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More on Khan confession
Requires registration for full articleThe founder of Pakistanâs nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has signed a detailed confession admitting that during the last 15 years he provided Iran, North Korea and Libya with the designs and technology to produce the fuel for nuclear weapons, according to a senior Pakistani official and three Pakistani journalists who attended a special government briefing here on Sunday night. In a two-and-a-half-hour presentation to 20 Pakistani journalists, a senior government official gave an exhaustive and startling account of how Dr. Khan, a national hero, spread secret technology to three countries that have been striving to produce their own nuclear arsenals. Two of them, Iran and North Korea, were among those designated by President Bush as part of an "axis of evil." If the Pakistani government account is correct, Dr. Khanâs admission amounts to one of the most complex and successful efforts to evade international controls to stop nuclear proliferation. Itâs also just a coincidence that all of the countries involved are allies of China, and China provided significant assistance to Pakistanâs nuclear program. Move along, nothing to see here. The account provided by Pakistan on Sunday night came after years in which the government strongly denied that it or scientists at the Khan Research Laboratories had given crucial technology to other nations. Dr. Khan said he shared the technology because he thought the emergence of more nuclear states would ease Western attention on Pakistan, the senior official told journalists. He also said he thought it would help the Muslim cause. And his bank account. The Bush administration offered no public comment on the Pakistani announcement on Sunday. But in recent weeks, administration officials have said that they forced the government of President Pervez Musharraf to confront the evidence, after Iran and Libya made disclosures that showed their reliance on Pakistani-supplied technology. "This is the break we have been waiting for," a senior American official said. But the account provided by Pakistani officials carefully avoided pinning any blame on General Musharraf, the army or the Pakistani intelligence service, despite the fact that some of the material â especially what was sent to North Korea â appeared to have been transported on government cargo planes. Pakistani and American officials have said senior Pakistani Army officials would have known if nuclear hardware had been shipped out of a tightly guarded nuclear facility. The senior official told journalists that all nuclear transfers ceased after General Musharraf established a new National Command Authority to oversee the countryâs nuclear arsenal in early 2002. But according to American accounts, the nuclear transfers to Libya continued through last fall. Those pesky rogues again The senior Pakistani official said Dr. Khan transferred nuclear weapons-related designs, drawings and components to Iran between 1989 and 1991, according to the three journalists. He transferred nuclear technology to North Korea and Libya between 1991 and 1997, they said, though American officials believe that the transfers to Libya continued until just four months ago. Dr. Khan also transferred additional technology to North Korea until 2000, the Pakistanis said. That is particularly significant because North Korea has denied, as recently as last month, that it has a secret uranium enrichment project under way, in addition to the plutonium project at Yongbyon that the C.I.A. believes has already produced several weapons. Details from Dr. Khanâs confession, if made available from the United States, could have a major effect on the negotiations to disarm North Korea, American officials said. All these dirt poor dictatorships, with nothing better to spend billions of dollars on than nuclear weapons that will alllow them to continue looting their own countries in safety. According to the Pakistani account, centrifuges came from a factory in Malaysia that had been built by a Sri Lankan identified as "Tahir," who was one of several middlemen Dr. Khan used to spread the technology. The Pakistani official said, and American officials confirmed, that Tahir was in government custody in Malaysia. Centrifuge components made in Malaysia were intercepted en route to Libya in October, American officials said. The other middlemen were three Germans identified by the senior official only by their last names â "Brummer," "Heinz," and "Liech" â the journalists said. A Dutch citizen identified by Pakistani officials as "Hanks" was also described as a middleman, though American intelligence officials believe that Hank is his first name. The man is believed to have some connection to Urenco, the European conglomerate where Dr. Khan once worked. Am I the only one suprised that no ex-Soviet scientists have turned up anywhere in all this? Posted by: Paul Moloney 2004-02-03 |
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