do like someone, even if it is for the wrong reasons, then we turn a blind eye. …"
BBC 7/25/99 Alastair Lawson "…British customs officials have confirmed they have intercepted material which they believe could have been used towards the development of nuclear weapons in Pakistan. A senior customs official told the BBC that the cargo included a substantial quantity of high grade aluminium which is commonly used in making nuclear weapons. The official said the cargo has been impounded because the ship carrying it did not have the proper licence. While it is difficult to prove conclusively that the impounded cargo was intended to develop nuclear weapons, customs officials say it is a possibility…."
Voice of America 8/1/99 Anhana Pasricha "...Indian troops have killed six Islamic militants in Indian Kashmir. Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, a week after Muslim intruders were pushed back from the Himalayan Region, artillery shelling continues between India and Pakistan across the Kashmir line of control...."
AFP 8/2/99 "...Indian and Chinese military officials have held secret talks to defuse tensions created by China's construction of a road in a disputed border area. A senior Indian army intelligence official in Kashmir said Monday that officials from both sides had met after the Indo-Tibetan Border Police discovered the construction work last month. ...."
The Associated Press 7/29/99 "...- India will extend a $25 million loan to Iraq in a deal that violates U.N. trade sanctions imposed on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990, India's oil minister said Thursday. The credit agreement is the first of its kind since the U.N. embargo was imposed on Iraq nine years ago, prohibiting unauthorized financial dealings with the country. V.K. Ramamurthy, India's minister of oil and gas, acknowledged the grant would violate U.N. sanctions, but said his country would never allow a friend like Iraq to suffer. ``India is deeply concerned about the situation in Iraq,'' Ramamurthy said, adding that the Indian government will offer Iraq ``all the political, material and moral support'' it needs to rid itself of U.N. sanctions...."
CNSNews.com 7/30/99 Patrick Goodenough "...Reports out of Pakistan Friday say the Saudi-born Islamist terror suspect, Osama bin Laden, plans to leave his hideout in Afghanistan for an as-yet undisclosed Muslim country, because he fears an imminent American military strike against him. The Afghan Islamic Press, based in northwestern Pakistan, cited sources close to Bin Laden as confirming the decision was taken "because of expected attacks from the United States."....According to various reports disseminated by the Pakistan News Service, monitored by CNSNews.com Friday, anti-Western and pro-Bin Laden sentiment is on the rise in Pakistan. Last week two Islamic groups held a large demonstration in Karachi in support of the Taliban and Bin Laden, and warned that "the religious forces of Pakistan" would respond if the U.S. bombed Afghanistan...."
Rediff On The Net 8/4/99 Paul Taylor "...Western governments are concerned that Saudi Arabia may be seeking to acquire a nuclear weapons capability after its defence minister visited Pakistan's secret nuclear facilities, a senior British official has said. Saudi Defence Minister, Prince Sultan toured the Kahuta uranium enrichment plant and missile factory with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief in early May and was briefed by A Q Khan, the father of Pakistan's atom bomb, diplomatic sources said....."
AFP 8/5/99 "...Afghan opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood played down the sweeping gains made by the Taliban in recent days blaming outside intervention alongside the Islamic militia in comments published here Tuesday. The Taliban's capture of the strategic Bagram airbase after heavy fighting Sunday and Monday "does not constitute a major loss ... since we stopped using it a long time ago," Masood insisted in an overnight satellite telephone interview with a Beirut Arabic daily. The airbase "could easily be targetted with heavy weapons by the Taliban" so the opposition had long relied on the "safer" option of reinforcing its positions by land, the opposition commander told Al-Mustaqbal....Masood blamed intervention by Pakistani and Arab forces for the new advances by the Taliban which already controlled more than 80 percent of the country before its latest gains. "A large number of Pakistani regular forces and hundreds of Arab elements are fighting with the Taliban," he said. On Friday, Taliban chief Mulla Mohammad Omar denied that Pakistani soldiers were involved in the militia's offensive and Islamabad also denied the charges. Masood said the irregular forces fighting alongside the Taliban included supporters of Afghanistan-based Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who is on Washington's most wanted list for his suspected role in two deadly bomb attacks on US embassies in east Africa last year...."
