What are the odds that the BFEE has the bomb?

[hootinholler]

I had a horrible thought last night and that was it.

We know they have been heavily involved in the AQ Khan proliferation network, it just makes sense. Why would you sell something so powerful and not keep one for yourself? We know that Brewster Jennings was known to the network in '98.

I have no proof and this is pure speculation, but it just fits. SLAD? Octafish? Opinions? Evidence?

I can see the conversations:

Nancy? It would be a shame if impeachment happened and some terrist in a boston whaler sets off a nuke under the Golden Gate.

John, how much do you really like Detroit? Make all the noise you want, but, if it comes out of committee...

One certainty is that those people are not above such extortion.

-Hoot

[The Traveler]

1. Discussions like this

leave me with a problem. I am not over worried that the BFEE has a bomb or is engaging in nuclear extortion ... but I cannot say with any confidence that such an action is morally beneath them. I cannot seem to determine where their "ethical floor" is. Everytime I think, "This is it ... they can't possibly go lower than this" they exceed my expectations and drive deeper into the slime.

[dchill]

2. I agree with you, I guess...

but it would explain a lot of Democratic congressional inaction...

Nah, they're just wimps, right?

[The Traveler]

3. No ... there is something going on

of which we remain unaware. It is clear our democracy is not functioning well, and that rule of law has been largely abandoned.

[hootinholler]

6. Exactly.

What could be powerful enough to elicit this behavior?

-Hoot

[sheelz]

11. done deed is a done deed

[The Traveler]

14. Several things

For example, the existence of a large, well equipped private army that bears no allegiance to the constitution of the United States. The thorough penetration of mid-level officer echelons by Dominionists.

Mao once said "Reality comes from the barrel of a gun." Bush has control of most of the guns.

But all this is pure speculation. What, I think, we must all ponder though is that the behavior of Democratic leadership in this period of time is almost inexplicable. There must be some other factor in play of which we are unaware that compels this strategy (or lack thereof). This is simple deduction, and strikes me as a safe bet. Figuring out exactly what those other factors might be is a little more difficult.

[zonmoy]

9. It is clear our democracy is not functioning well

biggest understatement since the big bang. democracy flatlined in 2000 and we haven't been able to resuscitate it.

[The Traveler]

13. Flatlined in 2000

We are both champions of stating what is obvious. It is obvious to us, anyway ... less so to people who are less alert, who spend less time thinking through the implications of things, or who try to discern the relationships between people and events.

But while the average American is not the policy junky the average DU poster might be, they are not entirely dim, either. Common sense still operates out there in the world. I hear it in line at grocery stores in fucking Lilburn Ga. People are becoming aware that something has gone horribly wrong. And they are pissed off about it.

But it might be too late. I myself am unconvinced that these goons have any intention of leaving office. I wil hold that suspicion until such day comes as they actually leave office. Paranoid of me, perhaps ... but these lads have worked mightily over the years to feed that paranoia with rational basis.

[frogcycle]

17. "largely?"

well, you were almost right

[The Traveler]

19. I feel what yer puttin' down. n/t

[jgraz]

4. Sadly, nothing so nefarious is required. The Dems are happy to roll over for BushCo

Don't believe me? Check the latest from Rolling Stone:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=336826&mesg_id=336826

[hootinholler]

5. I don't think they are happy to roll over.

But roll over they have indeed.

-Hoot

[jgraz]

7. Read the article. They're actively undermining the peace movement.

"Happy" may not be exactly the right word, but it's pretty clear Pelosi and Reid have absolutely no intention of ending the war before 2009.

[hootinholler]

8. That was clear in the first 100 days. n/t

[stillcool]

10. Does anyone know?

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Weapons/Weapons_page.html
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Weapons/Nuclear_Weapons_page.html

[Mister Ed]

12. Well, somebody sure had some military-grade anthrax to throw around in 2001...n/t

[hootinholler]

20. And in '97

Start here in this thread.

An investigator working on Iran-Contra coke in Arkansas of all places.

-Hoot

[Junkdrawer]

15. Not to scare you, but Dubya has thousands at his disposal right now...

BTW: Remember those nukes that got moved "accidentally"?

[seemslikeadream]

25. accidentally?

[blm]

16. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.

.

[Richard Steele]

22. No, TWO hundred percent.

They didn't get where they are without ALWAYS having a backup plan.

[Matariki]

18. I've been uneasily speculating that they must have *some* sort of blackmailing mechanism in place

It would explain so much.

[hootinholler]

21. It would seem to be the only explanation...

Conyers, Pelosi, Reid and a lot of other politicians understand the constitution. What would stay their hand? A number in congress have heard testimony from Sibel Edmonds. I doubt a personal threat would work, but, then again look at Don Seigleman.

