Home India World Religion Dewanism Hinduism Christianity Islam Technology Gaschamber Literature Poetry Love Youtube Pictures Trash Hindu links Main links Forum links Publishing Public Letters Guestbook00 Disclaimer Contact

Critical Podium Dewanand

Islam

U.S. Knew of Pakistan Nuclear Dealings for at Least Seven Years

Sacrificer           Brian Ross
Sacrifice code       wfor0193
Sacrifice date       march 2004


Black Market Nuke Trade
U.S. Knew of Pakistan Nuclear Dealings for at Least Seven Years
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/pakistan_nuclear_wea
pons_040304-1.html

  • http://abcnews.go.com
  • By Brian Ross


    March 4 - The United States had knowledge of a network of black
    market nuclear proliferation from Pakistan to countries accused of
    supporting terrorists for at least seven years before it was
    publicly exposed, ABCNEWS has learned.

    What U.S., British and U.N. investigators found was that a company
    in Pakistan was prepared to sell everything needed to make a nuclear
    bomb - plans, equipment and fuel - for $50 million, with no
    questions asked about how it might be used.

    The one-stop nuclear package was even advertised at a Pakistani arms
    show in 2000, where the company handed out brochures to visitors,
    including a reporter for Jane's Defense Weekly.

    "[The company] gave out two very glossy brochures, inside of which
    they promised to provide all of the components needed for a uranium-
    enrichment facility," reporter Andrew Koch said.

    Behind it all: the now-infamous Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of
    Pakistan's nuclear program, who confessed last month to selling
    nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Investigators say he
    made millions running the operation.

    "I think that now we have to confront the reality that there's a
    nuclear black market, a Wal-Mart, in effect, of nuclear smuggling
    and it covers four continents, a dozen countries, lots of inventive
    behavior," said Graham Allison, director of Harvard University's
    Center for Science and International Affairs.

    Officials say it was a far-flung operation. A factory in Malaysia
    was set up to make the high-speed gas centrifuge parts that are used
    to produce weapons-grade uranium. The son of Malaysia's prime
    minister was one of the factory's owners.

    "I did not talk with him on this subject. It is entirely my son's
    business," said Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed Badawi.

    Network Extended to Europe

    The black market's trail stretched all the way to Europe. U.S.
    officials say a key to the black market was a small, family-run
    company in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen.

    It was there, officials say, that Swiss engineers helped to design
    14 key parts of the centrifuge sent to Libya to produce the bomb's
    fuel, enriched uranium.

    Investigators say Urs Tinner, one of the engineers, took the designs
    to the Malaysian factory and supervised manufacturing.

    Tinner, who admits his father has been connected to Kahn for more
    than a decade, said he had no idea the work he did was connected to
    the nuclear black market.

    "We make parts like, let's say, every other company in Switzerland,"
    he told ABCNEWS. "Mechanical shops. It is always the same."

    But U.S. officials say Tinner's operation was a lot more than just
    another Swiss machine shop.

    "He was the key sparkplug to make sure that these 14 types of
    centrifuge components were made and then delivered. And then [he
    would] clean up the operation, take out all the centrifuge
    drawings," said David Albright, president of the Institute for
    Science and International Security in Washington, D.C.

    U.S. Knew for at Least Seven Years

    It turns out that the United States has known about Khan's nuclear
    dealings for at least seven years.

    Documents obtained by ABCNEWS show the U.S. had enough evidence in
    1997 to put his company, Khan Research Laboratory, on a kind of U.S.
    blacklist for suspected illegal activity. The U.S. Commerce
    Department barred American companies from selling Khan's company any
    materials that might have nuclear or military applications.

    The special restrictions raises the question now of how, since that
    time, Kahn was able to make nuclear deals with Libya and Iran
    without U.S. detection.

    And Kahn's scientists, according to investigators, were also able to
    meet with Osama bin Laden without being detected by the United
    States.

    Whatever the United States knew about Kahn, it clearly did not
    aggressively pursue him through both the Clinton and the Bush
    administrations.

    Secretary of State Colin Powell said today: "I think we're learning
    a great deal more about the network, and we're tracing the network
    to all of [Khan's] various customers and all of the different parts
    of the network infrastructure. I think we have pretty much taken
    apart the network in the sense that it isn't going to be doing that
    much in the future, and we're going to work to pull up everything we
    know about it from the past."

    But Albright considers it to be a big intelligence failure.

    "I mean, if the intelligence community is charged with finding out
    this kind of information, then the United States intelligence
    failed," he said.


    ***


    Home India World Religion Dewanism Hinduism Christianity Islam Technology Gaschamber Literature Poetry Love Youtube Pictures Trash Hindu links Main links Forum links Publishing Public Letters Guestbook00 Disclaimer Contact

    Critical Podium Dewanand

    Islam
    All rights reserved.