Comrade Sobho Gianchandani

Comrade Sobho Gianchandani

AP – President-elect Barack Obama hugs his daughter, Malia, after his acceptance speech at his election night …

Obama's acceptance speech

Remarks of President-Elect Barack Obama-as prepared for deliveryElection NightTuesday, November 4th, 2008
Chicago, Illinois If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference. It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America. It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day. It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead. I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden. I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation's next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House. And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure. To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics - you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done. But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to - it belongs to you. I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington - it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory. I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair. The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there. There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand. What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people. Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends...though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too. And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down - we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security - we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope. For that is the true genius of America - that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing - Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old. She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can. At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can. When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can. When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can. She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can. A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can. America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made? This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

Leaders of Soils

Leaders of Soils

ARE LEADERS BORN OR MADE?

Many authors have defined about leadership in various ways. But this article focuses about the ways and means by which any lay man can cultivate and inculcate this much sought after trait. It clearly differentiated between talent and skill and it concluded at the end that leadership is a skill that can be cultivated by a common man. It highlighted about the qualities needed in any leader. It laid emphasis between a manager and a leader. It has come out with novel strategies and secrets and tools and techniques by which an ordinary person can become an extraordinary person. This article is highly useful for CEOs and aspiring leaders in the corporate world.If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader”, John Quincy Adam.WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?“Research on leadership indicates that 50 – 75 per cent of organizations are currently managed by people sorely lacking in leadership competence. They are hired or promoted based on technical competence, business knowledge and politics not on leadership skill”. Before explaining in detail about leadership it is worthwhile to identify whether it is a skill or a talent. If it is a talent then leadership is an inborn quality as talents are innate by nature. If it is a skill, then it can be acquired by voracious reading, learning, continuous practice, by training and by experience. If it is a talent then the leaders are born if it is a skill then the leaders are made.Leadership is more of an action rather than by preaching. Leadership is the ability to lead from the front despite many successive setbacks with a passion and with a conviction of a great vision. It is also taking a sense of responsibility, setting as a role model with qualities like courage, commitment and conviction. Leadership is also a way of calling ‘we’ not ‘I’ because no leader is successful as an individual. Whenever there is a success the leader ascribes it to his team behind and in case of a failure, he owns the sole responsibility. There are many dimensions and definitions to the concept of leadership. In this context, it is pertinent and relevant to classify the types of leadership.LEADERSHIP STYLES/TYPES:Traditionally there are three types of leadership - Dictatorial or Autocratic leadership, Democratic or Participative leadership and Delegative or Free reign leadership. In the case of the autocratic leadership, the leader takes decisions of his own based on his gut feeling and intuition and orders the execution of his instructions. And the followers have to accept and execute whether they like the same or not. There are no consultations or discussions with subordinates in this style. And in the case of any debacle he is held solely responsible for his actions and instructions. That is the reason it is also called as dictatorial style and it is unique in military organizations.In democratic leadership, the leader consults with his subordinates on various occasions and takes them into confidence. A consensus is generated after weighing the pros and cons of the matter. Entire team is held responsible either for success or failure of the decision making. Since many key heads are involved in decision making it is called as democratic type of leadership.Thirdly, in the delegative style of leadership, the decision making is delegated by the leader to his subordinates. The second in command takes the decision and executes. Even if there is any failure, the leader is held responsible as he delegated the decision making power to his lieutenant. It is also known as free reign leadership. All leaders make use of all the three styles and types as per the situation. It is not prudent to declare that a specific style is wrong.CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD LEADER:First and foremost quality of any leader is to have passion to lead the people and the passion to serve the people. Passion is nothing but a burning desire to contribute his best for the people without expecting any returns. Only when he is passionate he can ignite passion amongst his followers.He should have a vision and a common goal or objective for which people should have interest to come forward to realize the goals and objectives. Only when the vision is strong then the mission can be strong. He knows ‘where to go’ and he directs his