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| Kazakhstan Probes Nuclear Black Market |
| 2004-02-20 |
| Fred, I think we need a seperate Nuclear Black Market file. EFL: Kazakhstan has opened an investigation into the nuclear black market that helped Iran, Libya and North Korea, exploring suspected ties in the country that housed much of the Soviet Union’s atomic arsenal. Kazakhstan’s intelligence agency is examining the Almaty office of a Dubai company linked by President Bush to the market headed by the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, the officials said. Bush accused Sri Lankan businessman Bukhary Syed Abu Tahir of brokering black-market deals for nuclear technology using his Dubai-based company SMB Computers as a front. That firm also has an office in the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty. Well, isn’t that interesting. The Kazakh intelligence agency, the National Security Committee, is investigating allegations that SMB Computers’ affiliate was dealing with highly enriched uranium, spokesman Kenzhebulat Beknazarov said Thursday. "Upgrade now to Version U.235!" SMB Computers’ office in Almaty was closed Thursday. Tap, nope According to a receptionist in the building where the company rents a room, the only person who staffed the office hasn’t shown up there for a week. The receptionist said he had been planning to "wrap up business" and move out. "Feet, don’t fail me now!" The Dubai headquarters of SMB identified the head of its Almaty office as Shaul Hameed, but said they didn’t have any further contact details for him. "Well, he does head that office, but we don’t talk to him. In fact, we don’t see a lot of people who run this company." A receptionist there said "our company has nothing to do with this," regarding allegations of nuclear smuggling. Honey, I’d be looking for a new job. And I’d consider not putting SMB on my resume. Bush named SMB Computers’ owner Tahir as a key link in a clandestine network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan. Tahir was described as the network’s chief financial officer, money launderer and shipping agent - using the firm as a cover to ship parts for centrifuges, used to enrich uranium. Tahir has been telling Malaysian police much the same thing about Khan. Kazakhstan transferred all its Soviet nuclear warheads to Russia by April 1995, and destroyed its nuclear testing infrastructure at the major Semipalatinsk weapons test site by July 2000. About 1,320 pounds of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium was removed to the United States from the Ulba Metallurgy Plant in 1994. Yet the Central Asian nation still holds weapons-grade nuclear material, including 3.3 tons of plutonium at a mothballed breeder reactor in the country’s west, and small amounts of highly enriched uranium at two nuclear research institutes, according to the Web site of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S.-based foundation. Need to get that stuff out of there. Still, Kazakh nuclear officials denied the chance of any weapons-grade uranium leaks. "It is impossible to illegally take any uranium out of Kazakhstan," said Shinar Zhanibekova, spokeswoman for Kazakhstan’s national atomic energy company, KazAtomProm. "It’s inconceivable!" The Atomic Energy Committee, which grants licenses for the export of nuclear materials, said it had never done any business with SMB Computers and never granted it a license. Thanks, I feel so much better. Kazakhstan has 30 percent of the world’s uranium reserves and is the fourth biggest uranium producer, according to KazAtomProm. She said all uranium exports from the country were monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, and tightly controlled by Kazakh nuclear and security agencies. So much for feelin better A Europe-based Western diplomat working on issues of nuclear proliferation questioned the reliability of Kazakh safeguards for its nuclear assets. "Nobody can pretend that everything is perfectly secure," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. However, he had no further information on SMB Computers’ possible activities in Kazakhstan. "I can say no more" |
| Posted by:Steve |