As Nuclear Secrets Emerge, More Are Suspected

[seemslikeadream]

By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
New York Times

When experts from the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency came upon blueprints for a 10-kiloton atomic bomb in the files of the Libyan weapons program earlier this year, they found themselves caught between gravity and pettiness.

The discovery gave the experts a new appreciation of the audacity of the rogue nuclear network led by A. Q. Khan, a chief architect of Pakistan's bomb. Intelligence officials had watched Dr. Khan for years and suspected that he was trafficking in machinery for enriching uranium to make fuel for warheads. But the detailed design represented a new level of danger, particularly since the Libyans said he had thrown it in as a deal-sweetener when he sold them $100 million in nuclear gear.

"This was the first time we had ever seen a loose copy of a bomb design that clearly worked," said one American expert, "and the question was: Who else had it? The Iranians? The Syrians? Al Qaeda?"

But that threat was quickly overshadowed by smaller questions.

The experts from the United States and the I.A.E.A., the United Nations nuclear watchdog - in a reverberation of their differences over Iraq's unconventional weapons - began quarreling over control of the blueprints. The friction was palpable at Libya's Ministry of Scientific Research, said one participant, when the Americans accused international inspectors of having examined the design before they arrived. After hours of tense negotiation, agreement was reached to keep it in a vault at the Energy Department in Washington, but under I.A.E.A. seal.
more
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041226/ZNYT03/412260418

[acmavm]

1. I suppose I'm letting my mind drift a little too far out into the waters,

but I find myself wondering if the Valerie Plame thing could be in any way connected with all of this. I thought I read something on here once where there were certain links to a certain company (cough cough Halliburton cough cough) and sales of equipment to the Pak government back around that time. Could someone have been getting a bit too close to this and found some links? I mean, there's got to be a reason why one of the biggest and scariest guys on the planet is simply under house arrest instead of in front of a firing squad. (No, no, no, I'm talking about Gen. Khan sillies.)

[seemslikeadream]

2. I thought so too when I first read about this

S.Africa arrests two on WMD charges(Abdul Qadeer Khan link)
Thu 9 September, 2004 10:58

By Ed Stoddard

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African police say two suspects have been arrested in a probe into violations of laws related to weapons of mass destruction (WMD), just one day after charges were dropped against another suspect.


Prosecutors dropped charges on Wednesday against a local businessman. Engineer Johan Andries Muller Meyer, 53, was arrested last week under laws outlawing nuclear proliferation.


South Africa's Council for the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Destruction said on Tuesday it had seized 11 shipping containers of uranium enrichment material from Meyer's factory in Vanderbijlpark, 60 km (35 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.

Crucially, the council said the material it seized did not constitute weapons of mass destruction, although it could be used in the process to enrich uranium.

After Meyer's arrest, the United States said the case was linked to an international nuclear black market established in the 1980s by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme -- a charge dismissed by his lawyer.

more
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=580164

more
S.Africa arrests two on WMD charges(Abdul Qadeer Khan link)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=813182
Switzerland Opens Nuclear Investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=903185
South Africa Reports Critical Stage in Nuclear Black Market Probe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=829880
Suspect In High-Level WMD Smuggling Ring Disappears
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=818691
S.Africa probe may shed light on Iran nuke plans-UN
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=855300

[seemslikeadream]

3. Pakistan's Nuclear Hero Defended

Pakistan's Nuclear Hero Defended
by Jefferson Morley

"Washington and Islamabad," says the Delhi-based daily, are "holding their breath" to see if Khan "will spill the beans about Pakistan's offical complicity in the spread of nuclear weapons technology."

Pakistan proceeded to spend some $10 billion developing a nuclear arsenal, say the editors of the Times of India. The money came from Libya, Saudia Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and the depositors of the BCCI. The bank, says the editors of the Times of India, was founded by a Pakistani and operated freely in the Persian Gulf oil enclave of Dubai. It is inconceivable, they argue, that Western intelligence agencies didn't know all about this black market.

In other words, was the United States totally clueless while a Pakistani scientist supplied nuclear technology to Iran and North Korea.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8262-2004Feb3_2.html

[acmavm]

4. The United States totally clueless? Somehow I think that might be

the official line, but I don't think that everyone (cough cough Carlyle/Halliburton cough cough) were totally clueless.

[seemslikeadream]

5. If this planet blows to pieces this year, thank Khan Labs' and Bush

Khan Job: Bush Spiked Probe of Pakistan’s Dr. Strangelove, BBC reported in 2001
Monday, February 9, 2004

You may never have heard of Khan Laboratories, but if this planet blows to pieces this year, it will be thanks to Khan Labs' creating nuclear warheads for Pakistan's military. Because investigators had been tracking the funding for this so-called "Islamic Bomb" back to Saudi Arabia, under Bush security restrictions, the inquiry was stymied. (The restrictions were lifted, the agent told me without a hint of dark humor, on September 11.)

Noam Chomsky, who read the story on page one of the Times of India, has wondered, "Why wasn't it all over US papers?

.. A top-level CIA operative who spoke with us on condition of strictest anonymity said that, after Bush took office, "There was a major policy shift" at the National Security Agency. Investigators were ordered to "back off" from any inquiries into Saudi Arabian financing of terror networks, especially if they touched on Saudi royals and their retainers. That put the Bin Ladens, a family worth a reported $12 billion and a virtual arm of the Saudi royal household, off limits for investigation.

I probed our CIA contact for specifics of investigations that were hampered by orders to back off of the Saudis. He told us that Khan Laboratories investigation had been effectively put on hold.

more
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=312&row=0

[acmavm]

6. Thanks. That's one of the articles that I was thinking of. But I think

that there's another that talks about American corporations actually aiding the Paks directly in the development of their nuclear weapons arsenal and how they knew what was going on with Khan but kept dealing with the Paks anyway. Geez, wish I could find it.

[seemslikeadream]

8. Pakistani BCCI Foundation

"...the Pakistani BCCI Foundation was created as a means of sheltering BCCI profits from taxation. In 1981, it received tax-free status while Ishaq Khan was Pakistan's minister of finance. In turn, the foundation received BCCI's profits from Pakistani operations, and then used some of those profits to finance projects the Pakistani government wanted and could not pay for itself. For example, BCCI provided $10 million in grants in the late 1980's to finance an officially "private" science and technology institute named for Pakistani President Ishaq Khan, whose director, A. Qadir Khan, has been closely associated with Pakistan's efforts to build a nuclear bomb. The institute is believed by some experts to be the headquarters for Pakistan's efforts to build an Islamic bomb. In the same period, other BCCI officials were assisting Pakistanis in purchasing nuclear technologies paid for by Pakistani-front companies through BCCI-Canada.(94).."

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/05foreign.htm

I'm looking for this one
"On the Nuclear Edge," Sy Hersh, New Yorker, 1993

[oly]

7. People are surprised by this? Gambling in happeneing in the

cascino -- shocking, shocking I tell you. On a serious note, proliferation was an issue that many people were very concerned about through all of the second half of the 20th century (and before) -- that I lived through. These folks for the most part were marginalized -- crazy people, trouble makers, Luddites, tree huggers. Press doesn't notice. New issue for the two day news cycle.

[Moderator]

9. duplicate

locking - discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1098723