NATIONAL PRESS CLUB 8/6/99 "...We have high hopes that they will indeed be able to deliver bin Laden or any of his assistants. But beyond what we know or don't know about the inner dynamics of the Pakistani government, there is a very, very simple objective logic to it. Bin Laden is the hottest commodity. The moment they hand him over to the United States, alive or dead, they're not going to have it any more. They will not be able to dangle it and to trade it for support, understanding or anything else from the West. So it does not serve their national purpose to hand him over. Furthermore, as Pakistan is getting more and more into a variety of rogue-state behavior in the nuclear field and vis-a-vis India, they need greater and greater, quote "understanding," unquote, from the United States. Therefore, they need to heighten and to increase the value of the bin Laden commodity. And the only way to increase the value of the bin Laden commodity is to make the United States want him even more. And why should we want him even more? After he strikes again...."
BBC 8/8/99 "...India's Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has called on the United States to declare Pakistan a terrorist state. He was speaking at a rally in the northern state of Punjab - bordering Pakistan - at the start of his campaign for September's general election. Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting insurgents in Indian-administered Kashmir. Addressing large crowds, Mr. Vajpayee accused Pakistan of renewed cross-border attacks in Kashmir, and said it was trying to open up new fronts with India. "Peace with Pakistan is not possible until Pakistan withdraws the terrorists. I assure the countrymen that the neighbours will not be allowed to succeed in their attempts," Mr. Vajpayee told supporters in the industrial town of Ludhiana. Pakistan has denied involvement in the 10-week military conflict in the Kargil sector of Kashmir...."
Reuters 8/10/99 "...A Qatari satellite television station said two U.S. military planes landed at airports in Pakistan Monday with dozens of commandos in apparent preparation for a strike against Afghan-based guerrilla leader Osama bin Laden. Al-Jazeerah television, monitored in Jordan, said the two planes landed at the same time - one at Islamabad airport and the other at a nearby airport. Dozens of U.S. commandos emerged, taking up combat positions near the planes and barring anyone from approaching the area, it said...."
Reuters 8/9/99 "...The United States on Monday denied a report by a Qatari satellite television station that two U.S. military planes had landed at airports in Pakistan with commandos in apparent preparation for a strike against Afghan-based guerrilla leader Osama bin Laden. ``This is an inaccurate report and should not be taken seriously,'' David Leavy, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, told Reuters...."
ecologic magazine 11/97 Henry Lamb "... Al-Jazeerah television, monitored in Jordan, said the two planes landed at the same time -- one at Islamabad airport and the other at a nearby airport. It said dozens of U.S. commandos emerged, taking up combat positions near the planes and barring anyone from approaching the area. The Pentagon declined immediate comment but Leavy quickly denied the report. Another senior U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, also said there was no truth to it...."
Reuters Yahoo 8/10/99 "...Two Indian combat jets shot down a Pakistani maritime patrol aircraft Tuesday, a move Pakistan immediately branded as ``unprovoked aggression,'' saying it reserved the right to make an ``appropriate response.'' India said the reconnaissance and anti-submarine aircraft had intruded into its airspace off the coast of the western state of Gujarat at 11:15 a.m. local time and was attacked with an air-to-air missile when it refused to land...."
Washington Post (AP) 8/10/99 Zahid Hussain "...Indian fighter planes shot down a Pakistani surveillance aircraft today. Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said 16 servicemen were killed. Both of the nuclear-armed neighbors claimed the plane was shot down in their territory. The French-built Atlantic-I aircraft was on a training mission when it was shot down near a small coastal town, Aziz said. ``Pakistan reserves the right to make an appropriate response in self-defense,'' he said. Aziz said wreckage of the aircraft was found a mile inside Pakistani territory...."
UPI 8/10/99 "...The Clinton administration warns Americans (Tuesday) that they should avoid travel in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan along the frontier with Afghanistan, where indicted bomber Osama Bin Laden has found safe haven. The State Department says there is a "growing body of information" suggesting Bin Laden, who has been indicted for masterminding the bombing last year of American embassies in east Africa, is planning an attack against U.S. interests in the Northwest Frontier Provinces of Pakistan. .."
