Author:
Publication: WorldNetDaily.com
Date: August 17, 2005
URL: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45812
Khan armed bin Laden for his 'American Hiroshima'
plan
Paul Williams, author of "Osama's Revenge"
and a new book, "The Al Qaeda Connection," has stirred a national
controversy with his reporting on the imminent nuclear terror threat posed
by Osama bin Laden. In this exclusive dispatch, first published in Joseph
Farah's G2 Bulletin, he reveals the connections between Pakistan's nuclear
mastermind and Osama bin Laden's plans for an "American Hiroshima."
Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the "father of
the Islamic bomb" and the "godfather of nuclear proliferation,"
provided nuclear expertise, nuclear materials, and designs for atomic weapons
to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to assist in the realization of the
"American Hiroshima."
The American Hiroshima plan represents al-Qaida's
plan for the nuclear destruction of the United States. It calls for the detonation
of seven tactical nuclear devices in seven U.S. cities at the same time. Each
device, according to the plan, must be equipped to produce an explosive yield
of 10 kilotons to equal the 1945 blast in Hiroshima that killed 242,437 Japanese
civilians.
News about Dr. Khan's involvement with al-Qaida
and the American Hiroshima plan first emerged with the capture of several
al-Qaida operatives in Afghanistan in October 2001, during the first phase
of Operation Enduring Freedom, and, later, with the arrest of Khalid Sheikh
Mohammad, bin Laden's military operations chief, in Karachi, Pakistan, March
2, 2003.
From Khalid Mohammad's laptop, CIA officials
uncovered details of al-Qaida's plan to create a series of "nuclear hell
storms" throughout the United States.
After days of interrogation coupled with severe
sleep deprivation, Khalid Mohammad told U.S. intelligence officials that the
chain of command for the "American Hiroshima" answered directly
to bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and a mysterious scientist whom he, at first, referred
to as "Dr. X," but later identified as Dr. Khan.
Tim Burger and Tim McGirk in the May 12, 2003,
edition of Time managed to confirm that at least one meeting between Dr. Khan
and bin Laden occurred within a safe house in Kabul.
The Real Dr. Strangelove
Dr. A.Q. Khan spearheaded Pakistan's effort
to build nuclear weapons to stabilize the nuclear threat from India. Five
atomic bombs, developed by Khan, were successfully detonated beneath the scorched
hills of the Baluchistan desert in 1998.
Khan, who went on to work on the successful
firings of the nuclear-capable Ghaudi I and II missiles, remains a revered
figure in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where his birthday is celebrated in mosques.
After gaining a place for Pakistan within
the elite nuclear club of nations along with the United States, Russia, China,
Great Britain, France, India and Israel, Khan proceeded to sell his centrifuge
technology for the enrichment of uranium and his designs for atomic weapons
to such countries as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Sudan, and such rogue
nations as North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Abundant evidence exists that the
list of Khan's customers should be expanded to include Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Algeria, Kuwait, Myanmar, and Abu Dubai.
More information was squeezed out of Khalid
Mohammad in subsequent months, including accounts of continuous visits by
bin Laden and company to the A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories in Pakistan,
where they gained the assistance of such renowned nuclear physicists, including
Dr. Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, chairman of Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission.
Dr. Mahmood's Confession
Mahmood was taken into custody by Pakistani
Inter Service Intelligence and CIA agents Oct. 23, 2001. After months of questioning,
Mahmood at last admitted that he had met with bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and other
al-Qaida officials on several occasions, including the fateful morning of
Sept. 11, 2001, to discuss the means of speeding up the process of manufacturing
nukes from the highly enriched uranium that al-Qaida had obtained from the
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and other sources.
Mahmood insisted that he had provided answers
to technical questions concerning tactical nuclear weapons but declined to
provide bin Laden actual hands-on help for the creation of such devices. Upon
voicing this denial, Mahmood was subjected to six lie-detector tests. He failed
them all.
The Nuclear Nest
Throughout 2002, CIA and ISI officials obtained
more and more information concerning the involvement of scientists from the
A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories in the plans for the American Hiroshima. After
being threatened with seven years in prison under Pakistan's Official Secrets
Act, Dr. Chaudry Abdul Majid, PAEC's chief engineer, admitted that he met
with bin Laden and other al-Qaida officials on a regular basis to provide
technical assistance for the construction and care of its nuclear weapons.
Dr. Mirza Yusuf Baig, another PAEC engineer, made a similar confession.
Yet a host of other leading scientists and
technicians from Khan's facility have managed to elude arrest and interrogation
by quietly slipping out of the country. Dr. Mohammad Ali Mukhtar and Dr. Suleiman
Assad, nuclear engineers and close colleagues of Khan and Mahmood, escaped
to Myanmar, where they are currently engaged in building a 10-megawatt nuclear
reactor for the Third World country. Others have made off for unknown destinations.
The list of such "absconders" includes the names of Muhammad Zubair,
Murad Qasim, Tariq Mahmood, Saeed Akhther, Imtaz Baig, Waheed Nasir, Munawar
Ismail, Shaheen Fareed, and Khalid Mahmood.
The Missing Nukes
Still, the interrogations of the Pakistani
scientists, coupled with findings from Dr. Mahmood's office for "charitable
affairs" in Kabul, verified for the CIA that al-Qaida had produced several
nuclear weapons from highly enriched uranium and plutonium pellets the size
of silver dollars at Khan's facilities. At least one of these weapons was
transported to Karachi where it was shipped to the United States in a cargo
container.
The story of the deployed nuke was reported
by Arnaud de Borchgrave of the Washington Times Dec. 10, 2001. It was carried
by United Press International but received little play in the national press
and garnered scant attention from such major news outlets as ABC, NBC, CBS
and CNN.
The whereabouts of the weapon remains a mystery.
There are more than 18 million potential delivery vehicles that could be used
to bring the nuke into the U.S. This figure represents the number of cargo
containers that arrive into the country every year. Of these containers, only
3 percent are inspected. Moreover, the bills of lading do not have to be produced
until the containers reach their place of destination.
News about other tactical nuclear weapons
developed by Khan's facilities for bin Laden came with the arrest of Sharif
al Masri in Pakistan in November 2004. Al Masri, an al-Qaida operative with
close ties to Ayman al-Zawahiri, informed CIA interrogators that a number
of nukes had been deployed to Mexico where arrangements had been made with
a Latino street gang for their safe transport into the U.S. This story, which
appeared in the Nov. 17 issue of the Nation, also failed to capture widespread
press attention.
Khan's 'Mea Culpa'
On Feb. 4, 2004, Khan, after being confronted
with tell-tale evidence obtained by inspectors from the International Atomic
Energy Agency, issued a public statement in which he confessed that he had
sold blueprints for nuclear weapons to Libya, North Korea and Iran. He expressed
"the deepest sense of sorrow and anguish" that he had placed Pakistan's
national security in jeopardy. "I have much to answer for," he said.
Pakistan's federal cabinet and President Pervez
Musharraf responded to Khan's confession by granting the esteemed scientist
a full pardon for his acts of nuclear proliferation. Musharraf said that Khan
and the scientists who worked with him were motivated by "money."
The pardon, according to many observers, represented an attempt by the Musharraf
government to appease Islamic extremists and senior Pakistani military officials
who believe that Musharraf had become a traitor to the Muslim people by providing
military support and assistance to the Bush administration.
Khan remains a free and honored citizen of
Pakistan, where neither U.S. military officials nor CIA agents can obtain
the right to approach or question him. This situation has prompted Robert
Gallucci, former U.N. weapons inspector and dean of Georgetown University's
School of Foreign Service, to observe: "The most dangerous country for
the U.S. now is Pakistan. ... We haven't been this vulnerable since the British
burned Washington in 1814."
Coda
The story of Dr. A.Q. Khan's relationship
with al-Qaida comes with a coda. Acclaimed French journalist Bernard-Henri
Levy amassed considerable evidence that ISI officials executed Wall Street
Journal reporter Daniel Pearl after Pearl obtained inside information on the
close relationship between Khan and bin Laden, the trafficking of nuclear
materials from Khan's facility near Islamabad to al-Qaida cells in Afghanistan
and the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, and the plans for the American
Hiroshima.
