Posted on 01/18/2004 8:12:53 AM PST by knighthawk
In some more indictment of Pakistan's role in nuclear proliferation, reports said on Sunday that the Kahuta-based Khan Laboratories, founded by father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb AQ Khan, "may be the source of greatest level of nuclear weapons proliferation since the Cold War".
The Observer reported that dramatic evidence from Iran and Libya reveals a clandestine network stretching from North Korea, Malaysia and China to Russia, Germany and Dubai. "Yet one country more than any other stands accused of easing this proliferation.
"In the network of illegal radioactive trade, all roads point to Pakistan. More precisely, they lead to the Khan Laboratories," the paper said.
The paper also reiterated that Khan stole secret blueprints for two types of uranium enrichment centrifuges while working at Urenco, an Anglo-Dutch-German nuclear engineering consortium. He then went on to secretly develop atomic bomb with the help of the Chinese.
According to intelligence reports Pakistan had struck a deal to swap nuclear centrifuge technology for North Korean long-range missile.
South Korean intelligence agents, it is said, discovered the transactions in 2002 and that summer US spy satellites photographed Pakistani cargo planes loading missile parts in North Korea. Pakistan has denied such a deal. But reports have also emerged of Pak nuclear scientists visiting Myanmar.
The west is not very satisfied with the explanation that some rogue scientists were behind passing the nuclear weapons technology to Iran and Libya. The likely role played by North Korea and its links with the Khan Laboratories is an added complication.
The west is aware of Khan's fundamentalist sympathies. He is also known as the Godfather of the Islamic bomb.
The west, however, realises the political turmoil that could follow the "arresting" of a national hero like Khan. It could inflame Islamic sentiment and backfire on President Musharraf and the US too.
But at the same time the west also believes that the black market in nuclear weapons technology is assuming alarming proportions. The fear also stems from the belief that it could pass into the hands of the lurking Osama bin Laden and his ilk.
For India the fear stems from the revelation that the trafficking of nuclear secrets was also done through Dubai. Dawood Ibrahim is in Islamabad according to reliable sources and he is known to have his network in Dubai. One report suggested that a major gold trader, ISI agents and Dawood's men in Dubai have a close rapport.
Good point. It's far safer to let this Islamofascist nutjob run around loose and distribute nuclear weapons know how to third world despots.
I mean, the guy's a hero! What were we thinking?
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