The UN's top nuclear official called for a new international regime to destroy the flourishing black market in nuclear technology Thursday, describing current controls as "kaput."
Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said the trade in the technology was now a dangerous "supermarket."
He said recent revelations of clandestine sales to North Korea and Libya were "the tip of the iceberg."
International investigations, led by the CIA and the IAEA but also involving British intelligence (MI6), are being conducted as a matter of urgency into the network in nuclear technology stretching from Europe to Asia, with a hub in the Middle East.
ElBaradei said he knew of people in at least five countries believed to be involved in the nuclear rackets.
His comments came as Abdul Qadeer Khan, the mastermind of the Islamic world's first nuclear bomb, who has admitted trading nuclear information and equipment with other countries, was pardoned on Thursday by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
ElBaradei said Khan's admissions made the issue urgent.
"Khan is the tip of an iceberg for us," he said.
"You need a complete overhaul of the export control system ... This is a number one international security problem we are facing."
He added: "This supermarket is the most dangerous we have seen in years. It is not just Doctor Khan. There are many, in many countries."
He criticized the current regime of export controls as a "gentleman's agreement."
ElBaradei was pessimistic about the chances of combating the trade.
"The spread of nuclear technology and knowledge is out of the tube," he said. "We won't be able to put it back. I am not optimistic, frankly."
Musharraf said on Thursday that international investigators would not be allowed to interview Khan.
But it is almost certain that Pakistan will provide all the information requested by the US and the IAEA on nuclear transfers to Libya, North Korea and Iran.
CIA Director George Tenet, said both the CIA and MI6 had been tracking Khan's network for years.
He said: "Working with our British colleagues, we pieced together the picture of the network, revealing its subsidiaries, its scientists, its front companies, its agents, its finances and manufacturing plants on three continents," Tenet said.
"Our spies penetrated the network through a series of daring operations over several years," Tenet said.
The British government on Thursday night refused to elaborate on the role of MI6 in these operations.
Investigators from ElBaradei's agency are working with national intelligence services to try to crack the contraband networks.
A leading IAEA investigator has recently been to Germany to question retired engineers. A Dubai-based British businessman is also believed to be involved, though the Foreign Office said yesterday it had no knowledge of him.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
A US federal judge on Tuesday ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration to halt efforts to shut down Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, the news broadcasts of which are funded by the government to export US values to the world. US District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits from employees and contractors affected by the shutdown of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), ordered the administration to “take all necessary steps” to restore employees and contractors to their positions and resume radio, television and online news broadcasts. USAGM placed more than 1,000
RSS