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Posts Tagged ‘Pakistan’

Pakistan Let China See U.S. ‘Stealth’ Chopper

August 15, 2011 Comments off

2point6billion

Aug. 15 – Pakistan has allowed Chinese military engineers to photograph and take samples of a U.S. “stealth” helicopter that crashed during the operation in May which led to the death of former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

If the disclosure is substantiated, Pakistan’s move will further exacerbate the already fragile relationship between the two countries, which was seriously strained when the United States carried out a clandestine raid on May 2 to assassinate bin Laden in Abottabad, located some 30 miles northeast of Islamabad, without notifying Pakistani authorities.

“The U.S. now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad,” a person in “intelligence circles” was quoted as saying.

When U.S. Navy SEALs raided the fortified mansion of “Terrorist No.1,” one of two modified Blackhawk helicopters crashed into the wall of the mansion due to a technical malfunction, according to officials. The Navy SEALs team tried to destroy the helicopter after the crash, but the tail section remained intact.

Chinese engineers were allowed to Read more…

Categories: China, Pakistan, United States Tags: , , , ,

Pakistan successfully launches communication satellite

August 12, 2011 Comments off

paktribune

XICHANG: Pakistan successfully launched into space its state-of-the-art PakSat-1R communication satellite here from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China`s Sichuan Province, late Thursday night.

A select group of senior Pakistani officials witnessed the Long March-3B rocket successfully carrying the communication satellite from the launch pad here with rounds of applause and jubilations visible on their faces.

Prominent among those present included Director General SPD Lt. General (Retd.) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Pakistan`s Ambassador to China Masood Khan, Secretary Defence Lt. General (Retd) Syed Ather Ali and Chairman Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Major General Ahmed Bilal, besides senior officials from the Chinese government.

PakSat-1R, a geostationary and advanced communication satellite, has been Read more…

Categories: China, Pakistan, Technology Tags: , , , , ,

Religious violence, abuse growing: world study

August 10, 2011 Comments off

afp

WASHINGTON — Religious-linked violence and abuse rose around the world between 2006 and 2009, with Christians and Muslims the most common targets, according to a private US study released Tuesday.

“Over the three-year period studied, incidents of either government or social harassment were reported against Christians in 130 countries (66 percent) and against Muslims in 117 countries (59 percent),” said the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life study.

In 2009, governments in 101 nations, more than half the globe, used at least some measure of force against religious groups. A year earlier only 91 nations had done so, the report said.

As of 2009, more than 2.2 billion people, or nearly a third of the world’s population of 6.9 billion, lived in countries where religious restrictions had risen substantially since Read more…

Categories: Religon, World Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

China To USA: ‘If You Mess With Pakistan You Will Be Messing With China’ – Webster Tarpley

July 23, 2011 1 comment
Categories: China, Pakistan, United States Tags: , , , ,

Court Papers Suggest Pakistani Interest in Thermonuclear Weapon

July 19, 2011 Comments off

globalsecuritynewswire

The United States in federal court documents offered its first open suggestion that nuclear-armed Pakistan could be seeking to build a thermonuclear weapon, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported on Sunday (see GSN, July 7).

The Justice Department has charged a Chinese woman living in the United States with illegally exporting high-tech paint coatings that could aid Pakistan’s nuclear weapons development. As the ex-managing director of a Chinese branch of PPG Industries, Xun Wang is accused of shipping the material five years ago in direct disobedience of the Pittsburgh-based company and nonproliferation guidelines issued by the U.S. Commerce Department.

Pakistan holds nuclear arms outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and is a known past proliferator of sensitive technology and information through the black market operation once led by scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. As such, the United States has placed a number of restrictions on the trade of sensitive goods with the South Asian nation.

The U.S. Justice Department questions in court filings whether the paint coating shipments could Read more…

Categories: nuclear technology, Pakistan Tags: , , , , , , ,

China Violating Missile Proliferation Controls, Cables State

July 14, 2011 1 comment

globalsecuritynewswire

Recently leaked U.S. diplomatic memos assert that China has flouted missile proliferation controls by selling the arms and their components to Pakistan, Iran and Syria, the Washington Times reported on Wednesday (see GSN, June 2).

