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Fingers point to Pakistan for sharing nuke secrets - Terrorism & Security | csmonitor.com

Fingers point to Pakistan for sharing nuke secrets

Fresh evidence suggests Pakistanis sold weapons technology to Iran, North Korea, others.

By Matthew Clark | csmonitor.com


Has Pakistan sold secret weapons technology to other countries? The old question is taking on a new life as fresh evidence forces Islamabad to distance itself from earlier denials that it had ever been a source for countries eager to acquire fissile material, according to The New York Times.
The Times reports that "a lengthy investigation of the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, by American and European intelligence agencies and international nuclear inspectors has forced Pakistani officials to question his aides and openly confront evidence that the country was the source of crucial technology to enrich uranium for Iran, North Korea and possibly other nations."

Pakistani officials insist that there has been no transfer of nuclear technology since President Pervez Musharraf took power four years ago and that, if the country's scientists and engineers had done anything wrong in the past, it was without government approval, according to the Times. As the BBC reports, Information Minister Sheikh Ahmed Rashid conceded on Monday that certain scientists may have been acting independently.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that "evidence discovered in a probe of Iran's secret nuclear program points overwhelmingly to Pakistan as the source of crucial technology that put Iran on a fast track toward becoming a nuclear weapons power." Iran has not directly identified Pakistan as a supplier, but documents provided by Iran to UN nuclear inspectors since early November have strongly implicated Pakistani individuals and companies as sources of key blueprints, technical guidance, and equipment for a pilot uranium-enrichment plant, reports the Post.

Although documents from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, reveal that Iranian officials have offered detailed accounts of how they obtained sensitive equipment from European, Asian, and North American companies, the most important contibution seems to have come from Pakistan, suggests the Post.

By far the most valuable assistance to Iran came from still-unnamed individuals who provided top-secret designs and key components for uranium-processing machines known as gas centrifuges, the officials said.
... The blueprints, which the IAEA has reviewed, depict a type of centrifuge that is nearly identical to a machine used by Pakistan in the early years of its nuclear program, according to US officials and weapons experts familiar with the designs.

A spokesman for the Pakistan embassy in Washington, Mohammad Sadiq, described the Post's story as "speculative, and totally untrue," reports the Associated Press of Pakistan. Mr. Sadiq said that Post reporter Joby Warrick "resorted to excessive use of concoction." "It is very unfortunate as it does not serve the purpose of non-proliferation." He said "it is serving the purpose of lobbyists that work to undermine Pakistan."

Could weapons technology originating in Pakistan also have been used by Libya? The same Times report mentioned above says that "new questions about Pakistan's role have also been raised by Libya's decision on Friday to reveal and dismantle its unconventional weapons."

A senior European diplomat with access to detailed intelligence said Sunday that the Libyan program had "certain common elements" with the Iranian program and with the pattern of technology leakage from Pakistan to Iran. The C.I.A. declined to say over the weekend what country appeared to be Libya's primary source. "It looks like an indirect transfer," said one official. "It will take a while to trace it back."

These new reports are making life difficult for Mr. Musharraf. Not only do they strain relations with the US, they also exacerbate existing domestic problems. His recent drive to investigate Pakistan's top scientists has already angered an alliance of hard-line Islamic political parties who see the inquiry as the latest in a long list of ways that Musharraf is a US puppet. The Times explains the alliance's stance this way:

Any attack on Dr. Khan, hailed as the creator of the first "Islamic bomb," is likely to be seized by the Islamist parties as a major political issue. Many Pakistanis opposed the American-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as what is seen as the United States' one-sided support of Israel. Many also perceive the United States as trying to dominate the Muslim world — and through pressure on the nuclear scientists, to contain its power.

Pakistan announced Monday that Mr. Khan is being questioned by the government about reports of possible links between the Pakistani and Iranian nuclear programs. Apparently, he will not be subjected to the normal "debriefing" sessions that his aides have undergone recently. "He is too eminent a scientist to undergo a normal debriefing session," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan.