"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
According to a former CIA analyst, China supplied nuclear ballistic missiles to Saudi Arabia early in the George W. Bush administration.
According to The Washington Post’s SpyTalk blog:
“I believe the People’s Republic of China delivered a turn-key nuclear ballistic missile system to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the course of several years beginning no later than December 2003,” writes Jonathan Scherck in a self-published book, “Patriot Lost,” which he provided to SpyTalk on Monday…
“Based on the author’s knowledge of U.S. satellite imagery spanning this time period, along with first-hand accounts of revealing interactions between Cheney’s office and CIA management,” a press release says, “Patriot Lost details how — out of political expediency amidst the war in Iraq — the Bush White House opted not to intervene in an oil-for-nuclear weapons pact between the Chinese government and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This heavily shrouded deal and Washington’s shocking complicity constituted a flagrant violation of the long-standing but crippled Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ratified decades ago under the Richard Nixon administration.”
But his manuscript provides little in the way of detailed evidence for his conclusions…
Over the years there have been constant reports on secret collaboration among China, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in nuclear and ballistic missile development.
This book sounds like a work of fiction by a disgruntled former CIA analyst. If it is not the ramifications are world-changing: a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, Arab nuclear-tipped missiles that could hit Israel, continued flagrant violation by China of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, greater competition with China than previously understood for Saudi Arabia’s oil and “friendship”, to list a few. Such an alleged deal might also help explain why the Chinese do not seem too concerned about Iran’s efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
I certainly hope that Mr. Scherck and his story will be quickly and convincingly discredited.
Please tell me what you think in the comments.
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