Terror From The Pakistan Horn (Daniel 7)

Pakistan probably most dangerous country for world: Ex-CIA official

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is probably the most dangerous country for the world as it is ripe with the threats of terrorism, a failing economy and the fastest growing nuclear arsenal, a retired CIA official has said.

“While Pakistan is not the most dangerous country in the world, it is probably the most dangerous country for the world, and as such, a serious case for close and continued US engagement with Pakistan can be made,” Kevin Hulbert, a former top intelligence officer who retired in June 2014, wrote in an op-ed in The Cipher Brief.

“As a country ripe with the triple threat of terrorism, a failing economy, and the fastest growing nuclear arsenal, Pakistan has the potential to create more nightmare scenarios for US policymakers than any other country,” said Hulbert, who previously served multiple overseas tours as CIA Chief of Station and Deputy Chief of Station.

Like it or not, Pakistan is similar to a bank or company considered too big to let fail because of the ripple effect it might cause across the entire economy.

The spectre of the sixth largest country in the world being a failed state is a hypothetical catastrophe that would unleash a world of unintended consequences, he said.

“Rather than risk it, and as much as we might like to move on, we really should increase the level of engagement with Pakistan, not decrease it,” he recommended.

Hulbert said many of the trend lines in Pakistan now seem to be moving in the wrong direction.
For years, Pakistan felt justified in its use of jihadist militias to attack India in a war of attrition.
It pursued a perverse double-dealing game where they supported ‘good’ radical Muslim extremists that helped them in their proxy war against India, while at the same time trying to hold the line against the ‘bad’ radical Muslim extremist elements who were focused on bringing down the Pakistani state, he observed.

A large percentage of the Pakistan population does not view jihadi groups, including the Taliban and other militant religious groups, as dangerous elements, but rather as good soldiers of Islam comprised of men performing their religious duty, he said.

“The fight against al-Qaeda in Pakistan was largely seen as a US fight, not a Pakistan fight, and Pakistan’s unwillingness to make the hard choices required to confront the growing menace of radical extremism, created a monster,” the former CIA official said.

Today, Pakistan finds itself in a very complicated security situation where there is little differentiation among radical groups, he noted.

Terrorist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, are suddenly allied with al-Qaeda, while Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the Pakistan Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, and other assorted miscreants and non-state actors are intent on bringing down the elected government of Pakistan.

While the Pakistan government dithered, the militancy in the country took firm hold, he said.

And Why South Korea Is One Of Ten Nuclear Horns (Daniel 7:7)

South Korea nuclear weapons possible within 6 months, newspaper says

South Korea’s Yeonggwang Nuclea Plant

South Korean newspaper says technology exists to build nuclear weapons quickly.
Robert Koehler

A conservative South Korean newspaper says the country could produce nuclear weapons within six months without acquiring outside help.

According to blogger Robert Koehler’s reporting of a story from Munhwa Ilbo, South Korea’s 23 nuclear reactors make it one of the world’s most prolific commercial nuclear nations, giving it the raw material and knowledge to build nukes.

Munhwa Ilbo quoted anonymous military sources, but referred also to Korea’s brush with the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2004.

It was then that IAEA inspectors toured facilities in the South after the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute produced 0.2 grams of enriched uranium.

Furthermore, according to Nautilus.org, Korea attempted to acquire a French reprocessing plant and jet engine technology from Lockheed in the US with aims at producing nukes in the 1970s and ’1980s.

Those plans were halted by American officials; the two nations signed an agreement in 1956 preventing South Korea from pursuing nuclear weapons.

Dong-A Ilbo, a Korean news organization, theorized earlier this month that despite the country’s nuclear program remaining “peaceful,” the technology exists to build weapons.

“Experts say that after decades of nuclear research, the country has accumulated a considerable level of direct and indirect knowledge for manufacturing nuclear bombs,” Dong-A reported.

Speculation comes after North Korea claimed earlier this month it conducted a third successful nuclear test.

Some South Korean politicians have campaigned for the country to launch a nuclear weapons program.

