Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
It's a nuclear state, Ricochet. It has nuclear weapons:
Pakistani Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti has been shot dead by gunmen who ambushed his car in broad daylight in the capital Islamabad.
He was travelling to work through a residential district when his vehicle was sprayed with bullets, police said.
Mr Bhatti, the cabinet's only Christian minister, had received death threats for urging reform to blasphemy laws.
In January, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who had also opposed the law, was shot dead by one of his bodyguards.
The blasphemy law carries a death sentence for anyone who insults Islam. Critics say it has been used to persecute minority faiths. ...
"This is a concerted campaign to slaughter every liberal, progressive and humanist voice in Pakistan," Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to President Asif Ali Zardari, told AP news agency.
"The time has come for the federal government and provincial governments to speak out and to take a strong stand against these murderers to save the very essence of Pakistan."
In Dawn, columnist Nadeem F. Paracha puts it aptly:
Forget the state, the government and the law. One never knows where they stand on anything anyway. The government is weak and is more interested in its own Machiavellian survival, blackmailed into further submission and paranoia by an anarchic, double-talking group of allies and an opposition still stuck in limbo between Riyadh and Raiwind!
And the state? Well, what can be expected from a state that has a history of both creating and hosting exactly the kind of faith-driven lunacy each and every Pakistani is now engulfed in?
For years a convoluted narrative has been circulated by the state, the clergy, schools and now the electronic media: i.e. Pakistan was created in the name of Islam (read, a theocratic state). Thus, only Muslims (mainly orthodox Sunnis) have the right to rule, run and benefit from this country. ‘Minority’ religions and ‘heretical Islamic sects’, who are citizens of Pakistan are not to be trusted. They need to be isolated constitutionally, socially and culturally.
What else? Yes, parliamentary democracy too cannot be trusted. It unleashes ethnic forces, ‘corruption’ and undermines the role of the military and that of Islam in the state’s make-up. It threatens the ‘unity’ of the country; a unity based on a homogeneous understanding of Islam (mainly concocted by the state and its right-wing allies). Most of our political, economic and social ills are due to the diabolical conspiracies hatched by our many enemies.
Now the same state is struggling to control the glorified monsters that it created. These monsters have no fear of their creator. The state is hapless and stunned; only good to play silly games with its subjects. The Pakistani state is not grounded in reality. In fact it is not grounded at all. It is a fantasy that has now started to rot and look redundant. It is a 63-year-old daydream about being pious, just and strong. And yet it has been anything but.
A bit of information, for those of you who planned to sleep well tonight, about Pakistan's nuclear weapons:
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) estimates that Pakistan has built 24-48 HEU-based nuclear warheads, and Carnegie reports that they have produced 585-800 kg of HEU, enough for 30-55 weapons. Pakistan's nuclear warheads are based on an implosion design that uses a solid core of highly enriched uranium and requires an estimated 15-20 kg of material per warhead. According to Carnegie, Pakistan has also produced a small but unknown quantity of weapons grade plutonium, which is sufficient for an estimated 3-5 nuclear weapons.
Pakistani authorities claim that their nuclear weapons are not assembled. They maintain that the fissile cores are stored separately from the non-nuclear explosives packages, and that the warheads are stored separately from the delivery systems. In a 2001 report, the Defense Department contends that "Islamabad's nuclear weapons are probably stored in component form" and that "Pakistan probably could assemble the weapons fairly quickly." However, no one has been able to ascertain the validity of Pakistan's assurances about their nuclear weapons security.
Pakistan's reliance primarily on HEU makes its fissile materials particularly vulnerable to diversion. HEU can be used in a relatively simple gun-barrel-type design, which could be within the means of non-state actors that intend to assemble a crude nuclear weapon.
Good thing I have complete faith in America's intelligence services and our president's decisiveness and strong moral compass in a crisis.
Oh wait, I don't.
Well, good thing the world's attention isn't completely diverted elsewhere.
Oh wait, it is.
Well, there must be something good about this. Otherwise this would be terribly worrying.
Would someone please tell me what the bright side is? I'd hate to fret over nothing.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
It gives journalists something truly interesting to write about.
Jul '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
I am about 98% certain that there was a contingency plan for securing the Pakistani nukes.
However I am just a wee bit uncertain that there is currently the will to execute it.
Oct '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
This is nothing new to folks who are familiar with Pakistan and it's government. I spent many weeks over the years in the home of a friend, who I have since lost touch with, who is a member of the Pakistani Senate. His father is a military war hero, and the family had many relatives in the ISI, the "Inter-Services Intelligence". Much conversation about Pak-nukes. Umar always believed that the security around the nukes was very good, but he also believed that it was entirely dependent upon the stability of the military leadership. The political class was not to be trusted.
