US probing more of Khan N-deals’

[TexasLawyer]

From Bahrain Tribune

Tuesday, February 8, 2005
US probing more of Khan N-deals’

WASHINGTON:The US is investigating whether Pakistani scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan sold nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and other countries, Time magazine reported yesterday. The weekly, citing a source in Pakistan’s defence ministry, said that Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, had also played a bigger role in helping Iran and North Korea with their nuclear programmes than had been previously disclosed.

“US intelligence officials believe Khan sold North Korea much of the material needed to build a bomb, including high-speed centrifuges used to enrich uranium and the equipment required to manufacture more of them,” Time said.

Iran also may have bought centrifuges and weapons designs from Khan in the mid-1990s, Time said, adding that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had confirmed at least 13 meetings between 1994 and 1999 with representatives of Khan’s network.

Among the countries known to have been helped by Khan was Libya. Time said the Pakistani scientist had given the Libyans equipment for centrifuges and “technical instructions for how to build a nuclear warhead.” Time said US and IAEA investigators believe Khan also traveled to Saudi Arabia and Egypt and to such African countries as Sudan, Ivory Coast and Niger.

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http://www.bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp

[Pallas180]

1. What they ought to be asking is where and whom Khan bought

the centrifuges from.

[leveymg]

2. Khan was selling blueprints. They're not very difficult to fabricate

The US did it first with 1940s technology, recall.

[leveymg]

3. We were watching him for ten years while this went on. Now it comes out

that the Saudis and Iran were among his customers. Why now?

How does one spell s-t-i-n-g? Hey, wasn't that how 9/11 happened?

[Vitruvius]

4. Pakistan's nuclear weapons was paid for --in large part-- by other Islamic

states, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Libya and others, with the understanding that -- in return -- Pakistan would share the bomb designs, separation know-how, and probably the fissile material ("bombstuff") as well. Which is why the Pakistani bomb has always been known as the "Islamic Bomb"; it was -- in fact -- an international effort funded by Islamic states fed up with being kicked around by the West...

Khan and his proliferation operation was the vehicle to do the sharing. Blaming Khan is a convenient fig-leaf for the Pakistani government. And -- as a patriotic Pakistani and religious Muslim -- Khan is no doubt glad to go along with this. And he is -- justly -- a hero in Pakistan, both for his bomb work and for his subsequent activities.

The bottom line? Sooner or later, the West will have to stop meddling in Islamic countries. We will be deterred by their bombs, even as they will be deterred by ours. The end result? A mutually-assured-destruction (MAD) balance of terror -- just like the MAD balance of terror that has kept the peace between the West and the Soviet Union / Russia from the 1940s until the present.

Which is no bad thing.