Leaked Cables: ‘Zardari greatest obstacle to Pakistan’s progress’ (King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia )

[Turborama]

Source: The News (Pakistan)

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called President Asif Ali Zardari the greatest obstacle to Pakistan’s progress, according to a cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables released to The New York Times and other organisations on Sunday. The report further quoted King Abdullah as saying: “When the head is rotten, it affects the whole body.”

The cables released by Wikileaks, the whistle-blower, disclose that aging monarch of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah, as speaking scathingly about the leaders of Iraq and Pakistan. Speaking to another Iraqi official about Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, King Abdullah said, “You and Iraq are in my heart, but that man is not.” The king called President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan the greatest obstacle to that country’s progress. “When the head is rotten,” he said, “it affects the whole body.”

US diplomatic cables released also said that since 2007, the US has mounted a highly secret effort so far unsuccessful to remove from Pakistani research reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device. In May 2009, Ambassador Anne W Patterson reported that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts because, as a Pakistani official said, “if the local media got word of the fuel removal, ‘they certainly would portray it as the US taking Pakistan’s nuclear weapons’,” he argued.

Cables sent by the US Embassy in Islamabad to the State Department also talk of “grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme” amid the country’s growing instability.

Read more: http://www.thenews.com.pk/blog/blog_details.asp?id=976

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Picture of him that came with the story...


A quick Google search of the 1st line shows that this is big news in Pakistan

This is Pakistan's response to the leaks...

Pakistan criticizes release of secret US cables

(AP) – 3 hours ago

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan on Monday criticized the release of classified U.S. diplomatic cables that reportedly raise concerns that highly enriched uranium could be diverted from its nuclear program to build an illicit weapon.

U.S. officials have long expressed concern that Islamic extremists in Pakistan could target the country's nuclear program in an attempt to steal a weapon or, more likely, the materials needed to build one.

Pakistan has always said it is confident its nuclear security is good enough to prevent this from happening — a stance supported publicly by the U.S. But classified cables released by online whistle-blower Wikileaks reportedly reveal the U.S. has doubts and has clashed with Pakistan over the issue.

"We condemn the irresponsible disclosure of sensitive official documents," said Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit.

More: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hr8ybssGwn71iMAvJayESvb3pxQg?docId=394017aa47d54d78aeb64f8487da09ee

[JDPriestly]

1. And, voila. I have long thought that is why we are in Afghanistan --

because of our fear that Pakistan's nuclear capacity could get into the wrong hands. I do not like the war in Afghanistan, but I think our concern about Pakistan's nuclear weapons is quite rational.

[Turborama]

2. US Failed in Removing Enriched Uranium From Pakistan: WikiLeaks III

Posted on 28 November 2010

NEW YORK: The latest classified documents let out in the public domain by WikiLeaks also refer to a dangerous standoff with Pakistan over nuclear fuel.

Since 2007, the United States has mounted a highly secret effort, so far unsuccessful, to remove from a Pakistani research reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device. In May 2009, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson reported that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts because, as a Pakistani official said, "if the local media got word of the fuel removal, ‘they certainly would portray it as the United States taking Pakistan’s nuclear weapons,’ he argued."

=snip=

Other information on Pakistan referred to in the leaked documents include:

– Assessment that Pakistan’s ISI being hopelessly “involved” with Taliban groups of fiendish complexity…

– US envoy to Pakistan, Anne Patterson’s cable said: She pleads that Washington’s whole policy is counterproductive: it “risks destabilizing the Pakistani state, alienating both the civilian government and the military leadership, and provoking a broader governance crisis without finally achieving the goal”. Nor is any amount of money going to bribe the Taliban to our side. Patterson’s cables are like missives from the Titanic as it already heads for the bottom…

On suspicions of corruption in the Afghan government, the leaked documents reflect: When Afghanistan’s vice president visited the United Arab Emirates last year, local authorities working with the Drug Enforcement Administration discovered that he was carrying $52 million in cash. With wry understatement, a cable from the American Embassy in Kabul called the money "a significant amount" that the official, Ahmed Zia Massoud, "was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money’s origin or destination." (Mr. Massoud denies taking any money out of Afghanistan.)

More: http://despardes.com/?p=19140

[Turborama]

3. How India's Leading Newspaper is Reporting this... WikiLeaks: Pakistan, the world's nightmare

The Times of India

WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI: Many of the cables in the first lot of Wikileaks' expose of intricate and dodgy U.S foreign policy pertains to Pakistan, a country variously described as a "nightmare" and a "headache" for the international community. The cables do not paint a flattering picture of Islamabad or its rulers. For instance, one cable has the Saudi King Abdullah speak contemptuously of President Zardari. He calls Zardari the greatest obstacle to that country's progress and is quoted as saying "When the head is rotten, it affects the whole body."

Another cable describes a "dangerous standoff" with Pakistan over nuclear fuel: In May 2009, U.S Ambassador to Islamabad Anne Patterson reported that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts because, as a Pakistani official said, "if the local media got word of the fuel removal, "they certainly would portray it as the United States taking Pakistan's nuclear weapons."

Implicit in the cable is the suggestion of a see-saw battle between Washington and Islamabad about Pakistan's nuclear assets and its safety.

Some of the cables highlight Israel's concern with where Pakistan is going. In one exchange, Mossad chief Meir Dagan and U.S counterterrorism honcho Frances Townsend share concerns about Pakistan's ability to withstand the challenge of Islamic radicals. Dagan characterizes a Pakistan ruled by radical Islamists with a nuclear arsenal at their disposal as his biggest nightmare. Al-Qaeda and other "Global Jihad" groups could not be relied upon to behave rationally once in possession of nuclear weapons, he says, as they do not care about the well being of states or their image in the media.

Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/WikiLeaks-Pakistan-the-worlds-nightmare/articleshow/7009614.cms