followers continuously by showing ‘how to go’. He should be a self-motivator and only self motivators become self starters. He should be filled with strong convictions and should be highly motivated so that he can maintain higher levels of energy amongst his followers.Zig Zigler Zig said, 97 per cent people live in comfort zone and only 3 per cent of the people live in effective zone. The leaders always live in the effective zone and they get excited by being always in effective zone. They love to face challenges continuously. They continue shifting from one orbit to another at ease.Leaders always look for excellence not for perfection. They always look at the things positively and are firm optimists.They experiment a lot and make many mistakes and learn a lot from the same and for them every big fall is a big rise. They rise like phoenix. Robert Francis Kennedy rightly quoted, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly”.They are excellent networkers and thrive on network. Even if they fall they rise because of their strong network. And the network helps either because he has helped them in the past with altruism or because their network is fascinated with his altruistic and leadership style.They are men of integrity and strong character. They are very firm in their commitments and convictions. They have higher tolerance levels and have a positive bent of mind towards other people’s sentiments and cultures.They maintain stoic silence and display mental and emotional stability even in extreme provocations or failures. They are excellent listeners and listen to different people with different dimensions and yet maintain independent thinking in arriving at solutions.Good leaders always talk of positive things and make positive statements like ‘you can do it’, ‘it is possible’, ‘you will achieve big’ and so on. And they never make negative remarks like ‘it is impossible’, ‘it is doubtful’, ‘you can never improve’ etc.,They are open to change and they know very well that change is always constant. They become the champions of change and are very effective change masters.For them, success is not outsmarting others but setting their own goals and touching their upper limits. Once they reach their upper limits they raise the bar automatically and again touch their upper limits.They never beat around the bush and always stay focused. Neither can they be neither distracted nor diverted from their cherished goals and objectives. They know how to hit the bulls’ eye.They always radiate positive energy and are expert at visualizing opportunities from threats. They know how to capitalize on their strengths, how to overcome from their weaknesses, manage both the internal and external threats effectively and effectively and last but not the least they are good at spotting the opportunities.They strongly believe in others and trust their subordinates or followers. As trust begets trust, the leader in turn is trusted by his followers.They always look at the big picture. If a lay man thinks about the repercussions, implications and complications of a decision making just after a step. The leader thinks, imagines the same, number of stages and steps ahead based on his abilities in problem solving and also because of his experience.All great leaders are strong at communication skills. They mesmerize their followers with their oratorical skills and abilities and they continuously ignite and excite their followers to reach their goals.”Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other”, quoted John F. Kennedy. They learn and grow continuously. They regularly update their skills and abilities. Most of the great leaders are great readers. Apart from providing motivation and inspiration books also provide great ideas.Leaders create their own set of advisers and consult them whenever they are confronted with complicated situations. Their team of trusted advisors provides various comments and after having brainstorming discussions the right solution is arrived and the leaders adopt the same.They find out the unexplored and unexploited areas and they build up mindset, skills set, tools set so as to excel in those areas and people follow them as they are specialist in those area. They rarely follow the road and rather they make a road for their followers and leave a mark behind. In this context, it is apt to quote, “Don’t follow where path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”.Neither are they dominant nor submissive and are flexible and are assertive in their dealings. They respect people and love people and they do not hesitate to go extra mile to please their people.Leaders are socially adept and have social intelligence and they know the value of people and value of relations. John C.Maxwell rightly quoted, “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”.Leaders are sound at judgment. They know the strengths and weaknesses of their subordinates and utilize them according to their skills and abilities so as to meet the desired goals and objectives. They are smart at converting ordinary people as extraordinary people.They know how to balance their lives and good at leading balanced life. They have self discipline and do the things proactively without prompting of others. They move like a clock in a systematic and organized manner and are competent time managers.Leaders know how to motivate their followers and they know the knack of uncorking and unlocking the hidden potential amongst the people. It is aptly said, “A leader is someone who helps others do and become more than they ever thought possible. Leadership is about unlocking potential, whether individual potential or that of a group, company, or organization. It is not about telling people what to do, but inspiring them to see what they are capable of, then, helping them get there”.Good leaders are effective motivators and they understand the gravity of the situation and don the hat as per the situation and give their best to provide win-win situation for all without hurting anybody. They are excellent in persuasive skills, goal setting skills and soft skills.LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT:Both are closely related although there are a few basic differences.Peter F.Drucker said, “Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things”. It clearly demarcates the difference by saying that management deals with how efficiently the work is done and leadership deals with how effectively the work is done. Management insists on performance where as leadership talks about productivity.While leadership focuses more on vision the management lays stress on mission. While the leaders talk of where to reach the goals, the managers talk of how to