salman77
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2006
- Messages
- 353
- Reaction score
- 3
Another US bill may seek surrender of Dr Khan
27-01-2007
By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, DAWN: An anti-proliferation bill, passed recently by the US House of Representatives, authorises the administration to ask Pakistan to surrender Dr A.Q. Khan to US authorities for investigation.
The proposed law, called the Nuclear Black Market Counter-Terrorism Act, would require US president to identify countries that cooperated with the “Khan network of proliferators” and take punitive action against them.
The bill was adopted earlier this month along with another which would require President Bush to certify that Pakistan is doing all it can to counter the Taliban and Al Qaeda before further financial aid is released to the country's military.
Both bills have already passed the House and now await the Senate’s approval. The bill on nuclear proliferation would require the US president to submit a report, no later than 90 days after its enactment, to the appropriate congressional committees that:
— “Identifies any country in which manufacturing, brokering, shipment, trans-shipment, or other activity occurred in connection with the transactions of the nuclear proliferation network that supplied Libya, Iran, North Korea, and possibly other countries or entities, and;
— “Identifies any country in which manufacturing, brokering, shipment, trans-shipment, or other activity occurred for the purpose of supplying nuclear technology, equipment, or material to another country or foreign person that could, in the president's judgment, contribute to the development, manufacture, or acquisition, of a nuclear explosive device by a country or foreign person of concern to the United States.”
“This is a very serious development,” said Brig Naeem Salik, a visiting fellow at Washington’s Brookings Institution who was the custodian of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal after the discovery of the “Khan network of nuclear proliferators”.
“It is another Pressler in the making,” said Brig Salik while referring to the 1985 Pressler Amendment that banned military assistance to Pakistan for having a nuclear weapons programme.
Another provision of the proposed law, if enacted, can force Pakistan to surrender Dr A.Q. Khan to US authorities for investigation. Under this provision, the US president shall send a report to the appropriate congressional committees which shall include a “description of the extent to which a country is fully cooperating” with the United States in its efforts to eliminate the nuclear proliferation network or in stopping proliferation activities.
“The president shall base the determination regarding a country's cooperation with the United States in part on the degree to which the country has satisfied US requests for assistance and information, including whether the United States has asked and been granted direct investigatory access to key persons involved in the nuclear proliferation network or activities.”
Brig Salik noted that the reference to Libya, Iran and North Korea and the demand for access to “key persons” involved can have far-reaching consequences for Pakistan. “We need to look at it very carefully and respond through a coordinated, proactive and well thought out strategy,” he said.
“We have to weigh our options carefully and plan ahead lest we again be caught by surprise like the Pressler in the 1990s.”
The proposed law suggests that US foreign assistance should only be provided to countries that:— Are not cooperating with any non-nuclear-weapon state or any foreign group or individual who may be engaged in, planning, or assisting any international “terrorist group” in the development of a nuclear explosive device or its means of delivery and are taking all necessary measures to prevent their nationals and other persons and entities subject to their jurisdiction from participating in such cooperation, and;
— Are fully and completely cooperating with the United States in its efforts to eliminate nuclear black-market networks or activities.
The US president would also be required to instruct all agencies of the US government to “make every effort in their interactions with foreign government and business officials to persuade foreign governments and relevant corporations not to engage in any business transaction with a foreign person sanctioned” under this law.A section titled “findings” notes that:
— Foreign persons and corporations engaging in nuclear black-market activities are motivated by reasons of commercial gain and profit;
— Sanctions targeted solely against the business interests of the sanctioned person or business concern may be unsuccessful in halting these proliferation activities;
— To dissuade corporations from allowing their associated commercial entities or persons from engaging in proliferation black-market activities, they must also be made to suffer financial loss and commercial disadvantage, and parent and subsidiary commercial enterprises must be held responsible for the proliferation activities of their associated entities;
— If a corporation perceives that the US government will do everything possible to make its commercial activity difficult around the world, then that corporation has a powerful commercial incentive to prevent any further proliferation activity by its associated entities;
— Therefore, the US government should seek to increase the risk of commercial loss for associated corporate entities for the proliferation actions of their subsidiaries.
The proposed law describes the terms “persons” and “corporations” in a wider sense, which includes “any governmental entity, or subsidiary, subunit, or parent entity.”
In the case of a country where it may be impossible to identify a specific governmental entity, the terms will cover “all activities of that government relating to the development or production of any nuclear equipment or technology.”
