Author: Anton La Guardia in Vienna,
Ahmed Rashid in Lahore and Alec Russell in Washington
Publication: Telegraph
Date: February 6, 2004
URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/06/wnuke06.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/06/ixnewstop.html
Intelligence agencies and nuclear
inspectors are racing to close a vast international nuclear "supermarket"
that has secretly supplied Iran, Libya, North Korea and perhaps several
other countries for more than a decade.
The extent of the Pakistan- based
network became clear last night as a leading United Nations official said
there was still an urgent need to "dry up the source".
The "supermarket", run by Abdul
Qadeer Khan, the father of the Pakistani bomb, was "the most dangerous
phenomenon in proliferation for many years," said Mohammed ElBaradei, the
head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog.
"This is an area where we cannot
act alone. We need the co-operation of intelligence agencies and governments.
I expect everybody to chip in."
Despite Khan's confession that he
was at the centre of the operation, few believe that the uncovering of
the network will stop the lucrative black market in nuclear designs, technology
and components.
Western intelligence agencies face
alarming uncertainties. Are similar networks in operation? What other countries
have already bought Pakistani nuclear technology?
American sources said there were
"suspicions" that Syria or Saudi Arabia were clients of Khan's network.
They said Iran appeared to have bought more technology than it had declared.
Mr ElBaradei said: "Mr Khan is the
tip of the iceberg. His confession raises more questions than it answers.
"A lot of other people are involved.
Items were made in one country, assembled in others and shipped on false
[certificates]."
Middlemen bought parts from half
a dozen countries: Japan, Malaysia, South Africa, Germany and at least
two other European countries.
The components were ostensibly meant
for industrial purposes but were then assembled to make gas centrifuges
to enrich uranium for atomic bomb-making. Experts compared the process
to selling designs for a kit car and providing help in buying the parts
around the world.
George Tenet, the director of the
CIA, said the credit for uncovering the network belonged to his organisation
and MI6, using old-fashioned espionage techniques.
"First we discovered the extent
of the hidden network," he said. "We tagged the proliferators. We detected
the network stretching across four continents offering its wares to countries
such as North Korea and Iran.
"Working with our British colleagues,
we pieced together the picture of the network, revealing its subsidiaries,
client lists, front companies, agents and manufacturing plants on three
continents."
Despite the growing scale of the
revelations, Pervaiz Musharraf, the Pakistani president, pardoned Khan
yesterday after his public confession to "unauthorised proliferation activities".
Islamabad declared the scandal over,
sticking to its claim that Khan had acted on his own, rather than with
Pakistani military co-operation, as is widely suspected.
Gen Musharraf said he would not
hand any documents about the scandal to UN inspectors.
"This is a sovereign country," he
said. "No documents will be given. No independent investigation will take
place here."
Washington and London have given
strong indications that they are prepared to let the matter rest after
behind-the-scenes pressure on the Pakistanis to come clean.
Nuclear experts say that Khan made
millions of pounds by selling know-how for the equipment needed to make
weapons-grade fissile material and the manufacture of nuclear bombs.
He may also have provided some kind
of after sales service by giving technical help to build centrifuges.
UN inspectors came across the first
concrete reference to his trade in the mid-1990s in Iraq. They found a
1990 memorandum reporting an approach by a man named "Malik" who was relaying
an offer from Khan to sell a nuclear bomb design and centrifuge parts for
$5 million.
The Iraqis declined the offer, suspecting
it was a scam or a trap.
