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| India-Pakistan | |
| Pakistan: Nuclear founder 'a criminal', says expert | |
| 2008-06-16 | |
| London, 16 June (AKI) - Pakistan's failure to prosecute the founder of the country's nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, for selling nuclear secrets was unacceptable, a leading non-proliferation expert said on Monday. Mark Fitzpatrick, from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, said media reports suggesting that Khan's weapons blueprints were found on computers in Switzerland and other countries confirmed his view that Khan was a criminal. "I think it is incredible that some Pakistani statesmen and political parties want to excuse what Khan did," Fitzpatrick told Adnkronos International (AKI) by telephone. "I understand he is a hero for giving Pakistan a nuclear weapon. But if it becomes understood that Khan gave away or sold some of Pakistan's top secrets, that attitude could change."
The New York Times reported at the weekend that blueprints for advanced nuclear weapons, found on the computers of an international smuggling ring, were Khan's designs. The sensitive information was discovered on heavily encrypted computers in Switzerland and destroyed, but there are fears that the designs could have passed into the wrong hands. It has once again raised questions about Khan who in 2004 confessed to his involvement in a clandestine network of nuclear weapons technology proliferation from Pakistan to Libya, Iran and North Korea. "If Iran has nuclear weapons designs from AQ Khan, there is all the more concern," Fitzpatrick told AKI. "This episode, the news about nuclear weapons designs, could concentrate the minds of key states in deterring Iran in acquiring it's nuclear capability." Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President George W. Bush on Monday both pledged to step up sanctions against Iran if it failed to modify its nuclear ambitions. Andreas Persbo, a senior researcher at VERTIC, a respected London-based non profit organisation, told Adnkronos International he feared Khan would soon be released. "The discussion is how, rather than when," he told AKI. But Persbo, a verification expert, said he did not doubt the veracity of the latest media reports suggesting the designs had ended up with a smuggling network, in places like Dubai. "It was a good hub to meet the Libyans, Iraqis and Iranians and whoever else," Persbo told AKI. Former UN arms inspector David Albright, an authority on the now defunct smuggling ring run by the Pakistani scientist, said the information may have been leaked some time ago. "These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," he warned. | |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #1 But if it becomes understood that Khan gave away or sold some of Pakistan's top secrets, that attitude could change." This clown worked at the State Department for 26 years? Figures. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-06-16 16:17 |