Analysis: Former USAF Secretary discusses hidden history of nukes
January 3, 2009 1 Comment
It is not necessary to agree with Thomas C. Reed’s worldview in order to appreciate his deep knowledge of the history of nuclear politics. His argument, for instance, that “the world is safer for having all the permanent UN Security Council members possess nuclear weapons” may be seen as absurdly myopic -especially in light of numerous instances in which the US and the USSR came close to annihilating the entire world during the Cold War. Nevertheless, the former nuclear weapons designer and US Air Force Secretary always has interesting insights to share on the dark history of nuclear proliferation. For instance, in a recent interview with US News & World Report, Reed discussed how Klaus Fuchs, the nuclear scientist who was jailed in 1950 for having spied for the Soviets, also shared his immense nuclear knowledge with the Chinese, following his release from prison. He also outlined the Chinese contribution to nuclear proliferation in the Third World, which he attributes to a 1982 decision by the Chinese leadership, under the Chairmanship of Deng Xiaoping, to “proliferate nuclear technology to communists and Muslims” around the world. Read more of this post
Taliban Information Minister arrested in Peshawar
January 3, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment
Ustad Yasar, who heads the Taliban information division in Afghanistan, has been arrested in Peshawar, Pakistani intelligence officials announced today. Yasar was previously arrested in 2005, again in Pakistan, by Pakistani security forces and was handed over to the Afghan authorities in the same year. In 2007, however, he was released in exchange for Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who had been abducted by the Taliban earlier that year. Other high-level Taliban operatives released along with Yasar include Mansoon Ahmad, Abdul and Hamdullah Ghaffar, and Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi, the spokesman for the Taliban in Afghanistan. All of them remain at large. An unnamed Pakistani security official has said that, at the time of his recent arrest, Yasar was acting under orders from Mullah Mohammad Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, who had sent him to the Pakistani borderlands “to mediate in a dispute between Taliban factions” there. It will be interesting to see if the Pakistanis give US interrogators access to Yasar, and if they extradite him to Afghanistan. [IA]
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdul Ghaffar, Afghanistan, Hamdullah Ghaffar, Mansoon Ahmad, Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi, Mullah Mohammad Omar, News, Pakistan, Taliban, Ustad Yasar, War on Terrorism