A Malaysian company controlled by the son of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is being investigated for possibly supplying machine parts bound for Libya's nuclear weapons programs, the national police chief said.
Inspector General of Police Mohamed Bakri Omar said Scomi Precision Engineering Sdn Bhd, or SCOPE, a subsidiary of Scomi Group Bhd, built centrifuge components that international intelligence agencies say were headed for Libya late last year.
The revelations are part of widening international investigations into the trafficking of technology by Pakistani scientists to Libya, Iran and North Korea, which have uncovered a complex black market to help aspiring powers acquire nuclear weapons.
Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium for a variety of purposes, including weapons production. They are also used in many other industries for non-nuclear purposes.
Malaysian Special Branch police began the investigation after the CIA and Britain's MI6 informed them last November that boxes of machine parts bearing SCOPE's name were found in five containers seized in a ship off Italy last October headed for Libya, police said in a statement yesterday.
Scomi is a mid-sized oil and gas company controlled by Kamaluddin Abdullah, the only son of the prime minister, which supplies specialized tools for the oil and gas, automotive and general components industries.
Mohamed Bakri said the foreign intelligence services had informed Malaysian authorities that a Sri Lankan identified as B.S.A. Tahir had acted as a middleman in the centrifuge deal.
"Tahir and SCOPE are cooperating fully with the police in the investigations," Mohamed Bakri said, adding that Tahir was not being detained.
In a separate statement, Scomi said it had been contracted by Tahir to make "14 semi-finished components" for a Dubai-based company, Gulf Technical Industries. The company said Gulf Technical never identified its intended use of the components.
The deal was worth 13 million ringgit (US$3.4 million) and comprised four consignments that were shipped between December 2002 and August last year, the company said. SCOPE accepted the offer and built a factory outside Kuala Lumpur to fill the Dubai order.
Mohamed Bakri said "Tahir had offered a contract to SCOPE to prepare the components which was said to be a legitimate transaction."
Malaysia, a fast-developing, mostly Muslim country, is a signatory to international nuclear weapons nonproliferation treaties. It has a small government-backed program to develop nuclear technology for medical and industrial uses.
Stressing that the Malaysian-made equipment was parts only, Mohamed Bakri said "investigations carried out so far indicate that no company in Malaysia is capable of producing a complete centrifuge unit because it requires high technology and extensive expertise in the field of nuclear weapons."
The parts seized in the Libya shipment could also be used in petrochemical, water treatment and health applications such as molecular biology for protein separation, he said.
Bakri said that a "detailed investigation is continuing" in cooperation with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency and pledged that it would be transparent.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS