President Bush’s National Emergency – is it yours?

“By Presidential Executive Order, we’re living in a state of national emergency.

Because the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, the national emergency first declared on November 14, 1994, must continue in effect beyond November 14, 2006. In accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12938, as amended.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

GEORGE W. BUSH

THE WHITE HOUSE,

October 27, 2006. [emphasis added]

Betcha didn’t know that..

The most egregious nuclear proliferator on the face of this planet is Pakistan, in the person of A.Q. Khan.

Khan’s network provided nuclear technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.

Much as President Musharraf would like to claim that Mr. Khan’s efforts were after hours and on his own dime, the North Korean transaction involved not the payment of cash to Mr. Khan’s private bank account but the delivery of North Korean No Dong missiles and technology to the Pakistan government.

Awkward.

Makes it look like the Pakistan government was proliferating nuclear weapons technology-the type of activity that, if Kim Jung Il’s experience was any guide, would provoke the formation of a worldwide alliance to destabilize and if possibly destroy the culprit’s regime, at the very least cut off its supply of cash and cognac, etc. etc. etc.

But since Pakistan is our ally in the war on terror, the nature of the transaction-and the character of the crime-were neatly reversed.

As the Bush administration saw it, the offense was North Korea’s supply of the missiles to Pakistan…and the fact that they got paid for them with nuclear weapons equipment and technology was of secondary importance.

Actually, it was no laughing matter.

The State Department had to step up and pre-emptively define the transaction as a missile purchase and sanction Khan’s laboratories itself. Otherwise, Pakistan would have been vulnerable to much more serious, legislative sanction-a total cutoff of aid under the Solarz Amendment–as a proliferator….”

More juicy analysis by China Hand at Counterpunch...

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