Do Arab States Already Have the Bomb?

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Do Arab States Already Have the Bomb?

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Dateline:  July 27, 2008. Southern California, The West Coast Midnight Run

In the last decade attention has been so stiff in the media on North Korea and Iran's nuclear development.  The International Atomic Agency has been working hard in sniffing out Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities and the United States has been on and off with diplomacy in reaching an agreement with Pyongyang.

In all of the hustle and bustle it seems the media may have missed on pointing out the possibility that arab states, be it Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia may already have in their possession, under the veil, nuclear strike weapons.

As an independent contractor in the late 1990's  in Saudi Arabia, I was working for an investment banking concern, a joint-venture of American, Japanese and Saudi financial powerhouses.  The head of the Treasury was American, the head of the Corporate Banking Unit was an English chap and many of the frontline corporate banking executives handling the international desks were foreign nationals, Europeans and Americans.  But those behind the frontlines were vastly Pakistani and Indian, highly educated and extremely capable.

It may only be a secret to most Americans who already know this as a fact but do not factor it in their every day analysis of political issues.  Pakistan is a break-away state of India.  The heritage and culture is Indian.   The difference is that they are largely Muslim.  Saudi Arabia has set itself up as silent supporter of Pakistan and in my brief stay in Saudi, Indians were visibly uneasy about the manner in which Pakistanis were getting more favorable treatment.  More and more Pakistanis were being hired, slowly replacing skilled Indian labor.

I had an Indian senior colleague at the bank and he took a very circuitous route in getting his point across in  a series of lunch meetings at restaurants (as you can imagine public commentary in Saudi Arabia is highly self policed since you never know who might be sitting at the table across).

In the late 1990s India tested its nuclear bombs,  and to all apparent onlookers it was only briefly thereafter, a blip in time, before Pakistan followed suit with its own demonstration of its nuclear weapons capabilities.  So the intelligent question for lack of intelligence is:  before Pakistan removed its veil and showed off its hydrogen smile and teeth, did it possibly have a few of these wonder babies smuggled to Saudi, Syria, or Afghanistan for safe keeping?

Here we are in 2008, despite tremendous and exhaustive efforts at our borders we still are prickly at our ability to control what comes through our ports (check the latest TV mini-series the Andromeda Strain for a passing political commentary on this issue).  If we are having trouble policing our own ports how much luck do we have in policing the ports in third world countries and around the straits of Yemen and the Persian Gulf

Never mind that in 2006 a political storm broke out over the United Arab Emirates deal that purchased the management of six port authorities right here in the United States.  We all know that the political motivations of countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are like night and day.  So what were we so concerned about back then?

And while in the past few years the American viewer has been blitzed with CNN's reports and Fox News coverage on North Korea and Iran's Unholy intentions, all proverbial eyes and collective focus has been off Saudi Arabia and its sponsorship of some developing states in Asia.  This is not an accusative finger on Saudi Arabia.  Most media outlets when they refer to Saudi Arabia they are referring to it as the "poster boy/poster state" of highly active nationalistic Muslim Arab states.

This report is not a condemnation of their activities in their lands but a question mark about our own media vigilance and the manner in which we sometimes omit the most obvious of factors in pursuing coverage of international issues.

Should we start factoring in the very highly likely possibility that the Arab states are already nuclear weapons capable?  Forget about Iran for a moment.  Iran is not Arab from a cultural standpoint.  Iran just like Afghanistan or Turkey are non-arabic, Asian states whose connection to the Middle East is created in the mind of the viewer through media reporting and their Islamic religious affiliations.

What about Arab states?  Was the Pakistani nuclear test performed with a nod from them so they can gage the level of reactionary response from the International community towards non-nuclear proliferation?   Israel for all practical reasons has its nuclear weapons arsenal but continues to deny it so it can avoid embarrassing the United States.

Being a friendly state and ally of the USA, the question would be how come Israel has not signed the non-proliferation treaty?  And that's how come Israel plays the game of denial so as to avoid this potentially undesirable position.

For the past several years, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and India have been steadily improving their payload delivery systems and in plain view of the international community.  How long before the next news "bomb" explodes and we hear unconfirmed reports a la Israel that Syria or Lebanon's Hizbollah have long range nuclear strike missiles?

So are the arab states keeping their nuclear arsenal a secret?  Have we set sail for parts unknown on some misguided crusade in the "ABC" Lyin in the Sand theater of games and plays?  (not to be confused with Peter Jennings', RIP, had us in stitches with his reports on Desert Shield and Desert Storm).  Has the dark night already dawned on one of the most sunny parts of the planet?  We can't wait for the next exciting, read exiting, episode of "Leave IT to the Beaver but not the Believer". 

Mike Gomez/Peter Maertin

Editorial Chief/Sr. Programs Director

The West Coast Midnight Run™

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