[world-vedic] US quiet on China missiles to Pak

[Guest guest]

THE USA MEDIA SEEMS TO BE IGNORING THIS IMPORTANT EQUATION WHEN IT

COMES TO INDIA'S NUCLEAR STANCE.

 

Posted March 23, 2000

US kept quiet over CIA reports on Chinese missile transfers to Pak

 

Washington, March 23: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reported

the delivery of Chinese M-11 missiles to Pakistan several years ago to

the Clinton administration but the government chose not to admit it

publicly for political reasons, CIA Director George Tenet has said.

 

Tenet was testifying, on Wednesday, at an extended three-day hearing on

intelligence issues before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee along

with John E. Mclaughlin, CIA's Deputy Director for Intelligence, and

John A. Lauder, its Special Assistant for Non-Proliferation.

 

During the hearing, Senator Kerry of the committee said, "When China,

with the M-11, was engaged in its transfer (to Pakistan) and we knew

pretty well that it was, we didn't really do anything ... And many

people would argue that's because of our policy of engagement (with the

People's Republic of China)."

 

"Indeed, in that case our job was to detect the transfer of those

M-11's back in the early 1990s, and we did that and reported it. Then

it becomes a matter of how you (the administration which has to certify

the transfer) pursue a policy toward China," Tenet replied. He said

that there had been a robust counter-proliferation dialogue with China

over the years as a result of which there had been some improvement in

China's proliferation behaviour.