Rogue Weapons Dealer Had Advanced Nuclear Weapon Design

American and international investigators say that they have found the electronic blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon on computers that belonged to the nuclear smuggling network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist, but that they have not been able to determine whether they were sold to Iran or the smuggling ring's other customers.

The plans appear to closely resemble a nuclear weapon that was built by Pakistan and first tested exactly a decade ago. But when confronted with the design by officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year, Pakistani officials insisted that Dr. Khan, who has been lobbying in recent months to be released from the loose house arrest that he has been under since 2004, did not have access to Pakistan's weapons designs.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[JoeBlough]

So the BushAdmin sends the plans to Iran, then bombs them for having the plans. Only in a Republican World would this happen. Good Luck America.

[jimmyjones22]

Hmmmm. smells like BS fear mongering. The story is over two years old. This reeks of rovian tactics...

as another poster said:

Our Pakistani ALLIES had a nuclear scientist that MAY have provided the Iranians with plans for a nuclear bomb........ which Iran MAY or MAY NOT have the material needed to build....... which MAY fit on a short range missile which CANNOT reach the US....

[MourningDude]

That's okay, because the War on Terror is only a 'bumper sticker', and nuclear threats only exist in George Bush's drug addled mind.

We don't need a President that understands these risk, we need someone like Obama who will downplay them at every opportunity.

We don't need Republicans scaring voters again. WE need to be the ones doing the scaring, and it needs to be about things like global warming and throwing granny into the streets and having their local bridge crumble under their car. Stay focused, people!

[darthdarcy]

A.Q. Kahn's network is responsible for a huge amount of mischief and proliferation and even if the Pakistani government officially didn't share these designs with him members of their ISI certainly would have...there is little doubt Kahn wouldn't have shared these designs but designs are designs and it takes a lot more to actually build a bomb..

[mawrm]

Mark my words - this is the beginning of trying to build a case to attack Iran. The Bush Administration is going to claim that Iran has a copy of these plans and will be able to build an even more powerful and destructive weapon than forecasted earlier. Therefore America "must act" to prevent this from happening. Given that these are plans which are portable/replicable and most importantly practically _non-verifiable_ (think - how does Iran prove it doesn't have these plans) versus say a particular piece of hardware, the neo-cons will try to suggest that we have to take out the entire Iranian military infrastructure instead the normal limited airstrikes.
This is classic spooking - give people enough doubt and uncorrobated information to spook them into believing their worst fears.

[YellerDog]

This presidential election will be a classic battle between the forces of hope and the agents of chaos and fear. Barack Obama is right; they will try to scare us. It's been their winning hand for the last eight years. It's worked so why wouldn't they keep playing it. This is just a skirmish. It will get worse before it gets better.

Yes there are bad people who would do us harm. They are real. I would paraphrase Roosevelt: The worst thing we have to fear is those who sow the seeds of fear in the path of hope. There are more sophisticated and more powerful weapons of mass terror than things that go boom. Be brave dear hearts. Sheeple are easily frightened. The beacon of hope that is America was built on the blood, sweat and tears of the brave people not sheeple. We know the fear mongers playbook. They will demonize Barack Obama, they will turn us against each other, they will scream from he mountains that the terrorists are coming. They will tell us that they know best. They have better intelligence. They are the ones who will protect us. Which of course begs the simple question: On whose watch did 9-11, Katrina, multiple financial crisis, and oh yes $4.50 gas, happen?

Be brave dear hearts. Don't give in. Our turn is coming again.

[JiminNC]

Old news, old fearmongering ... goes well with old candidate ... expected timing.

What's new neocons?

[TXfemmom]

This organization is not controlled by Bush or the United States.