Also today, the US and Japan coordinated efforts on North Korea, saying each is committed to “strong actions.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met President Barack Obama today about “our concerns about the provocative actions that have been taken by North Korea and our determination to take strong actions in response,” Obama said, according to AFP.

Abe is in America to speak with the president.

“We just cannot tolerate the actions of North Korea such as launching missiles and conducting a nuclear test,” the Japanese leader said, AFP reported.

Why Australia Is One of Ten Nuclear Horns (Daniel 7:7)

Australia to sign civil nuclear deal to sell uranium to India

Reuters India

 

Now I Become Death Destroyer of Worlds

(Reuters) – Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Wednesday he hoped to sign a deal this week to sell uranium to India for peaceful power generation, but halted uranium exports to Russia over Moscow’s role in Ukraine.

Work on an India-Australia agreement has been underway since Australia, which has 40 percent of the world’s known uranium reserves, lifted a long-standing ban on selling uranium to energy-starved India in 2012.

Nuclear-armed India and Australia have been working on a safeguards agreement since then to ensure any uranium exports from Australia are used purely for peaceful purposes.

“I am hoping to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement that will enable uranium sales by Australia to India,” Abbott, who will visit this week, told parliament in Canberra.

India faces chronic shortages of electricity, and a quarter of its billion-plus population has no little or no access to power. Two thirds of India’s power supplies come from burning coal, and it is keen to shift the balance towards nuclear over the next few years.

Canberra had previously refused to sell nuclear material to India because it had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Asked what steps had been taken to ensure there were appropriate safeguards, Trade Minister Andrew Robb said the government had “satisfied ourselves that the steps are in place”.

“The negotiations and work that’s gone on between authorities in India and Australia have gone on for some years to develop a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement which meets the international requirements and we are satisfied, our officials are satisfied, that all the requirements have been met,” Robb told ABC radio.

Meanwhile, Australia imposed a ban on uranium sales to Russia, two days after Canberra unveiled fresh sanctions against Russia over what Prime Minister Tony Abbott called its “bullying” of neighbouring Ukraine.

Russia is accused of backing pro-Russian insurgent groups battling the government in Kiev.

“There will be no uranium sales to Russia until further notice and Australia has no intention of selling uranium to a country which is so obviously in breach of international law as Russia currently is,” Abbot told parliament.

Australia and Russia signed a bilateral agreement in 2007 enabling uranium exports. Only a small trial shipment of less than a hundred tonnes uranium has been shipped to Russia.

U.S. PRECEDENT

Australia’s decision to overturn it long-standing ban on uranium sales to India followed a landmark U.S. agreement to support the civil nuclear programme in India, seen by Washington as an economic and geopolitical counterweight to China.

Washington signed the deal with New Delhi in 2008 allowing India to import U.S. nuclear fuel and technology without giving up its military nuclear programme. India is seeking a similar agreement with Japan.

Critics accused the United States of undermining the global non-proliferation regime.

India has refused to sign the nuclear NPT, arguing it is discriminatory and flawed in allowing only countries which had tested nuclear weapons before 1967 to legally possess them.

Pakistan, Israel and North Korea are the only other non-signatories to the treaty which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons as well as foster peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

India’s status as a nuclear power features highly among new Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s priorities.

India operates 20 mostly small reactors at six sites with a capacity of 4,780 MW, or 2 percent of its total power capacity, according to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited. The government hopes to increase its nuclear capacity to 63,000 MW by 2032 by adding nearly 30 reactors – at an estimated cost of $85 billion.

Australia, which has no nuclear power plants of its own, is one of the world’s top exporters of uranium, mining 7,529 tonnes of uranium in fiscal 2011/12, worth A$782 million, according to government figures.

Abbott is visiting India and Malaysia as he seeks to deepen trade and personal ties in Asia ahead of the Group of 20 Leaders Summit scheduled to take place in Brisbane in November.

(Additional reporting by Frank Jack Daniel in NEW DELHI; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)