"The Pakistani government did not rebut the findings in the report..."
"Smugglers Had Design For Advanced Warhead," by Joby Warrick for the Washington Post, June 15 (thanks to Lee):
An international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, according to a draft report by a former top U.N. arms inspector that suggests the plans could have been shared secretly with any number of countries or rogue groups.The drawings, discovered in 2006 on computers owned by Swiss businessmen, included essential details for building a compact nuclear device that could be fitted on a type of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries, the report states.
The computer contents -- among more than 1,000 gigabytes of data seized -- were recently destroyed by Swiss authorities under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, which is investigating the now-defunct smuggling ring previously led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
But U.N. officials cannot rule out the possibility that the blueprints were shared with others before their discovery, said the report's author, David Albright, a prominent nuclear weapons expert who spent four years researching the smuggling network.
"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," Albright wrote in a draft report about the blueprint's discovery. A copy of the report, expected to be published later this week, was provided to The Washington Post.
The A.Q. Khan smuggling ring was previously known to have provided Libya with design information for a nuclear bomb. But the blueprints found in 2006 are far more troubling, Albright said in his report. While Libya was given plans for an older and relatively unsophisticated weapon that was bulky and difficult to deliver, the newly discovered blueprints offered instructions for building a compact device, the report said. The lethality of such a bomb would be little enhanced, but its smaller size might allow for delivery by ballistic missile.
"To many of these countries, it's all about size and weight," Albright said in an interview. "They need to be able to fit the device on the missiles they have."...
"These would have been ideal for two of Khan's other major customers, Iran and North Korea," wrote Albright, now president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. "They both faced struggles in building a nuclear warhead small enough to fit atop their ballistic missiles, and these designs were for a warhead that would fit."
It is unknown whether the designs were delivered to either country, or to anyone else, Albright said.
The Pakistani government did not rebut the findings in the report but said it had cooperated extensively with U.N. investigators. "The government of Pakistan has adequately investigated allegations of nuclear proliferation by A.Q. Khan and shared the information with IAEA," Nadeem Kiani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, said yesterday. "It considers the A.Q. Khan affair to be over."...
Oh, yes. It's all over.
Atomic greetings, thus: "To Tel Aviv, With Love--Mahmoud" (irony intended).
Yes, it may be small, but can it be squeezed into Borat Ahmedinejad's head?
The bluprints were found on a Swiss computers. Switzerland: Where political neutrality and unprincipled greed coexist in a bucolic setting.
Where the plans given out before their destruction? To find out, you must deposit 50 million francs in the following numbered account...or hang up and try again later.
The Useless Nations are investigating something, AFTER the Useless Nations watched the Swiss destroy 1,000 gigabytes of something, that the Useless Nations now want to know more about.
What a Merry-Go-Round way of maintaining a willful intention of intentional ignorance.
Just what involvement of the Swiss is there for them to DESTROY EVIDENCE and why is the UN neck deep in it happening?
Considering that Pakistan is a client state of
Saudi Arabia, UAE & the Chinese - have you considered the probability of Pakistani nuke proliferation to the Saudis - the most rabid Muslim fundamentalists on the planet? Actually, it would not even be proliferation, strictly speaking. Since Saudi Arabia keeps afloat the Pakis with their begging bowls with petro-dollars, Pakistan would merely be a low tech manufacturer/assembler of Chinese WMD's for their Saudi masters...
"It considers the A.Q. Khan affair to be over."
A.Q. Khan might have been taken down but his network wasn't. From The Atlantic November 2005, before these drawings were "discovered":
The intelligence services would like to debrief him, because of the likelihood that much of the network he established remains alive worldwide, and that by its very nature—loose, unstructured, technically specialized, determinedly amoral—it is both resilient and mutable, and can resume its activities when the opportunity arises, as inevitably it will. Pakistan has mounted its own investigation, and is parceling out some information to the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, in Vienna. But for obvious reasons the Pakistani regime cannot allow deep scrutiny to occur, and neither, out of perceived geopolitical necessity, can the current leaders of the United States.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/aq-khan
AS THE THREAT FROM IRAN AND OTHER ISLAMONAZI ENEMIES OF THE US AND OUR ALLIES INTENSIFIES,PAKISTAN IS PLAYING A TAQIYAH GAME.
