A Pakistani businessman who has been linked to the illegal export from the US to Pakistan of high-speed switches has ties to the countryâs military, according to documents filed in an American court and interviews, the New York Times has reported. The switches can be used as triggers for nuclear weapons. An Israeli businessman, Asher Karni, who is accused of being a middleman in the nuclear black market worked to supply not only Pakistan but also its archrival India, the court records indicated. South Africa-based Asher Karni faces felony charges of exporting nuclear bomb triggers to Pakistan. The Times claimed that Humayun Khan, the businessman whose office address was the final destination for the shipment last fall of 66 triggers, confirmed that he and his father had been suppliers of equipment and technology to the Pakistani military for 20 years.
| Another name to add to the proliferation list... |
Mr Khan insisted that he had not been involved in the effort to smuggle the American-made triggers to Pakistan.
âI know itâs my address, and everything is pointing to me and my company,â Mr Khan said as he sat in the Islamabad office of his company, Pakland PME. The court documents are part of the case against Mr Karni, who was arrested on January 1 by US federal agents in Denver. Mr Karni told the American manufacturer of the switches, PerkinElmer Optoelectronics of Salem, Massachusetts, that they would be sent to hospitals in South Africa for use in treating kidney stones. American officials said e-mails to Mr Karni detail Mr Khanâs repeated requests between June and September 2003 for the trigger switches.
| PerkinElmer's a reputable company... |
NYT also claimed that in other e-mail messages in the court records, Mr Khan wrote repeatedly to Mr Karni between May 29 and June 16 last year to inquire whether he could purchase infrared target detectors for Pakistani Air Force missiles. Mr Khan produced letters showing that he tried to buy oscilloscopes, magnetometers, telemetry systems and airplane guidance systems from American companies in 2002 and 2003 for civilian companies. NYT said Pakistani officials declined to comment on the Karni case and the trigger devices. Federal Information Secretary Syed Anwar Mehmood said that Pakistan had received no official notification of Mr Karniâs investigation.
| "Therefore we have no official opinion. Ask us later, after we've thunk something up." |
Mr Khan produced a letter from an Islamabad construction company asking that he purchase a sophisticated oscilloscope made by Tektronix, a Beaverton, Oregon, company. The Pakistani construction company said it had never issued such a letter. Mr Khan also provided a letter from a television company that he said had requested another Tektronix oscilloscope. An official from the television company said he could not remember placing such an order, and did not respond to subsequent requests for comment.
| Sounds like he's got a drawer full of letterhead... |
American investigators have said the high-speed switches were ordered for a group called AJKMC Lithography Aid Society.
| "AJK" would probably stand for "Azad Jammu & Kashmir". The "MC" would probably be something like "Muslim Council". I'm not sure how closely lithography and aid societies go together... |
Mr Khan showed a letter from the group saying the switches had gone to hospitals in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But the groupâs letterhead listed its address as Humayun Khanâs office in Islamabad.
| Makes his own letterhead, I guess... |
Mr Khan said he could not explain why the group had used his office address.
| Or why the group never heard of him. Or why the group doesn't exist. |
Alisha Goff, a spokeswoman for Tektronix, said that Mr Khan was an independent distributor in Pakistan for the company and that all shipments made to his company had been approved by the Department of Commerce. The court files established Mr Karniâs Indian connection. They included e-mail exchanges between and Indian businessman Raghavendra Rao who was trying secretly to buy material for two Indian rocket factories. |