Posted on 02/22/2004 8:38:55 PM PST by budanski
ISLAMABAD : US leading daily New Yark Times report on Friday that selling of atomic secrets and equipment around the world began from Europe and not Islamabad.
Its Paris correspondent, Craig S. Smith quote documents and experts who monitor proliferation says that the court record shows that industry, scientists and Western intelligence agencies had known for decades that nuclear technology was pouring out of Europe despite national export control efforts to contain it.
It says many of the names that have turned up among list of suppliers and middlemen, who fed equipment, material and knowledge to nuclear programmes to the aspiring nuclear nations are well known players in Europe's uranium enrichment industry. Even some of these have been convicted of illegal exports in the past.
One name to emerge from the international investigation was Urs Tinner, a Swiss engineer to monitor production of centrifuge parts at a factory in Malaysia. His father, who was also an engineer came under scrutiny by the Defence Department of the United States in 1970's and again by Swiss export control authorities and International Atomic Energy Agency in the last decade as he was allegedly involved in the export of technology, used in uranium enrichment. Both the father and son were heavily investigated in 1970's, 80's and 90's in proliferation.
The newspaper says that the nuclear proliferation problem began with the 1970 Treaty of Almelo under which Britain, Germany and the Netherlands agreed to development centrifuges to enrich uranium jointly, ensuring their nuclear power industry a fuel source independent of the United States. The newspaper says that the establishment of uranium enrichment company was the beginning of nuclear proliferation which spread to other countries by the passage of time.
"Everybody does it."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.