Replies to post #73169 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[BondGekko]

CNS News is a notorious right wing organization owned by L. Brent Bozell who is a right wing demagogue who is bought and paid by Republicans and who frequently smears Democrats

it is a joke, not real news

if any of it was true the Bushies would be using it, it is all false

[harrypothead]

Pakistan tests nuclear capable missile
Masroor Gilani
Posted Tue, 12 Oct 2004

Pakistan on Tuesday conducted its fourth test this year of a nuclear-capable missile, test-firing the intermediate Ghauri missile which can hit targets deep inside rival neighbour India.

"Pakistan this morning carried out another successful test of the indigenously produced intermediate range Ballistic Missile Hatf V (Ghauri)," a military statement said.

The Hatf V (Ghauri), with a range of 1500 kilometres, was test-fired as "part of a series of tests planned for the Ghauri missile system."

"The test completely validated all the design parameters," the statement said, adding the Ghauri "can carry nuclear and other warheads."

The Hatf V was tested twice earlier this year, on May 29 and June 4 and the long-range Shaheen missile was tested on March 9.

Neighbouring states were notified beforehand, it added, and an Indian official in New Delhi said it had been informed in advance of the test in accordance with agreed protocols.

The tests this year have been seen less as sabre-rattling against India, with whom Pakistan is in the middle of a step-by-step peace process, and more for domestic consumption.

Analysts say they are aimed at placating domestic fears that the nuclear proliferation scandal surrounding top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who confessed in February to selling nuclear secrets and technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, would force Pakistan to wind back its nuclear programme.

"Fears about the roll back of Pakistan's nuclear programme will never go away," the former head of Pakistan's military spy agency ISI, retired lieutenant general Hameed Gul told AFP.

"Israel does not want a Muslim state to possess nuclear weapons," he said.

Military analyst and retired general Talat Masood said Pakistan had to aggressively pursue its nuclear and missile program to offset the conventional military imbalance with arch rival India.

"The test also coincides with the fifth anniversary of General Musharraf in power," Masood said.

Musharraf, also army chief, led a bloodless army coup against the elected government of premier Nawaz Sharif on October 12, 1999, suspending parliaments and declaring himself president 21 months later.


AFP