-Hoot

[Octafish]

23. 100-percent they got it.

They've been there since the bomb was born, making money off of it. In fact, Bush and the Big Money Boys have been making big money off the nukes.

In recent years, since 1964, say, the BFEE's found they also can make money off of nukes by selling the technology to countries willing to pay.

The secret empire of Dr Khan

Pakistan’s nuclear proliferation poses a tricky challenge

Jasjit Singh
The Indian Express

Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the “father” of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme and the man who relentlessly pursued it through clandestine means and methods for decades, has finally admitted in a written statement that he oversaw its further clandestine spread to at least three other countries. Official Pakistan, which for years insisted that its nuclear weapons programme is tightly controlled and completely secure, is now claiming that nuclear trade has been made into a private enterprise by some of its national heroes! Extensive evidence has emerged in the public domain about detailed plans for enrichment of uranium for bomb making having been transferred from Pakistan to a number of countries along with a new version of a “yellow pages” directory of networks from Malaysia to Europe and North America for supply of materials and components.

What is of critical importance is not only the world’s most adventurous multinational nuclear proliferation but the reason Khan has put forward for his activities. Pakistani officials are saying that, contrary to earlier assumptions, he did not do so for money, but that he “was motivated enough to make other Islamic countries nuclear powers also” and reduce pressure on Pakistan. This may be an effort to garner public support from Islamic parties and countries. It also harks back to Bhutto’s notion of the “Islamic Bomb” for its Um’mah. The only exception known so far is the supply of nuclear weapon making technology to North Korea for strategic reasons in exchange for long-range ballistic missiles for nuclear weapon delivery.

Islamism has been deepening in Pakistan for three decades. Its concept of “strategic depth”, especially to its west, led to intervention in Afghanistan to control Kabul through covert Mujahideen operations. Strategic depth made no sense in modern conventional military terms. But in the context of Islamic jihad, as an instrument of politics by other means in Clausewitzean terms, it incorporated deadly logic, especially when the Holy Quran was invoked under General Zia ul-Haq to justify terrorism. To this has been added the strategic depth of an “Islamic Bomb” whose wherewithal is controlled by Pakistan. One look at the map would show that Pakistan’s Islamic nuclear mushroom covers the whole of West Asia with what Mansoor Ijaz terms as the “North Korean-made missiles armed with a Chinese-made nuclear device assembled in Islamabad’s nuclear labs whose fuel came from gas centrifuges sold by Pakistan’s rogue Islamists.” Small wonder Al-Qaeda, which received extensive support from Pakistan and its most radical surrogate, the Taliban, boasted it could make a “dirty” nuclear bomb.

The incontrovertible truth is that Pakistan’s nuclear programme in every aspect has been, and remains, under the firm and total control of its army at least since 1977; even its navy and air force have little role in it. Its clandestine nature relied on building a black market largely managed by trusted senior army (and ISI) officers and senior scientists in the nuclear establishment. Such people have undoubtedly been under a strong security and intelligence cover as much for their safety as to keep an eye on them. With a flourishing $2 billion-plus annual narcotics trade, and banks like the former Dubai-based Pakistani-owned “Outlaw Bank”, the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International), and the Mehran Bank to manage the black market in narcotics, nuclear trade and tools for terrorism, there was obviously no dearth of unaccounted funds for the purpose. General Aslam Beg, the army chief in late 1980s who controlled the nuclear programme, later publicly acknowledged receipt of hundreds of crores of unaccounted funds which he passed on to the ISI and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

The bulk of transfer of nuclear technology and networking of components supply for a weapons programme to Libya and other countries took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Aslam Beg was in full control of the programme. He has been questioned. But it is apparent that nuclear trade continued under the Musharraf regime. In 2002 a Pakistani military aircraft carried stuff from North Korea. It is likely that A.Q. Khan’s special “furniture” reportedly transported by Pakistan Air Force to Libya in 2000 was a cover for continuing supplies, especially since Muhammad Farooq, the nuclear laboratory’s head of oversees trade, accompanied the consignment.

CONTINUED...

http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/columnists/full_column.php?content_id=40361

Gee. Now who's got that kind of money?



I know you know this stuff inside and out, hootinholler.

For the large majority of Americans: Google Jonathan Pollard. Google BCCI.

[hootinholler]

24. I mean one of their own.

I know they've had the tech for a long time. Perhaps I'm just demonstrating my naiveties that it only just occurred to me that it's plausible they would physically have one.

Mucho respecto, Der Fishie.

-Hoot