News of the Day

In case you missed it, the news that seems ready to break out from under the radar is in regards to a letter from nuclear proliferation scientist A. Q. Khan that was sent to his wife. The details of the letter may give us some idea of the questions the US has wanted to ask A. Q. Khan about for some time, although access to the scientist has repeatedly been denied by the Pakistan government.

The story begins with this article in the Sunday Times by Simon Henderson, and is getting more attention in India by The Times of India. I have to be honest, when I first noticed the article, I was very skeptical... but the lack of reaction kind of sums it up - this is almost certainly legit. None of the details are new exactly, most are what has been suspected for some time without specific details.

The bottom line for some will be that A. Q. Khan admits to being the guy who gave the Iranians nuclear technology, but for me the issue is the allegation of Chinese nuclear proliferation. The Sunday Times article notes this was 1982:

“We put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250km southwest of Xian).” It went on: “The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tons of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%).”

This was before the civilian nuclear agreement between China and Pakistan in 1986 and before the Chinese supplied Pakistan with a civilian reactor in 1989. Makes it somewhat tough to believe what the Chinese say when they are proliferating nuclear weapons in private while playing up the non-proliferation position in public.

No wonder the US doesn't want this guy in public, can you imagine what A. Q. Khan would say on 60 minutes? He speaks English very well you know...