reach. The leader derives power the manager acts as per the authority. When the manager provides the direction the leader sets the pace and speed. The manager always follow the road where as it is the leader who creates road. The manager is involved in execution while the leader is involved in delegation. It is the leader who is always the high risk taker where as the manager has limited risk to take.The manager always does the different things where as the leader does the things differently with his unconventional attitude. The manager is with in the hierarchy where as the leader is the creator of the hierarchy. Ultimately to put it in a nut shell, if the manager puts efforts in climbing the ladder and it the role of the leader to see that the ladder is on the right side of the wall. To sum it up in the words of Stephen R.Covey, “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall”.Fed Express Corporation, the world’s largest express transportation company believes in nurturing the leadership skills of its employees. Any one aspiring to become a leader has to undergo LEAP (Leadership Evaluation and Assessment Process) test. All organizations are laying emphasis on leadership development programs and many companies are conducting workshops on Leadership in order to enhance productivity and performance in this cut throat competitive world.HOW TO CULTIVATE LEADERSHIP QUALITIES?• Take someone you love the most and the one who is successful and when you remember him you get ignited spontaneously as your role model and learn to behave like a leader. Of course, you make mistakes and people have reached to the level of leadership after learning a lot from their mistakes.• Possess passion to become a leader because leadership is more of a state of mind than that of an action and again more of an action than that of theory. Participate in group activities and slowly you develop the skills. Whenever there is an opportunity to organize group activities like functions, seminars, meetings take proactive posture. Involvement is essential.• Visualize yourself as a successful leader standing on the top of the world with so many followers around you applauding you. This visualization will motivate you to strive towards building leadership qualities.• Read number of motivational books, biographies and autobiographies of great leaders across the world, you learn new ideas and concepts and try to put the same which were untried and unexplored.• Have clarity of mind and approach because it is leader who should first understand the way, should go the same way thereby paving the path for his followers.• Always cultivate and inculcate the in built attitude like what best can you give to people not what can you get from the people.• Never shy away from shouldering responsibilities. Given the opportunity, shoulder the responsibilities and you can learn many lessons out of it.• You need to display constant levels of energy and enthusiasm and must take initiative in all your endeavors.• Knowing in depth about your field or areas of study will provide you the arms and ammunition like competence; confidence and courage which over a period of time make you rise from the rest. Having knowledge in your chosen area along with integrity will bring effective results as both are coupled. Failure to bring synergy between these two will prove to be a great disaster. In this context, Samuel Johnson aptly said, “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless. And knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful”.• M.K.Gandhi became a Mahatma Gandhi only by involving himself in the freedom movement and by moving along with common people and he motivated the people to participate in the freedom movement. He won success because he practiced what he preached. He was a Karma yogi. You have to be part of the people in order to motivate, inspire and provide a right kind of direction.• You need to display a lot of endurance because things will not go as per your plans. At times, problems crop up due to your internal forces and factors which can be manageable up to certain extent and the problems do arise due to external forces and factors and endurance is an imperative in this context.• Develop emotional intelligence as this trait will help you get along with people and develop social adjustment. Enhance edge and this will toughen you mentally very strong. And when the going gets touch, the tough gets going. Develop perseverance and move like a marathoner because you know where you are going and why you are going.• Conduct SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis. It is a wonderful tool and by this you can analyze your strengths and weaknesses which will help you to maximize your strengths and minimizes your weaknesses. Manage the most of your time in capitalizing your strengths and less of your time in converting your weaknesses into strengths and the least of your time in delegating the weaknesses that can not be overcome to your subordinates.• Whenever you are wedded with success share the same and pass on to your team members and followers. No leader attained success by himself independently. Whenever success comes it comes purely because of collective efforts, team efforts and all the people involved in the movement.• Last but not the least never misuse your authority for your personal ends or to settle your scores with your rivals. Never let down the trust and confidence of your followers. So far in the history of mankind, no followers let down their leaders but it is only a few leaders who let down their followers.CONCLUSION: Leadership is a skill not a talent which can be acquired by reading, learning, training, continuous practice and experience. Every one should know that leaders are not born but are made due to external environment and circumstances. The road to leadership is not an easy but an uphill and an Herculean task. Anybody can become a leader but everybody can not become a leader. The leaders lead their lives with lot of struggles and sacrifices and they live larger than life even after their death because they live more in the hearts of the people rather than in the minds of the people.MESSAGE:More than half of all CEOs of all Fortune 500 companies had an average academic educational background. The boss of Microsoft, Mr. Bill Gates is a college drop out and also the boss of Dell Corp, Mr. Michael Dell is also a college drop out. Half of all millionaire entrepreneurs never finished their college. But what made all of them to tick as leaders? The answer is a simple 7 letter word, - PASSION. It is the first and last eligibility to attain the status of a 6 letter word – LEADER.http://www.citehr.com/102725-leaders-born-made.html

