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Technology Stocks : LORAL -- Political Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: donss who wrote (296)	5/28/1998 4:47:00 PM
From: peter a. pedroli	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 880

the whole story and what dod is saying will never be fully known. the only stories you will see, will come from leaks and unclassified testimony from congressional hearings. but all of this shows that, understanding the importance of foreign policy and having one is what this country must return to. the last 6 years has been so troubling with this group in the white house and all over money and the arrogance of power. here is something else to chew on and can be laid at the feet of billy and co: Pakistan, Indian tests boost nuclear war fears 4.05 p.m. ET (2006 GMT) May 28, 1998 WASHINGTON - Pakistan's tit-for-tat response to Indian nuclear tests could prompt a regional arms race and raises fears of the world's first nuclear war, U.S. experts said Thursday. President Clinton called on the arch-rivals to renounce further tests, sign the 1996 Comprehensive Test ban treaty and ''take decisive steps to reduce tensions in South Asia and reverse the dangerous arms race.'' Clinton spoke by telephone on Thursday with Russian President Boris Yeltsin and agreed to work with Russia to keep a nuclear arms buildup on the subcontinent from harming global stability, the Kremlin said. "It was noted that the 'nuclear competition' between India and Pakistan is a serious threat not only to regional security but to the non-proliferation regime and world stability,'' the Kremlin press office said. U.S. experts said the Pakistani and Indian military chains of command had shown hair-trigger reflexes in the past that could quickly put them on a collision course again, notably over the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir. "I don't think they are up to the task of preventing a conventional conflict from accidentally slipping into a nuclear exchange,'' said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private research group in Washington. Since India set off five surprise underground blasts this month, relations between India and Pakistan, which fought wars in 1948, 1965 and 1971, have slumped anew. At odds since British India was partitioned between them in 1947, their entry into the nuclear ranks upped the ante between mainly Muslim Pakistan and predominantly Hindu India. It also complicated the strategic calculations of the United States and China and raised the danger of a scramble among others in the volatile region, including Pakistan's western neighbor Iran, to acquire nuclear weapons. Pakistan announced it had carried out five tests on Thursday only hours after saying it had information India had planned to attack its nuclear sites. In denouncing this alleged Indian plot, which New Delhi denied, Islamabad threatened "a swift and massive retaliation with unforeseen consequences'' if an attack occurred. Albright, who has chronicled the Indian and Pakistani weapons programs, said Pakistan probably now has enough fissile material for at least 10 nuclear warheads, with the potential to more than double their inventory this year. Citing U.S. officials he said Pakistan appeared to have resumed production of highly enriched uranium that had been suspended in the early 1990s. India may have enough for about 75 warheads, Albright said. A conflict in the region could also draw in China, a Pakistani ally that fought a border war with India in 1962 in the Himalayas. "The region is already riven by potential conflicts among China, India and Pakistan,'' said Lynn Davis, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs from 1993 to 1997. "The danger now is that any violent clash could lead the governments to resort to nuclear weapons very quickly,'' said Davis, now a senior fellow at the Rand Corporation, a private research group. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has long identified the subcontinent as the possible setting of what would be the first war between two nuclear-capable states. "The stakes of conflict are high because both countries have nuclear capabilities and have or are developing ballistic missile delivery systems,'' CIA Director George Tenet said in his annual worldwide threat roundup on January 28. "Although Indian and Pakistani officials say deterrence has worked for years, it would be at risk in a crisis,'' he added. Such a crisis could be brewing in the Himalayan state of Kashmir that both countries claim. Sharif had warned that Pakistan's decision on whether to conduct its own tests in reply to India's on May 11 and May 13 hinged largely on what happened in Kashmir. Shortly after carrying out the tests in the Baluchistan desert near its western border with Iran, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: "We have settled the account of the nuclear blasts by India...for the safety of our nation.'' "What happened in Hiroshima and Nagaski would not have happened if Japan had a nuclear capability,'' he added in explaining his rationale, citing the U.S. atom bombs that forced Japan to declare defeat in the Second World War. India announced last week that responsibility for Kashmir would pass from the prime minister's office to Home Minister Lai Krishna Advani, a hard-line member of the Hindu-Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party that came to power in March. Advani made a number of aggressive statements about Kashmir last week, prompting criticism from the U.S. State Department that he was raising tensions with Pakistan. India's tests, its first in 24 years, triggered joyful street demonstrations despite economic sanctions imposed by the United States, Japan and others fearful of a regional nuclear arms race. Pakistan helped boost bilateral tensions on April 6 by testing its first intermediate-range missile, the Ghauri, named for a 12th century Muslim conqueror who defeated the last Hindu king of Delhi, Prithviraj. Prithvi also happens to be the name of one of India's ballistic missiles capable of toting heavy payloads. With a range of 930 miles, the Ghauri could reach targets deep inside India, potentially carrying a nuclear warhead.