Himself being both a member of the political class, and in a military family, close to intelligence, I am led to believe his views.
Remember, the Taliban is largely a creation of the ISI. This should give us a reason to breathe easy???
Sep '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
This is one of the many reasons why we should be getting very friendly with India. India and the US are natural allies, and we both have urgent concerns about Pakistan.
As for Pakistan, it's a good thing the CIA has a cadre of trained assassins. Oh wait--Jimmy Carter got rid of them....
Oct '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
Well, ....,
..., ...,
It is Mardi Gras!
Jan '11
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
. . .
Edited on March 2, 2011 at 3:14pmJan '11
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
Then I hope it's a lead-lined handbasket . . .
Oct '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
Good thing I have complete faith in America's intelligence services and our president's decisiveness and strong moral compass in a crisis.
Oh wait, I don't.
Well, good thing the world's attention isn't completely diverted elsewhere.
Oh wait, it is.
Well, there must be something good about this. Otherwise this would be terribly worrying.
Would someone please tell me what the bright side is? I'd hate to fret over nothing. ·
whether it's obama or his alternative--mitch daniels, i'm worried about the future of US foreign policy.
Jun '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
The future? I'm worried about the present.
Jul '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
On the bright side, the average IQ of Pakistanis is 81. Which, I suppose, explains why car bombs assembled even by Pakistani college graduates are usually duds.
Edited on March 2, 2011 at 3:43pmJan '11
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
When I grew up, we all feared the nuclear clock which was perpetually stuck at a few minutes to midnight.
With restive and fanatical Islamists continually roiling and asserting themselves with impunity, is there a corollary clock we should be nervously watching?
Aug '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
The bright side may be the historic enmity with India. If these Pakistanis decided to assemble, one of their nukes, where do you think they aim at ? Probably at their historic enemy: India. Bets would be on the Khyber Pass, where they have been strutting and shooting ineffectively at each other for years now. (ever see the video of the changing of the guard up there ? very cool show) .
India, possessor of great wealth, pentup hatred and bloodlust, and much higher quality of nukes, would respond how ? This might be the hand holding the cork on the djin's bottle.
Which of their other neighbors would invite such a battle ? Afghanistan ,Iran, China ??
Iran would be the most cynical choice, the support for the Uighur and the Taliban moot the other two. It would have to be India. Unless they want to take the advice from Inspire magazine and send it UPS to Philly or someplace. Who are these nimrods going to hire, the editors of Inspire magazine , some Libyan specialists, Hezbollah, or drug cartels teen terrorists ?
Dec '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
Let us suppose that Pakistan loads a half-dozen nuclear devices into a cargo ship and sends it to Iran. Let us further suppose that the Iranians have long-range missiles ready to accept those devices as warheads, missiles capable of delivering those warheads anywhere up to and beyond the Mediterranean.
Now let us suppose that Iran, having readied its missile arsenal, announces to the Gulf Arab oil states, "We now have 100 missiles capable of hitting anywhere in the territory of each of your nations. Six of those missiles have nuclear warheads that can obliterate your capitals or make your main oilfields unusable for years. We promise not to launch a mass attack with these missiles against any Gulf Arab nation that pledges to follow Iran's guidance in matters of foreign policy and oil production and exports. As for any nation that does not make that pledge, it is incumbent on you to ask yourself whether American anti-missile defenses are 100 percent effective, and what happens if even one nuclear weapon hits your nation."
Under this scenario, wouldn't Iran and Pakistan together be able to dictate terms to the rest of the world?
Dec '10
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
No need to load them into a cargo ship. There's a simpler and probably harder to detect way. They have a long common border, just south of Afghanistan.
Feb '11
Re: Hell in a Handbasket Watch: Pakistan's Minority Minister Shot Dead
Apparently Hezbollah is in Mexico. Congressman Sue Myrick asked Homeland Security to look into it in June. (No response---I'm so surprised.)
And Hugo Chavez is real chummy with Iran.
From what I understand suitcase nukes are a myth, but imagine this: crude bomb makes it to Mexico in crate---or even to Houston, or other US port. It's nothing to then get it here/detonate it.
We WILL be hit, it's inevitable. Within 5 years---10 tops. There's no stopping it. After the strike, how would/should the US respond? I hate to say it but the core of this existential conflict factors down to a fight virtually between Yahweh and Allah. I once heard a guy say, Nuke Mecca; get it over with. Horrible---but the virus of imperial jihad and hate, ultimately emanates from the fundamentalist imams and their grounding in the hideous Islamic sacred texts.
Must we destroy the destructive enemy? In this corner: Yahweh! a god who eventuates in Jesus Christ, apostle of love; on his team, Western Civ with its founding in Hellenic rationalism. And in this corner, the OIC and Mighty Chestpounding Allah! ...