Free Republic

WASHINGTON: There is some ground to suspect that former scientists of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission may have had talks with al-Qaeda at some stage. In fact, it is believed that two Pakistani N-scientists were in touch with the militant outfit. This was stated by Robert Einhorn, Senior Advisor, Centre for Strategic and International Studies and former Assistant Secretary of State for Non-proliferation, during an interview on the subject of the alleged Pak-North Korean barter deal on the nuclear weapons front.He added that, with a note of caution, that nuclear scientists always possess a lot of know-how which are of...

A High-Risk Nuclear Stakeout The U.S. took too long to act, some experts say, letting a Pakistani scientist sell illicit technology well after it knew of his operation. By Douglas Frantz, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Nuclear warhead plans that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold to Libya were more complete and detailed than previously disclosed, raising new concerns about the cost of Washington's watch-and-wait policy before Khan and his global black market were shut down last year. Two Western nuclear weapons specialists who have examined the top-secret designs say the hundreds of pages of engineering drawings and handwritten notes...

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...