PAKISTAN IS ON OUR 'ALLY' LIST, YET "ELEMENTS" OF THE PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT,INCLUDING THEIR MILITARY AND "ISI" INTELLIGENCE AGENCY ARE KNOWN TO BE ISLAMIST AND OBVIOUSLY HAVE ASSISTED IN BIN-LADEN REMAINING AT LARGE.
OUR LEFT-WING ARE SO BLINDED BY HATRED FOR THEIR OWN COUNTRY ,THAT THEY DO EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO AID OUR FOREIGN ENEMIES!
This is the ultimate goal the Islamic Nuke the one that the Jihadis have been wanting to get all along. This is their weapon by which to inflict damage and destruction to the US, Israel and other infidel nations. This 1400 year old war that Islam had declared on humanity will culminate with the nukes being set off by some of the fervent Jihadis, lusting after those 72 virgins in heaven waiting and the highest honor bestowed by their fellow Mohammedans as Martyrs. That is the Islamic mindset it is primal, primitive and non spiritual mindset all to do with the carnal pleasures and blood.
Did Pakistan nuke smugglers give plans to Iran?
Maybe this is why Iran is so self confident, and Beasty Boy Ahmadinijad is so cocky...
What is interesting is the number of times, Pakistan based news reports show up on jihadwatch, compared to countries like Indonesia, Turkey or even Saudi Arabia.
"What is interesting is the number of times, Pakistan based news reports show up on jihadwatch, compared to countries like Indonesia, Turkey or even Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: AJack "
Could be because they have nukes and have proliferated ?
The computer contents -- among more than 1,000 gigabytes of data seized -- were recently destroyed by Swiss authorities under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency...
From the article.
Now, this is not a very informative statement. Are we supposed to be impressed that it was 1,000 Gigabytes? 1,000 Gigabytes (1 Terabyte) can be put on a single memory stick, about the size of a pack of chewing gum. What's alarming is that the data can be replicated to another similar storage device in a matter of minutes, can be transmitted silently and completely securely to any place in the world via the Internet, and could be read by almost any computer of recent vintage.
This is very bad news. If this data has escaped, then we'd better start thinking about what the fallout (pun intended) is likely to be.
Someone had better be doing some serious investigative work to find out how this happened, and then be prepared to make some very public examples of the guilty parties.
When will people realise that Pakistan is not actually "our partner in the war on terror".
When will people realise that they are the f***ing enemy!!
Probably when some bunch of bearded goons take out the centre of one of our capital cities using a pak designed nuke.
For me that is just criminal. When will our elected leaders stop pretending that we can co-exist with this cult of death and realise we actually have to fight it wherever it prevails?
Oh yes probably like in 1939 when it's to bloody late!
My, ain't the West learning fast!
The Pakis see themselves as the geniuses of the Islamic world.
Paki brains and nukes, Saudi dollars, US dollars too (as long as Uncle Sam keeps coughing up), cannon fodder from all over the Muslim world. The pan islamic confederation, they hope, will become a reality.
And then the surviving infidels had better watch out.
From above: The Pakis see themselves as the geniuses of the Islamic world.
Don't tell that to the mad mullahs in Iran...they think they are the brains of the outfit...
It's worth going to this site, the writer goes into detail on this Khan nuke thing. http://historygeeksblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/sometimes-ignorance-is-bliss.html. The Geek also has a number of well based negative takes on Pakistan as an ally
Mr. Khan was working in the Netherlands, he stole papers about Nuclear programs.
He fled the country and went to his native country Pakistan.
He did or wanted to sell the papers to Iran and Libya.
Later he was arrested in Pakistan too.
Mr. Khan was working in the Netherlands, he stole papers about Nuclear programs.
He fled the country and went to his native country Pakistan.
He did or wanted to sell the papers to Iran and Libya.
Later he was arrested in Pakistan too.