TheDailyWire.com via Reuters 8/10/99 "...The United States appealed for restraint and dialogue by India and Pakistan Tuesday after India shot down a Pakistani military plane. State Department spokesman James Rubin said U.S. officials were making the appeal to the two governments while trying to find out exactly what happened. ``In ascertaining the facts, the message that we will be sending and probably have sent by now is to urge restraint, because we don't want to see the situation grow and we want the two sides to resolve their differences through dialogue,'' he told his daily briefing. ..."
UPI 8/10/99 Anwar Iqbal "...Pakistan says it "reserves the right" to respond to the downing of one of its patrol planes by India in the southern border region between the two rival neighbors, although there has been no indication of an immediate military response. Sixteen Navy officers and enlisted men were killed in the incident today in southern Sindh province. Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz told reporters in Islamabad: "The responsibility for this wanton and cowardly act, as well as its consequences, rests squarely with India. Pakistan reserves the right to make an appropriate response in self-defense," ..."
Reuters 8/11/99 "...Pakistan fired a missile at an Indian helicopter carrying journalists to the crash site of a downed Pakistani patrol plane off the western Indian state of Gujarat Wednesday, Star News Television said. A Star News reporter who was aboard one of three MI-17s said they dived sharply to just above sea level after the lead helicopter reported a missile flash. India's foreign ministry spokesman and a senior Indian defense official both said they knew nothing of such an incident. Tuesday, an Indian MiG-21 jet fighter shot down a Pakistani reconnaissance and anti-submarine aircraft off the Gujarat coast. India said the plane had strayed into its airspace...."
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM 8/11/99 "...U.S. military planes carrying commandos have landed in Pakistan in what appears to be the start of an offensive against Saudi fugitive bomber Osama Bin Laden, Arab reports said. The reports said the U.S. warplanes landed in Islamabad on Monday. The United States has denied the report.
Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan and the ruling Taliban faction have called on Muslims to stop the incursion by Washington. Al-Jazeerah television, monitored by the BBC in Jordan, said the two planes landed at two airports around Islamabad. It said dozens of U.S. military commandos took up combat positions near the planes and barred anyone from approaching the area. Al-Jazeerah reported that the operation was in apparent preparation for a military strike against Bin Laden. Bin Laden has been accused by the United States of having responsibility for the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania a year ago that killed at least 226 people, including 12 Americans. Earlier, the Afghani opposition on Monday accused the ruling Taliban of massacring hundreds of villagers in territory north of Kabul captured and occupied for three days last week...."
Fox News 8/11/99 Neelsh Misra "...Pakistani troops fired a surface-to-air missile Wednesday toward three Indian military helicopters flying over a marshy border region where India had shot down a Pakistani plane the day before. Pakistan said it fired at two Indian fighter jets escorting the helicopters, which were carrying journalists to the crash site. Pakistani soldiers near the wreckage have set up mortars, anti-aircraft missiles and machine guns - all pointing toward the border with India...."
http://www.timesofindia.com/120899/12worl6.htm PTI 8/12/99 "...DUBAI: The privately-owned Qatari television Al Jazeera has stood by its report that US military planes had landed in Pakistan with commandos to strike at terrorist mastermind and Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. The television's correspondent in Islamabad in a late night telecast on Tuesday said his information came both from well-informed Pakistani sources and the Pakistan-backed Taliban, which is fighting to extend its control over the remaining 10 per cent of territory in Afghanistan. The correspondent said the US embassy in Islamabad had been secretly evacuating its diplomatic staff fearing retaliation from the Taliban backers. Already about 75 Americans had left Pakistan....."
The Indian Express 8/12/99 "...A leading U.S. Congressman has hailed India as a "model for other Asian nations and developing countries everywhere" and a "force for stability and cooperation in the strategically vital South Asia region." "India has stuck to the path of free and fair elections, a multiparty political system and the orderly transfer of power from one government to its successor," Frank Pallone, former co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said in his Independence day message introduced in the Congressional records ..."