Pakistan’s Dr Nuke bids for the presidency

Pakistan’s Dr Nuke bids for the presidency
The ‘rogue scientist’ blamed for selling bomb secrets has strong popular support, writes his confidant
Simon Henderson
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After the resignation of Pervez Musharraf, who will be the next president of Pakistan? A controversial politician such as Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, or a nonpolitical figure? If the latter, it might, just might, be the detained nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Last week a group of lawyers in the Pakistani city of Lahore marched in support of Khan’s candidacy. His actual election, requiring a majority vote in the national assembly, would shock the world, which was aghast at revelations, four years ago, that Khan had sold nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. But it would be justice of sorts.
Khan was not a rogue agent selling centrifuges to enrich uranium – and enrich himself. He was a loyal and obedient servant of a succession of military and political regimes in Islamabad. Generals and prime ministers traded his talents, which also included making an atomic bomb and two different missiles capable of carrying it, for a range of diplomatic and political favours.
That, at least, is his story. He has been telling it to me for more than a year, correcting what he regards as the falsehoods and errors in the books published about him. Their authors never managed to contact Khan so relied on the claims of his detrac-tors. But, circumventing his guards, I did manage to reach him and made a simple request: tell me your version. I have hundreds of thousands of his words, as well as letters, photographs and video. My biography of him is nearly complete.
Khan’s fall from grace was spectacular. Twice awarded Pakistan’s highest honour for leading the teams that created the country’s nuclear strike force, he was forced to make a televised confession about his proliferation activities – and take all the blame himself. For four years he has been confined to his Islamabad home. Yet in neighbouring rival India, A P J Abdul Kalam, seen as Khan’s counterpart and popularly known as “the missile man”, went on to serve as his nation’s president from 2002 to 2007.
The political demise of Musharraf still leaves several obstacles to Khan’s rehabilitation, never mind his election as head of state. There are many people who do not want the real story to emerge. Musharraf himself said in June that the true story “is a confidential issue . . . a very serious matter, as Pakistan may suffer”.
Within Pakistan, Khan’s successes – and impatience with bureaucratic obstacles and rivals – caused much envy and anger. For three decades a sub-plot of the country’s nuclear programme was the antagonism between the Khan Research Laboratories and the country’s official nuclear authority, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.
Pakistani leaders encouraged rivalry between the teams trying to make highly enriched uranium and the other nuclear explosive, plutonium. Khan’s team won. His team was also the recipient of a gift from China of a design for an atomic bomb and enough highly enriched uranium for two devices, after Beijing decided to back Khan to jump-start Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. I remember being told about China’s nuclear generosity by an outraged British official in the 1980s. I later asked what Beijing had received in return. It was an enrichment plant.
The plant is at Hanzhong in central China. C-130 Hercules transports of the Pakistan air force made more than 100 flights to China carrying centrifuge equipment. Beijing needed the plant, not for bombs but to fuel its nuclear power plants. Centrifuge technology is good for both levels of enrichment, hence the current concern that Iran’s nascent plant at Natanz has a military purpose. China could not make the Pakistan-supplied centrifuges work properly, so replaced them with Russian centrifuges. What happened to the Pakistani centrifuges? A good question. They were not returned to Pakistan. Could they have ended up in Iran?
