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| Southeast Asia |
| Malaysia Factory Counters Nuclear Charges |
| 2004-02-06 |
| EFL: An engineering company accused of supplying equipment destined for Libya’s nuclear program opened its factory Friday to show how it could have unwittingly contributed to the international black market in atomic technology. Officials with Scomi Precision Engineering, whose majority shareholder is the son of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said the parts that the CIA alleges were produced for Libya are indistinguishable from components its makes for the auto, oil and gas industries. "To me, they were just normal parts," factor manager Che Lokman Che Omar said. "I have been using these machines for 15 years, and I have made many more difficult parts." The CIA and Britain’s MI6 informed the Malaysian government last November that they had seized centrifuge components in boxes marked with the company’s name from a ship in Italy headed for Libya, authorities have said. Centrifuges are sophisticated machines used in a variety of industries to separate fluid components according to mass. They can be used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons production. Police are investigating the Malaysian company and a middleman who arranged the deal as part of a widening international inquiry into a global nuclear black market triggered by Pakistan’s admission that its top nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, sold nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. We’ve gotten enough information from Liyba and hopefully from Pakistan to disrupt at least part of this market. A spokeswoman for the company, Rohaida Ali Badaruddin, said the company did not seek to determine the end use of equipment it sold or check the backgrounds of customers. She said no export permit was required from the government to make the shipment. U.S. and European officials have told AP that the components from Malaysia were highly sophisticated and would have few uses except for nuclear enrichment. The company is a precision-engineering subsidiary of the Scomi Group, whose majority shareholder is Kamaluddin Abdullah, 35, the prime minister’s only son. The company made "14 semi-finished components" for Dubai-based Gulf Technical Industries and shipped them in four consignments between December 2002 and August 2003, under a deal worth $3.4 million negotiated by a Sri Lankan middleman named B.S.A. Tahir. Ah, got a name of the Dubai company, bet they’ve had a few visitors going through their files. The CIA and Britain’s MI6 said the deal involved supplying centrifuge components for Libya’s uranium enrichment program. Malaysian and Western officials say Tahir is an associate of Khan, the Pakistani scientist. I expected nothing less. Mr. Tahir is in custody and is reported to be co-operating. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #8 A spokeswoman for the company, Rohaida Ali Badaruddin, said the company did not seek to determine the end use of equipment it sold or check the backgrounds of customers. None of these clowns ever will. Those are the type of people we are dealing with. If their countries don't clamp down on them, we need to clamp down on their countries. We are fighting a delaying action until the countries come around. If this keeps going, the WMD "issue" in Iraq will be a very small footnote to the big booms taking place in the West. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-2-6 9:01:10 PM |
#7 Jeepers! So that's what he meant!"We need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships for our defence," Dr Mahathir told leaders from 57 nations gathered for a two-day summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia's new capital. Oh, that's it! Defence (Defense!)! Now who are Malaysia's enemies again? |
| Posted by: Quana 2004-2-6 3:44:39 PM |
| #6 Still more: The New Straits Times quoted intelligence agency sources as saying that the owner of Gulf Technical Industries (GTI), which ordered the components from SCOPE, was a British citizen named Peter Griffin. Raw materials for the components were sourced in Singapore from a subsidiary of a German company called Bikar Metalle Germany, the sources said. They said US, British and Malaysian intelligence services and the IAEA were investigating the two links. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-2-6 11:51:00 AM |
| #5 And more: Scomi said its three-year-old plant, located in Shah Alam some 50 kilometres from the capital Kuala Lumpur, did not have the capacity nor tecnology involved in making nuclear weapons. Company officials also insisted that there is no way for them to determine the end usage of components that they supply. The controversial order for parts was placed through Mr Tahir on behalf of a Middle Eastern company Gulf Technical Industries. Received in December 2001, the sale generated nearly 80 percent of Scomi's entire revenue for the year. 80 percent? Hummm, seems like this is all you do and your other jobs are just a cover operation. By the way, what were the other 20 percent and where did they go? |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-2-6 11:44:31 AM |
| #4 More tidbits: Dr Khan grew rich on the nuclear trade, acquiring a hotel in Mali named after his Dutch wife, as well as villas and estates in Pakistan, all on a salary of about £15,000 a year, according to leaks to the press in Islamabad. He commandeered a Pakistani military transport plane to fly a cargo of antique furniture accompanied by another Pakistani nuclear scientist to his Timbuktu hotel, via a stopover in Libya, according to the leaks. Senior sources in Vienna said the Malaysian firm manufactured the centrifuge parts to order from Libya. A spokesman for Scomi said the company had been assured the components would not be used for nuclear purposes and it was recently informed by the Malaysian police that BSA Tahir, a Sri Lankan businessman who arranged the deal, is under investigation by Malaysian, American and British intelligence over his alleged involvement in the supply of nuclear technology to Libya. Pakistani officials have said Dr Khan ordered "disused equipment" to be sent to Malaysia for "reconditioning" before being sent on to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Methinks Malaysia has some dirty laundry. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-2-6 11:25:47 AM |
| #3 I just wonder who the individul is who will be setting off the 1st Terrorist bomb in the next 10 years. |
| Posted by: dataman1 2004-2-6 11:12:44 AM |
| #2 Here's more interesting tidbits: Scomi's largest shareholder is Kamaluddin Abdullah, the son of the Malaysian Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi. The 35-year-old son has no management role in the company and does not sit on the board. He is only a shareholder, a Malaysian official familiar with the company said. Scomi's chairman is Tan Sri Asmat Kamaluddin, a former secretary-general of Malaysia's international trade ministry. Western and Malaysian investigators said the equipment was ordered by Dr Khan, who has admitted responsibility for trading nuclear secrets. He made periodic trips to Malaysia over the past few years, according to Malaysian and Western intelligence agencies, not always travelling under his real name. I guess Khan was a hands-on type of manager, bet he visited the plant and inpected the goods. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-2-6 10:52:18 AM |
| #1 Googled Gulf Technical Industries: Gulf Technical Industries LLC Activities: STEEL MILLS-AGENTS, TRADERS - CARBON STEEL, SPECIAL STEEL, PIPES - TUBES, DESIGN - ENGINEERING More Info: Carbon tubes , heat exchanger tubes , stainless steel tubular , OCTG Year Established: 2000 Number of Employees: 5 They have a P.O. box and a phone number, but no physical location or web site listed. Interesting. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-2-6 10:34:41 AM |