Posted on 02/21/2004 4:03:37 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
ISTANBUL, Turkey — Libya was operating a more advanced and longer-running program to develop nuclear weapons than outside intelligence agencies and nuclear watchdogs had imagined, according to a confidential report Friday by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog.
........Jon B. Wolfsthal, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a telephone interview that he was shocked by the length of time Libya had been operating a secret weapons program.
"We knew that Libya had an interest in nuclear technology, but the duration and the depth of it is surprising," he said. "The other thing is the sheer size of what they were trying to acquire."
The report said Libya ordered 10,000 advanced uranium centrifuges, which are used to convert uranium into fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Although the IAEA did not identify the source of the centrifuges, Libya acknowledged earlier that it had tried to buy them from Khan.
The IAEA director-general, Mohamed ElBaradei, issued the 10-page report Friday night to members of the agency's governing board. A copy of the report was provided to The Times.
Malaysian authorities also released a report dealing with Libya's nuclear program Friday. Based on information provided by one of Khan's middlemen who was involved with a Malaysian company, the report outlined nuclear technology sent to the North African country from the late 1990s to last year by suppliers in Pakistan, Turkey, Britain, Switzerland, Germany and Malaysia.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
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