Another bushlie: N Korea sold UF6 to Libya--it was really Pakistan

[Democrats_win]

http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/ads?client=ca-startribune_468x150&dt=1111427090782&adsafe=high&lmt=1111296943&format=468x150_sln&output=html&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.startribune.com%2Fstories%2F484%2F5302817.html&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fbuzzflash.com%2F&u_h=600&u_w=800&u_ah=572&u_aw=800&u_cd=16&u_tz=-420&u_java=true

--snip
U.S. shielded Pakistan in report on N. Korean sale of nuclear material

In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.

But that is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold it to Libya. The U.S. government had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction.

Pakistan's role was concealed because it is Washington's partner in the hunt for Al-Qaida leaders, according to the officials, who discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity. In addition, a North Korea-Pakistan transfer would not have been news to the U.S. allies, which have known of such transfers for years and viewed them as a business matter between sovereign states....