A classified September 2009 State Department memo written ahead of a meeting of the 34-nation Missile Technology Control Regime repeatedly references a “lack of political will” on Beijing’s part to block Chinese firms from proliferating missile technology.

The Missile Technology Control Regime is a voluntary coalition of nations that aims to constrain the sale of missiles with traveling distances in excess of roughly 185 miles and explosive payloads weighing more than 1,100 pounds. It also works to head off the proliferation of missiles designed to carry weapons of mass destruction.

“Chinese authorities and firms fail to Read more…

Categories: China Tags: , , , , , ,

Pakistan threatens to pull back troops after U.S. cuts aid

July 13, 2011 Comments off

rawstory

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan threatened Tuesday to pull back troops from the Afghan border in response to US aid cuts, defying American demands to open new fronts in the war on Al-Qaeda and escalating tensions with Washington.

“I think the next step is, the government or the armed forces will move the soldiers from the border areas,” Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told the English-language Express 24/7 television.

“If at all things become difficult, we will just get our armed forces back.”

The United States confirmed Sunday that it had decided to withhold a third of its annual $2.7 billion security assistance to Islamabad, bringing relations to a new low after the covert American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Cuts of $800 million reportedly include about $300 million used to reimburse Pakistan for some costs of deploying more than 100,000 soldiers along the Afghan border, a hotbed of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

“We cannot afford to keep our military… it costs you extra amount of money when you are having soldiers in the mountains, so we will definitely use that tool,” Mukhtar said.

The military did not Read more…

Categories: Pakistan Tags: , , , , , , , ,

US punishes Pakistan Army in major shift

July 11, 2011 2 comments

thenews.com

WASHINGTON: The US confirmed on Sunday that direct and indirect aid worth $800 million to the Pakistan Army had been withheld while Pakistani diplomats disclosed that a 10-point list had been given to the GHQ, compliance of which would determine how much and when the flow of money would restart.

The official confirmation came from the White House chief of staff who told a TV channel on Sunday that Washington was holding back the money after a major New York Times story revealed the military aid had been suspended.

The 10-point list was given some time back and diplomats said Pakistan had Read more…

Categories: Pakistan, United States Tags: , , , , , , , ,

N. Korea Purchased Pakistanis Nuclear Tech

July 8, 2011 Comments off

cbn

WASHINGTON — The founder of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program claims that in the late 1990s North Korean officials paid kickbacks to senior Pakistani military figures in exchange for critical weapons technology.

Abdul Qadeer Khan has given a United States-based expert documents that appear to show North Korea’s government paid more than $3.5 million to two Pakistani military officials as part of the deal, the expert told The Associated Press Wednesday.

To back up his claim, Khan released what he said was a copy of a North Korean official’s 1998 letter to him, written in English, that purports to describe the secret deal.

Khan gave the documents to Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an authority on Pakistan’s weapons program. He did so because he has been accused by his government of running a covert nuclear smuggling operation without official knowledge or consent.

“He gave it to me because he regarded it as showing that the story, the perception that he had Read more…

Categories: North Korea, nuclear technology, Pakistan Tags: , , , , ,

Drone strikes are police work, not an act of war?

July 6, 2011 Comments off

blogs.reuters

Launching an air strike in another nation would normally be considered an act of aggression. But advocates of America’s rapidly expanding unmanned drone programme don’t see it that way.

They are arguing, as Tom Ricks writes on his blog The Best Defense over at Foreign Policy, that the campaign to kill militants with missile strikes from these unmanned aircraft, is more like police action in a tough neighborhood than a military conflict.

These raids conducted by sinister-looking Predator or Reaper aircraft in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen – and since last month in Somalia – should not be seen as a challenge to states and their authority. Instead they are meant to supplement the power of governments that are Read more…

Categories: Technology, United States Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,