U.S. Charges Man With Smuggling Nuclear Equipment to Pakistan

["Gerry Blackwood" <gpblackwood@justice.com>]

U.S. Charges Man With Smuggling Nuclear Equipment to

Pakistan



U.S. authorities last week arrested Israeli citizen

Asher Karni in Denver on charges that he illegally

transferred equipment to Pakistan capable of being used

in nuclear weapons, according to the Rocky Mountain

News (see GSN, Jan. 5).



According to court documents, the South African-based

Karni used a New Jersey company to order 200 switches

known as triggered spark gaps from Perkin Elmer

Optoelectronics in Massachusetts. The switches, which

can be used in medical devices, require U.S. approval

for export to certain countries, including Pakistan,

because of their potential use in nuclear weapons.



Alarmed by the large quantity of the order — even large

hospitals use very few of the switches, according to

Perkin Elmer — the firm alerted U.S. authorities and

later proceeded to deliver an initial shipment of 66

switches to the New Jersey export company, after having

first disabled the devices, according to the News. The

New Jersey company is then believed to have misled

authorities about both the nature of devices and their

intended destination, saying they were to be shipped to

a South African hospital, to avoid having to obtain an

export license. Once the switches arrived in South

Africa, Karni allegedly transferred them to a Pakistani

company.



The U.S. affidavit for Karni’s arrest says that he

admitted the illegal transfer when South African police

searched his business in Cape Town, the News reported

(Karen Abbott, Rocky Mountain News, Jan. 9).



A U.S. federal judge yesterday ruled that Karni can be

released on $75,000 cash bond, according to the

Associated Press. Karni will remain in custody until at

least Thursday, however, while the government appeals

the judge’s ruling, said a spokesman for the U.S.

Attorney’s Office in Denver (Associated Press, Jan. 13).



http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2004/1/13/ae715d9a-ee26-49e2-987b-c34900eda74c.html



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