Posted on 01/16/2004 4:30:45 AM PST by dread78645
WASHINGTON (AP) -- This month's arrest of a South Africa-based businessman accused of smuggling nuclear bomb triggers to Pakistan offers a rare window into the worldwide black market for nuclear weapons parts.
Authorities accuse Asher Karni, 50, of being the middleman for a complex series of transactions involving dozens of the triggers. Agents arrested Karni Jan. 2 at Denver International Airport.
Court documents say Karni used a series of front companies and misleading shipping documents to buy the devices from a Massachusetts company, have them sent through New Jersey to South Africa, then on to the United Arab Emirates and eventually to Pakistan. What Karni didn't know, a federal officer said in an affadavit, was that authorities had intervened and had the manufacturer sabotage the devices so they couldn't be used.
The case is the latest indication that Pakistan -- a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism -- is deeply involved in the nuclear weapons black market. The United States for years has restricted exports of sensitive goods to Pakistan because of its nuclear weapons program.
If the devices were indeed headed for Pakistan's nuclear program, the most likely explanation would be that Pakistan was planning to build more nuclear bombs. That could complicate Pakistan's relations with its neighbor and nuclear rival India.
Officials from the United States and other governments say Pakistan also was the likely source for some of the know-how and equipment for nuclear weapons programs in Libya, North Korea and Iran. Secretary of State Colin Powell said this month that American officials have presented evidence to Pakistan's leaders of Pakistani involvement in the spread of nuclear weapons technology.
Pakistani officials say the government is not involved in any black-market nuclear deals. But Pakistan has questioned three top nuclear scientists recently based on information from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
``We have investigated. We haven't come across any evidence'' of proliferation, Ashraf Qazi, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, said Wednesday.
The possible spread of nuclear technology from Pakistan is a greater worry than any attempts by Pakistan to clandestinely supply its own nuclear program, said Robert Einhorn, a former State Department arms control official under President Clinton.
``If we can do it, we should stop both, but clearly Pakistan's export of nuclear materials and technology is a lot worse,'' said Einhorn, now with the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Court documents say Karni went to great lengths to conceal what he was shipping and where it was going.
Karni heads Top-Cape Technology in Cape Town, South Africa, which trades in military and aviation electronic gear. Karni used an elaborate scheme to try to circumvent U.S. export restrictions to Pakistan and ship the triggered spark gaps, Commerce Department Special Agent James Brigham charged in a federal court affidavit.
The devices can be used for breaking up kidney stones or triggering nuclear detonations. Anyone exporting such triggers from the United States to Pakistan must have a license from the U.S. government.
Brigham wrote that an anonymous source in South Africa tipped off U.S. authorities and provided information, including shipping details to allow tracking of the devices, plus copies of correspondence to and from Karni.
Karni's contact in Pakistan asked Karni to try to buy 100 to 400 of the triggers, Brigham alleged in his affidavit. Karni sought the devices from an American manufacturer, PerkinElmer Optoelectronics of Salem, Mass.
A PerkinElmer representative in France wrote to Karni last summer that exporting spark gaps to Pakistan would require a U.S. license, Brigham wrote. Karni then contacted a company in New Jersey, which ordered 200 of the devices from PerkinElmer, the agent wrote.
At federal agents' request, PerkinElmer disabled the 66 spark gaps in an initial shipment to the New Jersey company, Giza Technologies Inc. of Secaucus. Giza, which has not been charged in the case, shipped the devices to South Africa, listing them on shipping documents as electrical equipment for a hospital in Soweto. Karni repackaged the triggers and sent them to Pakistan via Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Brigham alleged.
A U.S. official in Dubai asked to inspect the package while it was in a warehouse there, but United Arab Emirates officials refused, Brigham wrote.
Spark gaps can be used in machines called lithotripters to break up kidney stones, but even the largest hospital would need only a half-dozen or so, experts say. Large orders raise red flags with nuclear experts. And exporting spark gaps to Pakistan without a license is illegal even if the devices are for health care.
