ISLAMABAD, 7 January 2004 — Pakistan yesterday strongly denied a newspaper report that its scientists were the source of high-tech centrifuge design technology to Libya, the latest in a series of allegations linking this staunch US ally’s nuclear program to Washington’s bitterest enemies.
“This is total madness. The report is absolutely false, and there is no truth in it,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press, in reference to a front-page article in New York Times datelined out of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
The newspaper said the technology transfer to Libya took place after a pledge by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks that he would rein in his nuclear scientists in an effort to keep their nuclear knowhow from falling into the hands of rogue regimes or terrorists.
A senior official at Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity, also denied any government involvement in any nuclear transfer, but he stopped short of rejecting the charge outright.
“The government of Pakistan was not behind any move aimed at transferring nuclear knowledge or technology or any other thing to any other country,” he said. But “Pakistan should not be blamed for any individual’s wrongful act.”
“We do not know who has been helping Iran, North Korea or Libya,” he said.
Centrifuges can be used to enrich uranium for use in a nuclear device. Hundreds of centrifuges are necessary to make enough to construct a nuclear weapon, and each requires high-precision tubing that is extremely difficult to produce.
The newspaper said there was no evidence the Pakistani government knew that its scientists were selling the information, but that the transfer raised doubts about Musharraf’s ability to make good on his promise to keep a lid on the sensitive technology.
The latest allegations follow an embarrassing admission in December by Pakistan’s government that it was questioning a number of its nuclear scientists on suspicion that “ambition and greed” may have led them to sell their knowledge to Iran. Islamabad vehemently denied government involvement in the plot, and said any leaks were limited to Iran.
But it said it had called in the father of its nuclear program, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, to discuss the investigation. Pakistani officials say he himself is not a suspect, and Khan was seen yesterday sitting with other dignitaries at the SAARC summit of regional leaders.
The Iran link was only disclosed after Tehran admitted the Pakistan connection after agreeing to come clean about its nuclear program. Libya agreed in December to scrap its nuclear program and open itself to full inspections.
A diplomat with knowledge of the Iran investigation recently told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that US intelligence also had “pretty convincing” evidence of a link between Pakistan and North Korea’s weapons program, something Islamabad denies.
Ahmed, the information minister, hinted the allegations were part of a smear campaign against his country, the only Islamic nation that possesses nuclear capability.
