N.J. Man Faces Charges in Nuclear Case (Blueprints to N. Korea)

[Whoa_Nelly]

N.J. Man Faces Charges in Nuclear Case

Saturday November 1, 2003 4:46 AM


By LARRY NEUMEISTER

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - An engineer was arrested Friday on charges that he sent off blueprints for critical nuclear-plant parts knowing they might be headed for North Korea.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan accused Sitaraman Ravi Mahadevan, 40, of Marlton, N.J., of shipping blueprints for valves to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Inc. in New York, knowing they might be sent to North Korea.

Mahadevan allegedly shipped six packages containing approximately 90 blueprints to Mitsubishi, one of the contractors responsible for constructing the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization's nuclear plant in North Korea, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the export of the valves or their blueprints to any nuclear facility in North Korea without a valid government export license is prohibited.

more...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3334867,00.html

[berry]

1. They don't say anything about Mitsubishi---

like who inside that company was supposed to receive the docs, presumably agreed to. It'd be good to know too if Mahadevan owns that company or is just an employee. And if he applied for a license when he tried to send stuff to India, that's not very sneaky. Well, OK, let's say he's a villain. Mitsubishi does work with India too. How do they know the plans were meant for N Korea?

Maybe they'll update this sketchy article later. Or maybe we'll never hear any more about it. Maybe they're trying to set up "evidence" that N Korea was trying to buy nuclear materials, not from some little country in Africa, but brazenly from the US itself!! (Am I being too suspicious? probably....)

There's something odd too about Mitsubishi helping N Korea go nuclear (IF that's what's happening). Unless it's a rogue employee, I guess.

This article has driven me crazy--I want to know more. I have no problem with the goal of non-proliferation--I just doubt the uses to which such bits of "information" have been (and are being?) put by the warmongers in the WH and DoD.