OAK RIDGE, Tenn., 17 March 2004 — Libya paid at least $100 million to the nuclear arms network run by the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb for equipment needed in Tripoli’s own drive to build a bomb, US officials said on Monday.
A senior Bush administration official said Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist, cut a “very lucrative” deal in the 1990s to supply Libya with almost everything it needed for its nuclear arms program, from centrifuges to on-site training.
“It was truly one-stop shopping,” said Jim Wilkinson, deputy White House national security adviser.
In addition to Libya, Khan has admitted selling nuclear secrets to Iran and North Korea but was pardoned by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Khan may have sold his nuclear wares to other nations as well, administration and congressional officials say.
The White House put some of Libya’s centrifuge parts on display for the first time on Monday at the heavily guarded Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
Tripoli agreed to give up its nuclear weapons program in December, prompting the Bush administration to ease some US sanctions.
“The Khan network’s financial dealings were deliberately complex and we do not have a complete picture,” said Wilkinson. “The developing picture, however, indicates that the Khan network received at least $100 million for supplying technology, equipment and know-how” to the Libyans alone.
It was the White House’s first public accounting of Khan’s business dealings with Libya, and it topped previous estimates by diplomats of transactions totaling between $50 million and $100 million.
The Khan network stretched across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Mohamed El-Baradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has described it as a “supermarket” for countries wanting the bomb.
While administration officials touted progress combating proliferation, they acknowledge there are other nuclear suppliers out there besides Khan.
“There are many other sources of supply for this type of (nuclear) equipment as well as in the chemical and biological areas,” one official said.
His network would eventually become the “principle supplier for the entire (Libyan) program,” the official added.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday he would seek assurances from Pakistan’s president that no officials of his government have been involved in the Pakistani-based network.
“We can’t be satisfied until this entire network is gone, branch and root,” Powell told a news conference after meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha in New Delhi.
Powell said he is confident that Musharraf wants to get to the bottom of the issue. But he added that he would like information about any help that Khan may have received in his proliferation activities.
