Free Republic

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...

(Islamabad/Moscow, October 25) There is now a nuclear dimension to the Afghan war. A second retired Pakistani atomic scientist was picked up by Islamabad on Tuesday night on the suspicion that he was developing a nuclear device for Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. The arrests followed tip-offs by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Pakistani authorities. Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood and Abdul Majeed, both scientists who had retired from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), were picked up after the FBI provided evidence of their links to jehadi outfits. The Pakistan Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haidar, said on ...

wo of Pakistan's top atomic scientists were grilled yesterday about possible contacts with Afghanistan's Taliban rulers amid reports Osama Bin Laden had obtained nuclear material. Sultan Bashiru-Din Mehmood, one of the founders of the country's nuclear program, was detained Tuesday in Lahore, Interior Ministry officials said on condition of anonymity. They said Abdul Majid, a scientist who worked with Mehmood at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, also was being held. "The investigation has nothing to do with the nuclear program," said Rashid Qureshi, a Pakistani military spokesman. However, the Interior Ministry officials said the men were questioned about possible links ...