New take on AQ Khan nuclear ‘whodunit’

[seemslikeadream]

By Khalid Hasan

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Dr Normal Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the Sussex University, argues in the current issue of the London Review of Books that when Benazir Bhutto became Prime Minister of Pakistan, it was the US and not her own military who told her about Pakistani nuclear progress. “It is clear that the Pakistani security apparatus knew and approved of (Dr AQ) Khan’s doings. The former US ambassador to Pakistan, Robert Oakley, was reported in the New York Times as having said that General Mirza Aslam Beg, the Pakistani army chief from 1988 to 1991, had told him of Pakistan’s nuclear ties with Iran, in return for which Iran would provide Pakistan with oil and military aid,” he explains.

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Prof Dombey maintains that the US and UK governments “support Pakistan’s claim that only a small group of men around Khan were responsible for exporting centrifuge equipment and blueprints.” He adds that after 9/11, it became essential for the US and Britain to close down the Khan network while keeping Gen Pervez Musharraf friendly and ensuring that he stayed in power. Libya provided the means to do that. The nuclear weapon design acquired from China was reportedly sent from Pakistan to Libya in late 2001 or early 2002. “Surprisingly, the IAEA reports that Libya ‘did not take any steps to act on the information, nor even to assess its credibility or practical utility.’ Hardly the behaviour of a country engaged in a clandestine programme to produce nuclear weapons,” he writes.

Prof Dombey says the centrifuge parts began to arrive in 2002 and 2003. In October 2003, the German-owned vessel BBC China was seized in Italy carrying centrifuge equipment bound for Libya. It is not clear whether the consignment contained P-1 or P-2 components, but it doesn’t matter. There were no rotors or advanced electrical components such as magnetic bearings. SCOPE, the Malaysian company which had shipped the parts, manufactured only 14 types of component, all of them aluminium. A domestic washing machine needs more components than that, he adds.

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Prof Dombey is of the view that a political solution is available both for North Korea and for Iran, but the current US position is both “alarmist and counterproductive.” There is no nuclear threat at present or in the near future from Iran, he argues. There may be one in a year or two from North Korea if the next US administration does not negotiate seriously to return to the situation that prevailed four years ago under the Agreed Framework. “The really serious nuclear threat to international security is now from Pakistan. The unmasking of Khan and a few associates represents the tip of the iceberg,” he concludes.
more
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-9-2004_pg7_35

[blm]

1. This is another story rooted in BCCI.

And Bush1 was very involved.