After a two-month probe into charges of nuclear proliferation, Pakistani investigators have found that the father of its nuclear weapons program and a top aide had black-market contacts that supplied sensitive technology to Iran and Libya, intelligence officials said on Wednesday.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, long revered as a national hero, and Mohammed Farooq, former director-general of a key nuclear facility, also have failed to account for funds in their personal bank accounts, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
But both scientists are denying they helped Iran and Libya, the officials said as the investigation nears an end.
"These are the two people who had links and contacts with those who have been supplying many things to those countries who wanted to become nuclear powers," one official said.
Another intelligence official said Khan had been shown documents and other material and had acknowledged his contacts with dealers who worked for him in the past, but he denied he had profited or played any role in supplying technology to either Iran or Libya.
"He says he is the victim of an international conspiracy," the official said.
Critics in Pakistan have accused President General Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, of caving in to international pressure by detaining and interrogating respected scientists who gave the Islamic country its nuclear deterrent against rival India.
The US said on Wednesday it has been assured by Musharraf that Pakistan wasn't involved in the nuclear trade.
"President Musharraf has assured us that, one, that was part of the past, and the past is the past. We've made that very clear," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said on Wednesday in Washington.
There is growing international concern about the "black market" in nuclear technology that circumvents restrictions on its supply.
Pakistan began its investigation into its nuclear program and possible proliferation to Iran in late November after admissions made by Tehran to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, Austria. Allegations also have surfaced that Pakistani technology spread to Libya and North Korea.
The government has publicly said "one or two people" acted for personal profit, but denies there was any official authorization for nuclear transfers to other countries at any time since the Pakistani nuclear program was launched by Khan in the early 1970s.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
RSS