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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (676388)	3/26/2005 7:06:15 AM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

The Los Angeles Times leads with a criminal investigation into a global arms trafficking ring, which has allegedly found evidence that the government of Pakistan illegally purchased nuclear weapons components from American companies. The timing of the revelation is awkward because, as the Washington Post and the New York Times report in their lead stories, President Bush announced yesterday that he had decided to allow Pakistan to buy American-made F-16 fighter planes, reversing a 15-year-old ban on the sale of such weaponry to the unstable nation. The criminal investigation began early last year, when a former Israeli army major was arrested at the Denver airport and charged with illegally exporting high-speed bomb triggers. The LAT's story includes new details suggesting that a separate shipment of sophisticated oscilloscopes, purchased by the Israeli from an Oregon company, were sent to a Pakistani arms merchant who has close ties both to his country's military and to Islamic militants. U.S. officials tell the paper that they suspect the materials ended up in the hands of the Pakistani government, which they allege has "begun a push to acquire advanced nuclear components in the black market as it tries to upgrade its 30-year-old nuclear program." But anonymous investigators grouse that their probe has been "stymied" by State Department officials, who consider Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf "too important to embarrass." Similarly, the NYT sees lifting the ban on fighter jet sales to Pakistan "as reward for cooperation" in the war in Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Bush's father barred such sales in 1990, citing evidence that Pakistan was attempting to build a nuclear bomb. Pakistan will probably buy two dozen planes to start, but the WP says there will be "no limits on how many it could eventually purchase." That's good news for the financially-struggling Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth, Texas that makes the planes, the WP says. slate.com