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| KL offers to help IAEA question nuclear man |
| 2004-02-23 |
| Malaysia has offered to assist the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in questioning a Sri Lankan businessman suspected of being a middleman in Pakistan’s illegal nuclear ring, police said. However, police said Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, identified by the United States as a middleman in an international nuclear trafficking ring run by Pakistani scientist and former head of its nuclear programme Abdul Qadeer Khan, had not committed any crime and was free to leave the country. "If he wants to leave, I cannot restrict him. He has not been charged and his passport has not been impounded. The police just investigate and we’ve done that," Inspector-General of the national police, Bakri Omar, was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency. I’m thinking that all depends on where he was planning to go. Other reports suggest that if he tries to leave, they’ll revoke his passport. Tahir, who resides in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, had revealed to police how Khan had asked him to send centrifuges from Pakistan to Iran in 1994 or 1995. He also told investigators that Libya had received enriched uranium from Pakistan, according to a police report released Friday. He rolled over, big time. Bakri said that Malaysia was willing to assist the IAEA if it wishes to question Tahir, adding that he believed Tahir has not left the country. I’ll wager he’s in "protective" custody. "The police are more than willing to assist and we are not imposing anything. The IAEA can interview him if they want to," he said. "They can interview him, we’ll stand over in the corner with the truncheons, just in case." Tahir, who is married to a Malaysian, was said to have obtained the nuclear components from SCOPE, part of a publicly listed company owned by the Malaysian prime minister’s son, Kamaluddin Abdullah, and two other investors. Bakri said Tahir had misled the company into supplying the parts. That’s the deal he made, taking the blame and talking. On Friday, police released a report clearing SCOPE of breaking any laws, saying the company was unaware that components it had manufactured were part of a centrifuge unit headed for Libya. But on Saturday, two nuclear related state-owned agencies said Malaysia would submit a written report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the alleged supply of uranium centrifuge components by a local company to Libya. The Malaysian Institute for Technology Research and the Atomic Energy Licensing Board said Malaysia was not under investigations by the UN nuclear watchdog in the case concerning the alleged supply of uranium centrifuge components from Malaysia to Libya. Not yet, anyway. "But the IAEA has informally requested certain specific information pertaining to the case from Malaysia," the agencies said in a joint-statement. This was to assist the IAEA in its investigations in other countries that are suspected to be in violation of the Non-proliferation Treaty, it said. It said the IAEA had not sent any of its inspectors to Malaysia to specifically check on any matter relating to this case. I’m sure they will. The Malaysian company admitted making the parts but said it believed they were for use in the oil and gas industries and did not know their final destination. Malaysia has strenuously denied that either the company or the country was knowingly involved in the nuclear arms black market. Who knows, it might even be true. Najib said if the United States wanted to question Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, it had to put the request to the police. "Let the police decide," he said. I think the police have already been told what that decision should be. |
| Posted by:Steve |