WMD suspect arrested in Durban

Hours after the withdrawal of charges against Gauteng businessman Johan Meyer for contravening laws governing weapons of mass destruction and nuclear energy, Durban police swooped on a luxury penthouse on the beachfront and arrested a German-born engineer on similar charges.

Police then chartered a special flight to whisk him to Johannesburg on Wednesday night.

The 65-year-old engineer is also facing similar charges in Germany and was arrested a forthnight ago.

While Durban detectives were making the arrest on the beachfront, detectives arrested another suspect in Sandton.

Spokesperson for the police national commissioner Director Sally de Beer on Thursday confirmed the arrests.

The two men are expected to appear in the Vanderbijlpark magistrate's court on Thursday.

De Beer said she had very few details as the arrests were made late on Thursday night. Police would not release any further information due to the sensitive nature of the investigations. "At this stage we cannot rule out further arrests," said De Beer.

However, the Daily News can reveal that a team of senior detectives arrested the man on the 34th floor of the luxury Maluti flats on Durban's beachfront. The man was driven to Durban International Airport and flown to Johannesburg.

It is believed that the engineer arrived in Durban last week - soon after the arrest of Meyer on Thursday.

While, detectives were searching the Durban flat, the German engineer opted to remain silent and called his lawyer Advocate Anand Choudree.

Choudree confirmed on Thursday that he had been briefed by his client and that they would be defending the charges.

"I am on my way to Johannesburg at the moment and I expect my client to make a court appearance later in the day," said Choudree.

Choudree said that his client was a respected engineer in Johannesburg who operated his own business.

Beeld newspaper reported on Thursday that Meyer was a "small link" in an international smuggling network connected to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. It said it had learnt there is a link between Meyer and Gerhard Wisser, who lives in South Africa but who was arrested in Germany two weeks ago.

Wisser was allegedly a middleman to secure locally made parts for the network that could be used in nuclear weapons.

Meyer was arrested last week on three charges under the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Energy Acts.

After a brief court appearance on Friday, he returned to the court on Wednesday, but his application for bail was withdrawn without explanation from his legal team.

He was whisked away, supposedly to a prison until his next court appearance, but in a surprise second appearance later on Wednesday morning, charges against him were withdrawn.

A court official said : "The State informed me that charges were being withdrawn. I was not given a reason," he said, adding that Meyer was now "a free man".

His attorney, Heinrich Badenhorst, would not comment on the withdrawal of the charges.

In a statement, South Africa's Council for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons said the investigation was "in the context" of the AQ Khan "network".

Abdul Khan was a leading figure in Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, and was involved in the final test detonation of Pakistan's first nuclear bomb.

Meyer's attorney would not comment on whether he would be assisting with the international investigation.

--- "SA link to nuke black market," by Graeme Hosken,
PRETORIA NEWS, September 7, 2004

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:5PvUBJJjGjgJ:www.pretorianews.co.za/index.php%3FfSectionId%3D270%26fArticleId%3D2215099+%22gerhard+wisser%22+&hl=en

The role of several South African citizens and their businesses in a nuclear black market is being investigated by an international nuclear watchdog.

The high-level investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as well as the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), comes as scientists and engineers from Pelindaba examine more than 11 truck loads of equipment, allegedly used in the production of nuclear materials.

The items seized from Pretoria engineer Johan Meyer (53) include centrifuges which are used for the enrichment of uranium. Enriched uranium can be used in the manufacturing of nuclear weapons.

The equipment, which was allegedly to be sold to Pakistan, was taken to Pelindaba at the weekend to be tested to see if uranium had passed through the centrifuges.

Meyer, who is to appear in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate's Court tomorrow, was arrested last Thursday at his factory Trade Fin Engineering.

He is alleged to have contravened the South African Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Treaty and the South African Nuclear Energy Act.

The IAEA believes that Meyer is part of an international nuclear smuggling syndicate.

The IAEA, NIA, SAPS, and NPA have been investigating Trade Fin Engineering for more than a year.

The Pretoria News has learnt that apart from Meyer's company being under investigation, several other Gauteng businessmen and Centurion-based companies - which the investigators have not identified - are being probed for their alleged role in the nuclear black market network.

The IAEA began investigating the network, headed by Pakistan's nuclear bomb "father", Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, in February this year.

The network is a "shopping business" for people and countries dealing in illegal nuclear materials.

The investigation began after the IAEA received information that Libya was purchasing materials from the market to make a nuclear bomb.

The market is also believed to be the main purchasing point for countries such as Iran and North Korea.

The nuclear black market, according to IAEA spokesman Melissa Fleming, deals in the trade of blueprints for nuclear devices, as well as materials such as centrifuges.

She said the nuclear black market was established by Khan.

Fleming said the network consisted of hundreds of people and businesses from more than 20 countries.
"As well as looking at the nuclear black market and its relationship with Libya, North Korea and Iran, the organisation is also trying to establish whether there are other customers buying materials from this market," she said.

Fleming declined to deny or confirm allegations that other South Africans or South African businesses were also involved in the nuclear black market.

IAEA's fact finding mission spokesman Peter Rickwood said the team was looking at all aspects of the network in relation to South Africa.

He said that the investigators, who were helping South African law enforcement and nuclear authorities, would look at all of those who had dealings with the network.

The mission is believed to be providing South African authorities with technical advice and data to determine whether any recovered equipment has been sold to this country by the network or is being used in the illegal manufacturing of nuclear devices. Rickwood declined to comment on the extent of the involvement of South African citizens and businesses for fear of alerting other suspects.

Dr Abdul Minty, chairman of the South African Council for the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, who announced the news of Meyer's arrest, confirmed they were working with the IAEA mission.

NIA spokesman Lorna Daniels said the intelligence communities were involved in the investigation but could not comment on its nature. - Crime Reporter.

List of suspects

South Africans arrested in connection with the Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan's suspected nuclear black market:

Asher Karni (50), the first South African businessman arrested. He was caught in the US in January. He was allegedly buying "triggers" for medical purposes. The triggers can be used in nuclear weapons;

Gerhard Wisser (65), the second South African businessman arrested. He was captured in Germany two weeks ago. He is alleged to have worked as a mediator to obtain an order for a SA company to make and supply aluminum tubing to be used in an African uranium enrichment plant;

Gottard Lerch (61), a Swiss-South African national. He allegedly helped Wisser in his businesses and the nuclear transactions. Arrested at the same time as Wisser;

Johan Meyer (53), the fourth South African businessman arrested for allegedly dealing in illegal nuclear devices.

Hmmm. any connection to this?

OCTOBER 15, 2002 : (REPORT : UK'S INTELLIGENCE SERVICE MI6 HAS UNCOVERED FRENCH, GERMAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN EQUIPPING OF IRAQ; SAY IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER NADHIM JABOURI MAKES CONTACT WITH SOUTH AFRICAN NUCLEAR ENGINEERS AND ARMSCOR OFFICIALS) An MI6 investigation has uncovered how France, Germany and South Africa have equipped Iraq with almost £1 billion of equipment capable of being used to boost Saddam's arsenal. The sales have been approved by the UN sanctions committee after "intense lobbying" from the countries involved - and supported by China and Russia. Both already have substantial trade deals with Iraq.
UN Resolution 1409, adopted last May, allows exports to Iraq of a wide range of equipment with military applications. Agricultural sprayers which could be adapted to disperse biological weapons. Fibre-optics and telecommunications hardware have a dual capability of creating a powerful air-defence network. Much of this equipment has come from Europe's leading technology giants - Siemens in Germany and Alcatel in France.
All were sold for civilian use only. But some of the equipment includes neutron generators which UN weapons inspectors discovered were key components in the crude gun-implosion nuclear device Iraq had created before the 1991 Gulf War.
....Last week, a top Iraqi intelligence officer, Nadhim Jabouri, arrived at the Iraqi embassy in Pretoria to pursue contacts with South African nuclear engineers and meet with senior officials at Armscor, the country's arms corporation. MI6 believe Jabouri's task is to obtain the vital aluminium tubes needed for the enrichment centrifuges to produce a nuclear bomb.
The MI6 report says the willingness of the South African government to help Iraq lies behind the extraordinary outburst by the country's former president, Nelson Mandela, who recently branded President Bush as "a threat to world peace" - not Saddam Hussein. But it is Europe's role in helping Saddam that will cause fury in Washington and London.
In Iraq the operation is controlled by Saddam's older son, Uday. Central to it is freeing large sums of money from Iraq's blocked account in the Banque Nationale de Paris. The money is deposited in the bank's New York branch. Once the UN sanctions committee approves an export licence to Iraq, the money is freed.
"Uday relies on middlemen to sign the contracts for food and medicine. But in reality the contracts are for dual purpose equipment", an Iraqi defector has told MI6 investigators. -- "MI6 Report Reveals How France, Germany And South Africa Boost Saddam's Arsenal," by Gordon Thomas, Globe Intel, 10/15/02 , http://www.gordonthomas.ie/, page http://www.life-info.de/inh1./texte/GLOBE_INTEL2.html.

After reporting back to al-Makkee, Al-Fadl was sent to speak with a new contact, Abu Rida al-Suri. This meeting took place at the Ikhlak Company in the Baraka building in Khartoum. Al-Suri instructed Al-Fadl to return to Basheer and report that the organization had an “electric machine” capable of testing uranium. Again through an intermediary, Al-Fadl arranged a meeting with Basheer and, in a small house in the town of Bait al-Mal, north of Khartoum, Al-Fadl and al-Suri were shown a cylinder approximately 2-3 feet tall with a lot of words engraved on it. The men were given a note that Al-Fadl was told to deliver to another contact, Abu Hajer, and then await further instructions. Al-Fadl did not recollect exactly what was written on the paper, only that it was written in English, said “South Africa” on it, and contained a serial number.

The source is worth a good read : - "WMD TERRORISM AND USAMA BIN LADEN," by Kimberly McCloud and Matthew Osborne , CNS Reports, http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/binladen.htm.

Thanks for the ping. The theory you pose on the other thread regarding South Africa sounds plausible to me.

On a related note--brainstorming out loud here--I've wondered if the period of time Wilson spent with the State Department in South Africa from 1981-1982 involved anything touching on South Africa's nuclear program. South Africa seemed to be a departure from his previous and succeessive diplomatic assignments, which were typically to former French or Belgian colonies, several of which were also producers of uranium. In trying to identify what South Africa had in common with these other assignments, one thing that came to mind as a possibility was uranium.

Related question: why send a diplomat whose specialty is in French African affairs to Iraq in the late 80s? Could it be because of some French connection to Iraq's attempts to acquire uranium? We know that Saddam was getting other military equipment from France before the Gulf War. I find myself again wondering about Wilson's meeting with "Saddam's principal arms buyer in Paris" on the eve of the Gulf War. Who was this individual, and did he have a connection to South Africa?

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