- 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.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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