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Pakistan 'still doing illicit nuke deals'
THE clandestine nuclear "arms bazaar" network established bydisgraced Pakistani scientist A.Q.Khan remains intact and actively involved in the business of proliferating nuclear secrets, according to a major new report. The 170-page report, released yesterday by the prestigious, London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies, raises as many questions as it answers.
But as the most up-to-date account of the continuing fallout from Dr Khan's activities, it seems to go a long way towards confirming the most doleful assessments of the continuing impact of the wholesale proliferation of nuclear secrets by the rogue scientist and his cohorts.

The report - Nuclear Black Markets: Pakistan, AQKhan and the rise of proliferation networks - concludes Pakistan may still be involved in "illicit trading and smuggling" to procure equipment from black markets to run its nuclear program. It also warns that, having escaped law enforcement attention, the scientists could have resumed their black market business. There was no immediate official response from Pakistan.
"Lies, all lies!"
The country has consistently maintained that as soon as the extent of Dr Khan's activities were made known to President Pervez Musharraf in 2003, all aspects of the nuclear proliferation business were dismantled. Dr Khan, still a national hero in Pakistan, lives under what is claimed to be house arrest at his palatial home in the capital, Islamabad. But he is frequently visited by senior Pakistani leaders and the country has rebuffed repeated US requests to be allowed access to him so that the full detail of the arms bazaar network can be uncovered.

The report reiterates Dr Khan's insistence that "every army chief since General Zia ul-Haq" knew of his activities - an assertion disputed by General Musharraf, who has insisted he took decisive action the moment he was given evidence by the Americans that Dr Khan was involved in nuclear proliferation.

A senior security official in New Delhi said: "What these researchers appear to have concluded is that, far from the whole thing having ended when Khan was dismissed by Musharraf and forced to appear on television three years ago, the network he created remains intact and involved in the same sort of business.
"The damage that the Khan network did to global security in proliferating nuclear know-how to North Korea and Libya and Iran is bad in itself. "Given the report's conclusion, there must be a chance ofthem continuing to purvey nuclear secrets to all and sundry who want them, possibly even al-Qa'ida."

Yesterday, an author of the report told a London news conference that Dr Khan "may have been the deal-maker, but many of his contacts have been able to organise their own deals". IISS director-general John Chipman said yesterday the question of whether the Khan network had other customers was of "intense interest".

Similarly, what happened to the rest of the nuclear equipment that the Khan network had but did not send to Libya "is another major question remaining to be answered after the network was broken up, along with what other countries or non-state actors may also have received copies of nuclear weapon designs". According to Pakistani media reports yesterday, Dr Chipman said bomb designs were digitalised and copied on to computer disks at one of the Khan network offices in Dubai.

The report says Iran is now the most active customer in the international nuclear black market and has built a network that may be larger than Dr Khan's.
Posted by: Steve 2007-05-04
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=187552