The blue-shirted workers say they thought they were making parts for the oil and gas industry. The CIA says this nondescript factory on the outskirts of Malaysia's largest city was, in fact, churning out components for Libya's nuclear weapons program.
Malaysia has become the latest nation caught in a widening probe into the global black market in nuclear know-how and equipment, triggered by Pakistan's admission that its top nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, sold technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Managers at the Malaysian factory owned by Scomi Precision Engineering, or SCOPE, opened their doors to journalists on Friday in an effort to prove their contribution to nuclear proliferation -- if any -- was unwitting.
The case raises questions about export and trade regulations on so-called "dual-use" items, components for illegal technology that are indistinguishable from common machine parts to all but the experts.
"To me, they were just normal parts," said Che Lokman Che Omar, manager of the SCOPE factory. "I have been using these machines for 15 years, and I have made many more difficult parts."
Around him, technicians worked on tooling machines, carving precision edges onto bits of aluminum and stainless steel destined for car parts and industrial tubing. "Look at this," said company spokesman Rohaida Ali Badaruddin, holding up a baseball-sized chunk of highly polished metal. "It could be an ashtray."
Four months ago, according to the US Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's MI6, similar parts were found in boxes marked with SCOPE's name aboard a ship bound for Libya. Investigators say the parts were for centrifuges, machines that can be used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons production.
Scomi Precision Engineering's majority shareholder is the son of Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The government rejected CIA Director George Tenet's assertion that SCOPE was one of the largest plants servicing a nuclear black market.
"To say it is the largest part of a network is totally inaccurate," a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It is coming from a CIA director who is discredited -- he screwed up the intelligence going into Iraq."
According to Malaysian police, SCOPE built its Shah Alam factory to fill an order from the Dubai-based Gulf Technical Industries, which negotiated a US$3.4 million contract through a Sri Lankan middleman named B.S.A. Tahir.
Between December 2002 and August last year, SCOPE shipped four consignments to the Gulf company, according to SCOPE's parent company, the Scomi Group.
Using designs from the customer, SCOPE made 14 parts from high-grade stainless steel and aluminum obtained from the Singapore branch of a German supplier, Che Lokman said. He said 15 Malaysian contractors did the work, their employment terminated when the contract was filled.
Scomi group spokeswoman Rohaida said the Gulf company never told SCOPE what the parts were for, and SCOPE never asked.
"We make sure we are indemnified against any illegal activity in the contract," Rohaida said, but the company makes no background checks of clients or inquires about the end-use of products it makes.
Rohaida said SCOPE complied with government regulations in shipping the parts found in the Libya-destined crates. While an export permit is required for "sensitive items," none was sought in this case because nothing appeared out of the ordinary, she said.
Tahir, the middleman, visited the factory several times, as did engineers from Dubai, Che Lokman said. "To my memory," he said, Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, Khan, never came.
But a Malaysian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Khan visited Malaysia several times -- including to attend Tahir's wedding.
National police chief Mohamed Bakri Omar said his Special Branch started investigating the Tahir-arranged deal after the CIA and the MI6 informed them about the Libya shipment last November.
Che Lokman said Malaysian police first came to the factory "two or three weeks ago" and that no foreign investigators had visited. He also said there were up to 30 other companies in Malaysia able to make the components in the Dubai deal. SCOPE is the only company identified as under investigation.
He said the factory currently has several clients, Malaysian and international, but declined to give details citing confidentiality.
Rohaida said SCOPE's services were precision milling and cutting, and its engineers do not have the expertise to know the use of the items they are making. If the company received a similar order to the one SCOPE filled for the Libya shipment, it would have no reason to turn it down. "Milling and cutting is the same today as it was before," she said.
Malaysian authorities say they are satisfied that the components built by SCOPE may have had medical or petrochemical uses. But US and European officials have said the components from Malaysia were highly sophisticated and would have few uses other than nuclear enrichment.
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