The Washington Post Company 8/13/99 "...THE LATEST shootings on the India-Pakistan border signify big trouble. They suggest that last month's cooling of war threats exchanged by the two countries is transient and unstable. Worse, they suggest that the two consider the threat of another, fourth war -- which in their new circumstances could well be nuclear -- a plausible line of policy. India and Pakistan are carelessly and arrogantly ignoring their responsibility to step back from the nuclear brink. ....."
Associated Press 8/16/99 "...India can build a neutron bomb and nuclear weapons of ``any type or size,'' scientists who planned last year's nuclear tests said today. Rajagopal Chidambaram, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, said it would not be difficult to build neutron bombs, which produce a smaller blast than conventional nuclear weapons but have more intense radiation. Neutron bombs limit structural damage while killing large numbers of people...."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000927104956079&rtmo=Vwrq8fsK&atmo=rrrrrrNq&pg=/et/99/8/15/wind15.h 8/15/99 Julian West "...INDIA is facing a new offensive from Islamic militants following a decision by Pakistan's military chiefs to allow more than 1,000 heavily armed mercenaries to open another front in Kashmir. The bands of predominantly Pakistani irregulars are mounting daily attacks on Indian security positions. They claimed to have killed three members of the Rashtriya Rifles, a counter- insurgency wing of the army, in an attack yesterday on a camp at Mansbal, 20 miles from Srinagar, summer capital of the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir...."
http://www.timesofindia.com/170899/17worl2.htm 8/17/99 Seema Guha "…Raising the pitch against Islamic terrorism India issued Monday a strong statement on events in faraway Dagestan, where Islamic militants are aiming to break away from the Russian federation. Facing a similar problem in Kashmir, where the separatist uprising has been hijacked by extremist elements and help from neighbouring Pakistan, India was quick to sympathise with Russia, an old friend and ally. Expressing concern over developments in Dagestan, India said, ``Separatists and extremists are spreading terror there. We have seen reports of external involvement. India has consistently opposed the use of terrorism and extremism to achieve political ends, both nationally and internationally.'' New Delhi's campaign against Pakistan is now focussed on terrorism which it accuses Islamabad of exporting to India. It blames Pakistan for installing the fundamentalist Taliban regime in Afghanistan which in turn aids terrorists like Osama Bin Laden to spread his network far and wide, threatening not just India but the world at large…."Russia Today 8/17/99 AFP "…India on Monday expressed its concerns over the conflict in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan and offered its support to Moscow. "The government of India is concerned over the developments in Dagestan... [where] separatists and extremists are spreading terror," the foreign ministry said in a statement. According to Russia on Monday, 600 Islamic insurgents have been killed in the fighting since they crossed over from Chechnya and seized control of several villages in Dagestan on August 7. India on Monday said it had seen reports of external support being given to the Islamic rebels fighting the government forces in the troubled republic…."
SCMP 8/20/99 Agencies "…Pakistan warned yesterday that it would make its nuclear weapons "operational" if rival India did so. The warning followed clashes at a UN disarmament conference yesterday between the two feuding South Asian neighbours over nuclear developments on the subcontinent. Pakistani Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed said that if India readied its nuclear weapons, "Pakistan will be obliged to follow suit". …. "
TimesofIndia 8/20/99 Mahendra Ved "…For the unemployed Uighur Muslim youths, a six-month contract for $20,000 to wage a "jehad", be it Kargil, Kabul or Dagestan, is an attractive proposition when compared to the average $25 salary if they were employed. They get enrolled in Xinjiang in China where they are targeted for their religious beliefs and political opposition to Beijing. They also come from the neighbouring Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where their activities are under constant watch by the authorities, ostensibly under Chinese pressure. A score of them were killed in Kargil, and the matter was taken up with the Chinese. The trend, reflecting the foreign-sponsored spread of religious extremism, has caused concern among the Central Asian Republics, forcing the governments to act. Authoritative reports here say Pakistan's ISI representatives recruit these youths either as tourists or students. They also travel as Hajis, and when the pilgrimage is over, they disappear. Once the journey begins, the youths' parents receive the money. "In Central Asian context, this is big money. So, even if the son does not return home, the family is well off," says an Asian diplomat who has been monitoring these movements. They travel on passports of different Islamic nationalities, which can be procured at a price…."