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March 10, 2005

Kahn Gave Axis of Evil a Nuclear Leg-Up

It is not news that part of the reason Iran and North Korea are as far along down the road to nuclear armorment is Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan sold material and information to them. However until today, the Pakistani government has been reluctant to admit Kahn's activities. Now, they say, Kahn did trade nuclear commodities, but no one in the Pakistani government knew anything about it:

"Dr Abdul Qadeer gave some centrifuges to Iran," Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the Associated Press in a telephone interview. "He helped Iran in his personal capacity, and the Pakistan government had nothing to do with it."

On Sunday, former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani admitted his country secretly dipped into the black market to buy material, saying it was necessary because of US sanctions and European restrictions that denied Iran access to advanced civilian nuclear technology.

I do not think this story is done. I'm willing to bet that as time goes by, we will discover that more and more Pakistani officials not only knew of, but approved, these sales.

Update: Captain Ed sez:

The Klaus Fuchs of Pakistan will not face any international tribunal; the Pakistanis have far too much gratitude for his development of weapons to match the Indian nuclear arsenal to cough him up. They have even refused to make him available for questioning, however, which creates suspicion that Khan didn't exactly go out on his own to assist the Axis of Evil tyrants.

Yep.

AND THE California Yankee notices there is some good news coming out of this.

Posted by bubba138 at March 10, 2005 10:42 AM