Historically, the Pashtuns have had little inclination to expand their jihad abroad. They will, however, provide sanctuary and jihadi incubation centers to "Al Qaeda" and assorted Islamic terror groups. After the Soviet presence ended, foreign fighters from the Afghan theatre went on to inspire havoc in Bosnia, Kosovo, Dagestan, Chechnya, Somalia, Yemen, Bali, London, Mumbai and, most famously, New York on Sept 11.
Similar Nato dalliances with these jihadis ended up with the creation of two Balkan entities endowed with the freedom to traffic drugs, arms and white slaves throughout Europe.[2] These failed entities were the inspiration behind Liam Neeson's thriller Taken.
The media, however, had consistently portrayed Bosnian and Kosovo thugs as the "good guys" liberated by Nato. Heroin from Afghanistan routinely ends up in the Balkans for redistribution throughout Europe and the United States.
Opium crops in the Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul provinces constitute a $300 million annual tax bonanza for the Taliban. The warlords profiting from this poppy revolution are in Kabul, in the "democratic" government of President Hamid Karzai. If Nato needs a fantasy that it brought "freedom" to Afghanistan, these gentlemen provide both the veneer and, needless to say, the opiate.
It is a known fact that "drugs are a multi-billion-dollar business in Afghanistan, accounting for a staggering half of the country's economic output. That is an export value of $3.4bn in 2008 alone." [3]
Coalition forces have neither the will, the manpower nor the funding to fight this war. If containers of drugs perennially sneak through NATO's eyes in the sky, on the ground and over ports, a few disassembled nuke components should escape detection.
Pakistan is doing its part.
"Without any public U.S. reproach, Pakistan is building two of the developing world's largest plutonium production reactors, which experts say could lead to improvements in the quantity and quality of the country's nuclear arsenal, now estimated at 60 to 80 (estimates vary) weapons." [4]
The French found this idea romantic. According to a Xinhua news report, French President Nicolas Sarkozy just agreed to a civilian nuclear cooperation with Islamabad. He was reportedly convinced that "what can be done for India can be done for Pakistan as well."[5]
Sarkozy was referring to the recent Indo-US nuclear accord. A nuke, however, is not a mistress. Both can be costly and incendiary, no doubt, but they are not the same.
He is due to clinch the deal with Pakistan in September, assuming for a moment that Pakistan remains intact until then.
Taliban's Potential Nukes
With militants rampaging closer to their comfort zones, the Pakistanis remain unfazed. They are on the verge of completing two nuclear facilities near the town of Khushab, 110 miles south of Islamabad.
If you look at the map, Khushab is closer to militant Pashtun strongholds to its west in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP).
The buffer zone happens to be the north-south contiguous Punjab districts of Mianwali and Bhakkar. That's it! If a Pashtun insurgency flares up all over the NWFP, and infiltration begins in the heavily militarized Khushab district, the Pakistanis might safely relocate their nukes by lobbing them over to India.
It was in Khushab that a notable meeting was held a month before Sept 11. Former head of the Khushab project Sultan Bashirrudan Mahmood and former head of the facility (for bomb design) Chaudri Andul Majeed met Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri for a campfire tutorial on nuclear weapons assemblage. Tea was served!
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