Author: Chidanand Rajghatta
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 15, 2004
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-497499,curpg-1.cms
The United States has just found
evidence of the world's worst kept nuclear secret: Pakistan's 'Islamic
bomb' has Chinese features.
In fact, long before Americans discovered
that much of their manufactured goods are 'Made in China', the Pakistanis
took Chinese help, expertise, and design, in making their 'bum'.
Not that Washington -- which suspected
the Chinese transfers to Pakistan but continued to wink at or sleep on
the reports -- was particularly perturbed by it. But now that it turns
out that its long-coddled ally passed on the same Chinese nuclear bomb
design to Libya , Uncle Sam is having seizures .
Evidence of the China-Pakistan-Libya
nexus has turned up in the 55,000 tonnes of nuclear material and documents
that Libya has turned over to the United States and which was flown to
the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee last month.
According to one account, some of
the documents were in Chinese, and contained detailed, step-by- step instructions
for assembling an implosion-type nuclear bomb that could fit atop a large
ballistic missile. They also included technical instructions for manufacturing
components for the device.
Officials familiar with the documents
told the Washington Post , which first reported the story, that the nuclear
device depicted in the blueprint appeared to be of a 1960s Chinese vintage.
Although of an older design, the bomb is an implosion device that is smaller
and more sophisticated than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
US analysts surmise that the documents
were sold to Libya by Pakistan's nuclear hero A Q Khan and his network,
after Pakistan advanced to the next stage.