Pakistani nuclear cooperation with Iran began after a visit from Ali Khamenei, then Iran’s president and now supreme leader, in 1986. The collaboration was ordered by President Zia ul-Haq, then Pakistan’s military dictator who, five years earlier, had publicly declared that Pakistan would “acquire [nuclear technology] . . . even if we have to beg, borrow or steal [it]”.
Many outsiders first heard of Khan after Colonel Gadaffi’s sudden announcement in 2003 that Libya was giving up its weapons of mass destruction programmes. Foreign businessmen who had supplied Khan had been commissioned by the Libyans to build an enrichment plant. The whole deal had been instigated by Bhutto, assassinated in December 2007, but, confronted by the US, Musharraf blamed Khan, prompting the nuclear scientist’s arrest and incarceration. The explanation suited Washington which, post 9/11, needed Pakistan’s help to fight Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and stop the use of sanctuaries in the border region.
Apart from Iran and Libya, the other main sin laid at Khan’s door is North Korea. Having built an atomic bomb for Pakistan by 1984, Khan had no means of being able to deliver it. One version was adapted for use by Pakistan’s American-supplied F-16 fighter bombers; another was put on the Ghaznavi missile, the first Pakistan-produced version of China’s M-11 rocket. It was not until Khan won authorisation to buy manufacturing rights for North Korea’s No-dong missile that Pakistan had a missile capable of reaching nearly all of neighbouring India, which had first tested a bomb in 1974.
The North Korean missile, known in Pakistan as the Ghauri (and, in Iran, as the Shehab-3), was manufactured at the Kahuta enrichment facility outside Islamabad. While at Kahuta, North Korean scientists helped fit the nuclear warhead to the Ghauri and also learnt about centrifuges.
In his biography, Musharraf said Khan had shipped examples of centrifuges to North Korea. Correct, but with the connivance and at the instruction of the Pakistan military. North Korea now probably has a functioning enrichment plant but has not admitted its existence to US diplomats negotiating the country’s de-nuclearisa-tion. It is already sitting on a stockpile of highly enriched uranium courtesy of Sta-lin, the Soviet leader.
Musharraf’s depiction of Khan as a rogue agent, and the international acceptance of this tale, had led to moments of farce. To the bemusement of foreign officials, one of the officials sent to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, had been involved in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission’s own clandestine purchasing network.
The notion that Khan might be a credible candidate to be Pakistan’s next president will cause apoplexy for many in Washington DC. But President Bush’s officials realise that, denied access to Khan, they had to rely on the version of what he did supplied to them by Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
A postscript: Khan’s activities give a new explanation for the crash of President Zia’s C-130 plane in 1988, in which Arnold Raphel, the US ambassador, and General Herbert Wassom, head of the military mission, also died. Wing Commander Mash’hood Hassan, the plane’s pilot, had also been flying Khan’s centrifuge equipment to China. On one such trip he confided in a colleague of Khan that he hated Zia, holding him responsible for the murder of a local religious leader: “The day Zia flies with me, that will be his last flight.” The aircraft plummeted to the ground soon after taking off, killing all on board. From The Sunday Times

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