Posted on 12/26/2004 5:27:25 AM PST by Arjun
When experts from the US and the IAEA came upon blueprints for a 10-kiloton atomic bomb in the files of the Libyan weapons program earlier this year, they found themselves caught between gravity and pettiness.
The discovery gave the experts a new appreciation of the audacity of the rogue nuclear network led by A. Q. Khan, a chief architect of Pakistan's bomb. Intelligence officials had watched Dr. Khan for years and suspected that he was trafficking in machinery for enriching uranium to make fuel for warheads. But the detailed design represented a new level of danger, particularly since the Libyans said he had thrown it in as a deal-sweetener when he sold them $100 million in nuclear gear.
The experts from the United States and the I.A.E.A., the United Nations nuclear watchdog - in a reverberation of their differences over Iraq's unconventional weapons - began quarreling over control of the blueprints. The friction was palpable at Libya's Ministry of Scientific Research, said one participant, when the Americans accused international inspectors of having examined the design before they arrived. After hours of tense negotiation, agreement was reached to keep it in a vault at the Energy Department in Washington, but under I.A.E.A. seal.
It was a sign of things to come.
Nearly a year after Dr. Khan's arrest, secrets of his nuclear black market continue to uncoil, revealing a vast global enterprise. But the inquiry has been hampered by discord between the Bush administration and the nuclear watchdog, and by Washington's concern that if it pushes too hard for access to Dr. Khan, a national hero in Pakistan, it could destabilize an ally. As a result, much of the urgency has been sapped from the investigation, helping keep hidden the full dimensions of the activities of Dr. Khan and his associates.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
More about our valuable ally :)
For God's sake was this man's RIGHTS violated? -sarcasm-
We should grab him and give him a steady diet of sodium pent until he quits talking.......this way we would find out JUST WHO are "allies" are and make the proper preparations to celebrate those relationships.
Don't be hard on the poor scumbag.For one,Pakistan's N-programme was run by the army,unlike that of India or the US.So any civilian ,even if he was the head,had restricted access & would be subject to intense surveillance(& Paki intell are wellknown for that).Second,Official Pakistani machinery,including diplomatic services & Airforce C-130s were pressed into service to facilitate delivery of components to North Korea.That would have been impossible if the Pakistani govt or high officials in it did not authorise the use of such assets.Thirdly,North Korean & even Libyan officials were regulars at Pakistan's missile tests(North Korean weapons painted Green).There's evidence to prove that Pakistan gave NK nuke tech to get missiles-that itself is evidence there was official complicity in this whole affair.IF you want my take on this,Khan is being made a scapegoat to clear his Govt's name.Otherwise why was he pardoned after selling nuke tech to 3 nations ?& why the hell did he go on National TV & deliver an adress in English.
Don't be hard on the poor scumbag.For one,Pakistan's N-programme was run by the army,unlike that of India or the US.So any civilian ,even if he was the head,had restricted access & would be subject to intense surveillance(& Paki intell are wellknown for that).Second,Official Pakistani machinery,including diplomatic services & Airforce C-130s were pressed into service to facilitate delivery of components to North Korea.That would have been impossible if the Pakistani govt or high officials in it did not authorise the use of such assets.Thirdly,North Korean & even Libyan officials were regulars at Pakistan's missile tests(North Korean weapons painted Green).There's evidence to prove that Pakistan gave NK nuke tech to get missiles-that itself is evidence there was official complicity in this whole affair.IF you want my take on this,Khan is being made a scapegoat to clear his Govt's name.Otherwise why was he pardoned after selling nuke tech to 3 nations ?& why the hell did he go on National TV & deliver an address in English.
what part of THIS didn't you understand?
".......we would find out JUST WHO are "allies" are and make the proper preparations to celebrate those relationships."
I don't get head or tail of that statement,to be frank.
never mind, then, LOL
The CIA has thousands of employees. Surely one of them could put a bullet into Khan.
But he isntthe main culprit. The culprit in this case is being shielded by our own bush administration to avoid the fiasco of exposing our "ally" ie Pakistan govt.
Ping.
Paging former Ambassador Joseph Wilson...
FEBRUARY 2003 : (IRAQ : AL-TUWAITHA : IAEA INSPECTORS SEARCH KNOWN SITES AT AL-TUWAITHA, BUT MISS AN UNDERGROUND CITY OF LABS, WAREHOUSES AND OFFICES WHICH WOULD LATER BE FOUND AFTER THE COALITION INVASION) International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors who combed the site [al-Tuwaitha] - "Marines hold nuclear site," by Carl Prine, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Wednesday, April 9, 2003
FEBRUARY 23, 2003 : (IRAQ : UN ARMS INSPECTORS VISITED FACILITY IN THE VICINITY OF KARBALA CHEMICAL PLANT - KARBALA PLANT IS WHERE US ARMY WOULD LATER FIND BURIED SHIPPING CONTAINERS OF LAB EQUIPMENT THAT THE INSPECTORS MISSED) U.N. arms inspectors visited a facility in the immediate vicinity of the [Karbala] chemical plant Feb. 23, but did not find the buried equipment. [that 101st Airborne later found buried at the plant] Officials at the U.S. Central Command suggested that no conclusions should be drawn.- "Experts: U.S. 'Discovery' of Nuke Materials in Iraq Was Breach of U.N.-Monitored Site," Thursday, April 10, 2003 Associated Press via Fox News
APRIL 10, 2003 Thursday : (FORMER IAEA INSPECTOR KAY SAYS RECENTLY DISCOVERED TUWAITHA UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR WEAPONS SITE WAS MISSED BY UN INSPECTION TEAMS AFTER [OPERATION DESERT STORM] GULF WAR DESPITE RUMORS IT EXISTED) David Kay, a former IAEA chief nuclear inspector, said Thursday that the teams he oversaw after the 1991 Gulf War never found an underground site at Tuwaitha despite persistent rumors. "But underground facilities by definition are very hard to detect," he said. "When you inspect a place so often, you get overconfident about what you know. It would have been very easy for the inspectors to explain away any excessive radiation at Tuwaitha. The Iraqis could have hidden something clandestine in plain sight."- "Experts: U.S. 'Discovery' of Nuke Materials in Iraq Was Breach of U.N.-Monitored Site," Thursday, April 10, 2003 Associated Press via Fox News
SEPTEMBER 2003 : (FORMER NORTH KOREAN'S DIPLOMATIC REP TO THE IAEA,YUN HO JIN, IS ACCUSED OF ORDERING ALUMINUM TUBES SUITABLE FOR USE IN URANIUM ENRICHMENT FROM A GERMAN FIRM; MATERIALS WERE IMPOUNDED WHILE ABOARD A SHIP) HAMBURG, Germany (AFP) - A former North Korean diplomat is accused of ordering material from a German firm that could be used in the production of nuclear weapons, Germany's Der Spiegel reported in its Monday edition. The news magazine said a German businessman would go on trial in Stuttgart, southwest Germany, next month in connection with the case. The diplomat was named by Spiegel as Yun Ho Jin. It said he used to work as a Pyongyang representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. According to Der Spiegel, Yun Ho Jin ordered special aluminium tubes from the businessman which, experts say, are used to build gas ultracentrifuges in which uranium is enriched. The equipment was impounded in April after being loaded on board a ship. The unidentified businessman, who got to know the diplomat in the late 1980s, is accused of breaching trade export laws and "attempts to encourage production of a nuclear weapon." Experts from the IAEA, the German foreign ministry and the German foreign intelligence service are expected to testify, the magazine added. - "North Korean diplomat implicated in nuclear plot: German press," Agence France-Presse, September 21, 2003
Ping
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