Pakistan is the clear and present danger that Iran is not. Pakistan was the clear and present danger before we went into Iraq, and let Pakistan continue to thwart us and harbor the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

We should pull our troops out quickly and orderly from Iraq, let them rest and train, send in many to Afghanistan, and then take out Pakistan's nukes and nuclear facilities. It can be done with conventional weaponry. Pakistan will be somewhat polluted, but they earned it. Pakistan should be pounded until they are incapable of being a threat to anyone. That would frighten Iran, even Iran, into giving up their nuclear ambitions.

[waiguoren]

Pakistan will become "somewhat polluted," in the same fashion that you are "somewhat" deluded.

[evilzed]

Afganistan, clearly the main terrorist country in the world. So why does Bush support Masharif then and cripes, they have the nukes too.

[Durango]

The world is not as simple a place as you think.

We could no more "take out" Pakistans nuclear potential than we could have taken out the USSR's.

If Iraq and Afghanistan has taught us anything it should be the limits of military power.

Pakistan will not be governed by radical militant Islamic fundamentalists. Those folks in the Tribal Areas are almost as exotic to the Pakistani elite as they are to us.

But we do need to get a handle on the elements of the Pakistani political, intelliegence and military operators who are supporting and financing the Taliban and other militants.

We cannot do that without the help of Pakistan, their government and their military.

We would only set things back with a military attack on the sovereign government of Pakistan.

P.S. What price are you willing to pay for such an attack. New Dehli? How about New York? That is the stakes.

[JoeBlough]

It's because Pakistan has the bomb that Bush will just kiss their ass and beat-up on some small nation that doesn't have the bomb. I think he wants to be a good "crazy war president".

[Shaddup]

Oh c'mon repubs, it's just the free market in action. So it's OK, isn't it?

[RealityBaseCamp]

So, should we invade EVERY country that may have bought said plans?

[willfarnaby]

"Rogue Weapons Dealer"... isn't that an oxymoron ?!

[pfc1369]

It ceretainly is not an oxymoron.

An oxymoron are two opposite words juxtaposed.

You might call "rogue weapons dealers" a truism, though.

[popecorvo]

Benevolent Arms Dealers.

Now that's an oxymoron.

[donaldw6]

Well, there's something to make you stop and think, if ever I've seen it. Nuclear weapons for all! And that would without any question be the end of us, just by elementary statistics. They don't even know how many copies might still be out there. The genie may or may not be out of the bottle. If it is, the world may be too far gone to save.

I think it must be a very sobering experience to acquire the power of nuclear weaponry, no matter which nationality you are. It's direct contact with the power of annihilation in its purest form, the disintegration of the very atoms of which we're made. There could be no sense of finality beyond that experienced in a successful test of a doomsday device.

It seems very possible to me that we're going to experience something beyond imagination unless we begin to use ours to start charting a better path. The motivations of arrogance, belligerence and greed might now be played out on a cosmic scale, thanks to their emergence in the most tragically ingenious of beasts.

[Boobaloo]

I'm going to call this story bullsh*t.

Fear mongering, lying, propaganda ... whatever Orwellian nightmare you want to label it, the point if for the ZioNeoCons to whip up the fear and frenzy to attack Iran.

What a group of vile criminals.

[xrepublican]

Sure raises questions doesn't it?

Reason # 3,428,987 for attacking Iran

Our Pakistani ALLIES had a nuclear scientist that MAY have provided the Iranians with plans for a nuclear bomb........ which Iran MAY or MAY NOT have the material needed to build....... which MAY fit on a short range missile which CANNOT reach the US....

and this is our problem HOW? or is this the justification for Israel launching a strike on Iran - since most American military leaders are doing all they can to keep Cheney from doing so woth American planes.....

[aristippe]

Did you notice that the article claimed outright that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

[pfc1369]

This story is two freaking years old!

How asleep are we supposed to be?

The entire neo-con project has become "Groundhog Day," minus the laughs.

[Nochnoi]

He had a rocket in his pocket and was ready to score some big cash.....

Everyone should have a big shiny missile on hand.... that way we can all be really afraid, or feel safe, or all realize what a STUPID idea nuclear war still is....