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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (24260)	2/24/2004 12:44:05 PM
From: Richnorth	Respond to of 27666

Did the CIA goof big time? Was it arrogance and self-complacency that led the CIA to believe it was on top of everything? Was it this weakness coupled with its tendency to trust "friendly" countries that led to the CIA's failure to nip Abdul Qadir Khan's business in the bud? Was A.Q Khan's proliferation of nuclear secrets allowed to fly for political reasons (hidden agenda) which, unfortunately, have now "backfired" on the US and now pose a serious threat to US security? ====================================================== Khan used glossy brochure to hawk his illegal goods His brazen trading of nuclear equipment to Libya, Iran and North Korea went unchecked for almost 20 years, but who else did he supply? VIENNA (Austria) - Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan presided over a nuclear smuggling operation so brazen that the government weapons laboratory he ran distributed a glossy sales brochure offering sophisticated technology. The brochure, with photos of Dr Khan and an array of weapons on the cover, listed equipment for separating nuclear fuel from uranium. Also for sale were Dr Khan's 'consultancy and advisory services', and conventional weapons such as missiles, according to a copy of the brochure provided to the Los Angeles Times. Although Pakistan has stopped Dr Khan's operations, the brochure is among the emerging details of the scope of his enterprise. They raise new questions about how far his network spread nuclear know-how and why the authorities did not move against it sooner. The extent of the ring remains unknown, and even some of Dr Khan's suppliers might not have known they were involved. Inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as intelligence and law-enforcement authorities on three continents are trying to reconstruct what they consider the worst nuclear proliferation network in history, and to dismantle it. Top diplomats in Vienna and senior US officials say they are trying to determine whether blueprints for a nuclear warhead and designs to build the device, which were sold to Libya, and highly sensitive data and equipment shipped to Iran and North Korea, might have spread beyond those countries. In addition, investigators have not been able to account for much of the equipment that was bought by the network. 'Who knows where it has gone?' said a senior US intelligence official, who noted that the Bush administration was deeply worried. 'How many other people are there? How widespread was it, and how much information has spread?' Questions also are being asked about whether the Americans missed chances to stop Dr Khan. The Pakistani scientist's full- service nuclear-trafficking network operated for nearly 20 years, often under the cover of his government lab, even as Western intelligence agencies grew more suspicious of him and senior US officials protested to Pakistan repeatedly. CIA director George Tenet said this month that the agency had penetrated elements of the smuggling ring in recent years, but needed proof to stop it. Other administration officials and outside experts suggested, however, that at least parts of the enterprise could have been stopped. 'If you have penetrated the system, why not stop it before Libya got the weapons design?' a senior European diplomat based in Vienna asked. 'There is no limitation on a copying machine.' Diplomats and officials in Europe and Washington who are involved in the inquiry or have been briefed on it spoke mostly on condition of anonymity because the continuing investigation is politically sensitive. Among the new details that have emerged recently: Sensitive equipment discovered at nuclear-related sites in Libya carried the name of Khan Research Laboratories, adding to what the authorities described as irrefutable evidence that his centre illicitly shared its technology with a country under United Nations sanctions for supporting terrorism. Evidence indicates that Dr Khan provided Pakistan's state-of-the-art centrifuge machines to North Korea in the late 1990s. Two Western diplomats described the information as preliminary, but they said it deepens concerns about North Korea's progress in enriching uranium for atomic weapons. IAEA officials reopened an investigation earlier this month of an alleged offer by Dr Khan to sell nuclear technology and a weapon design to Saddam Hussein in 1990. The inquiry started in 1995 with the discovery of memos in Iraq, but it hit a roadblock when Pakistan called the offer a hoax. New branches of the smuggling network are being uncovered almost daily, but progress is tempered by fears about how widely the products have been spread. Not all of the nuclear equipment sold by the network got to Iran or Libya, for example. This raised questions about who else might have bought it, according to a senior Vienna-based diplomat involved in the investigation. 'These people have been doing business all over the world,' said Mr Robert Oakley, a former US ambassador to Pakistan. 'It is a huge problem and it goes far beyond A.Q. Khan. Nobody paid attention to what they were doing.' -- Los Angeles Times