A PerkinElmer brochure notes they are useful ``for in-flight functions such as rocket motor ignition, warhead detonation and missile stage separation.'' PerkinElmer's corporate predecessor, EG&G, similarly disabled a shipment of 40 similar devices called krytrons in the 1980s during a sting operation against Iraq's nuclear program.
Karni's case is not the first involving Pakistani attempts to buy potential nuclear triggers. Pakistani citizen Nazir Vaid was convicted in the United States in 1985 for trying to buy 50 krytrons.
South African police searched Top-Cape's offices last month, and Karni acknowledged he had shipped the spark gaps to Pakistan, Brigham alleged in the affidavit.
Under U.S. law, prosecutors would have to prove only that Karni exported the devices without a license. They would not have to prove that he knew they would be used in a weapons program.
Federal prosecutors are appealing a ruling by a Denver federal magistrate that would set Karni free on $75,000 bond raised by supporters. Prosecutors argue that Karni, an Israeli citizen, should be jailed because he could flee to South Africa or Israel and avoid extradition to the United States.
Karni's Denver lawyer, Harvey Steinberg, did not return telephone messages. Giza's president and chief executive officer, Zeki Bilmen, declined comment.
Brigham wrote that an anonymous source in South Africa tipped off U.S. authorities...
Three cheers for the Good Guys.
What the heck was he doing here in Denver?
This is no small time defense build-up; it's an effort to construct an arsenal with full intent to export. With Musharraf teetering on the brink of a radical Islamic takeover (having survived two recent assassination attempts), this is most concerning. If the President believes that he can seal off all necessary equipment and materials such as these triggers for the duration, I have have my doubts.
The immediate danger is Pakistan supplying Iran or North Korea. Detonator switches may be one of the key elements NK is missing in their quest to build working bombs.
While the public's focus is on Iraq, Iran and North Korea, something bigger and much more dangerous is brewing in the War on Terrror. This thread's story is but an early wakeup call about that next major crisis.
Pakistan is an acknowledged nuclear power. And President Musharraf is right now on the verge of being overthrown by the radical Islamists, essentially a mix of al Qa'ida and Taliban. If that coup is successful, it will place Pakistan's nuclear stockpile directly in the hands of these terrorists.
In December, Musharraf barely survived two assassination attempts. And the circumstances of those attempts had all the earmarks of being directed from elements within the highest echelons of the Pakistani military and intelligence service and even Musharraf's own staff.
Moreover, four months ago, Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qa'ida's second in command, issued a fatwa for Musharraf's assassination.
And as if Musharraf didn't already have enough problems, he has stated publicly that he intends to purge all radical Islamists from the officer corps and the intelligence service by than March of this new year.
Nearly as serious as this transfer of nukes to the terrorists is, this coup will leave U.S. forces presently in Afghanistan surrounded on the West by radical Islamist run Iran (pay close attention to the upcoming elections there) and on the South and East by newly radical Islamist run Pakistan. And you can be sure that the tenuous hold our forces currently enjoy in Afghanistan will quickly evaporate as the Taliban smells fresh blood. Our forces will be left with no safe or practical route left for resupply, reinforcement or retreat, while occupying a newly violent and deadly Afghanistan.
Frankly, I don't see anyway that Musharraf will escape assassination. And Musharraf himself, seems to have set the timetable for this by promising to purge the radical Islamists by early this year. Watch this one very carefully folks, because it is fraught with a very serious threat of nuclear consequences.
--Boot Hill
Perhaps he was catching a connector to Area 51........
That's the real problem and it will take a very strong leader to avoid succumbing to that temptation. My blood boiled as quick as the next man's as America was subjected to a seemingly endless series of terrorist attacks over the last 25 years. But a nuclear response on a non-military or non-terrorist target would be futile and worse, would have negative blow-black for decades, if not centuries, to come.
I endorse your emphasis on preventative measures such as enhanced intelligence gathering, but would place only limited faith in any cooperative international efforts. Likewise, I also endorse the rational use of that intelligence data, i.e., the use of military strikes to eliminate a terrorist WMD threat.
--Boot Hill
--Boot
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