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Arrest Links Pakistan to Nuke Black Market
January 16, 2004
Arrest Links Pakistan to Nuke Black Market
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:34 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- This month's arrest of a South
Africa-based businessman accused of smuggling nuclear
bomb triggers to Pakistan offers a rare window into the
worldwide black market for nuclear weapons parts.
Authorities accuse Asher Karni, 50, of being the
middleman for a complex series of transactions
involving dozens of the triggers. Agents arrested Karni
Jan. 2 at Denver International Airport.
Court documents say Karni used a series of front
companies and misleading shipping documents to buy the
devices from a Massachusetts company, have them sent
through New Jersey to South Africa, then on to the
United Arab Emirates and eventually to Pakistan. What
Karni didn't know, a federal officer said in an
affadavit, was that authorities had intervened and had
the manufacturer sabotage the devices so they couldn't
be used.
The case is the latest indication that Pakistan -- a
key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism -- is deeply
involved in the nuclear weapons black market. The
United States for years has restricted exports of
sensitive goods to Pakistan because of its nuclear
weapons program.
If the devices were indeed headed for Pakistan's
nuclear program, the most likely explanation would be
that Pakistan was planning to build more nuclear bombs.
That could complicate Pakistan's relations with its
neighbor and nuclear rival India.
Officials from the United States and other governments
say Pakistan also was the likely source for some of the
know-how and equipment for nuclear weapons programs in
Libya, North Korea and Iran. Secretary of State Colin
Powell said this month that American officials have
presented evidence to Pakistan's leaders of Pakistani
involvement in the spread of nuclear weapons technology.
Pakistani officials say the government is not involved
in any black-market nuclear deals. But Pakistan has
questioned three top nuclear scientists recently based
on information from the International Atomic Energy
Agency.
``We have investigated. We haven't come across any
evidence'' of proliferation, Ashraf Qazi, Pakistan's
ambassador to Washington, said Wednesday.
The possible spread of nuclear technology from Pakistan
is a greater worry than any attempts by Pakistan to
clandestinely supply its own nuclear program, said
Robert Einhorn, a former State Department arms control
official under President Clinton.
``If we can do it, we should stop both, but clearly
Pakistan's export of nuclear materials and technology
is a lot worse,'' said Einhorn, now with the
nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International
Studies in Washington.
Court documents say Karni went to great lengths to
conceal what he was shipping and where it was going.
Karni heads Top-Cape Technology in Cape Town, South
Africa, which trades in military and aviation
electronic gear. Karni used an elaborate scheme to try
to circumvent U.S. export restrictions to Pakistan and
ship the triggered spark gaps, Commerce Department
Special Agent James Brigham charged in a federal court
affidavit.
The devices can be used for breaking up kidney stones
or triggering nuclear detonations. Anyone exporting
such triggers from the United States to Pakistan must
have a license from the U.S. government.
Brigham wrote that an anonymous source in South Africa
tipped off U.S. authorities and provided information,
including shipping details to allow tracking of the
devices, plus copies of correspondence to and from
Karni.
Karni's contact in Pakistan asked Karni to try to buy
100 to 400 of the triggers, Brigham alleged in his
affidavit. Karni sought the devices from an American
manufacturer, PerkinElmer Optoelectronics of Salem,
Mass.
A PerkinElmer representative in France wrote to Karni
last summer that exporting spark gaps to Pakistan would
require a U.S. license, Brigham wrote. Karni then
contacted a company in New Jersey, which ordered 200 of
the devices from PerkinElmer, the agent wrote.
At federal agents' request, PerkinElmer disabled the 66
spark gaps in an initial shipment to the New Jersey
company, Giza Technologies Inc. of Secaucus.
Giza, which has not been charged in the case, shipped
the devices to South Africa, listing them on shipping
documents as electrical equipment for a hospital in
Soweto. Karni repackaged the triggers and sent them to
Pakistan via Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Brigham
alleged.
A U.S. official in Dubai asked to inspect the package
while it was in a warehouse there, but United Arab
Emirates officials refused, Brigham wrote.
Spark gaps can be used in machines called lithotripters
to break up kidney stones, but even the largest
hospital would need only a half-dozen or so, experts
say. Large orders raise red flags with nuclear experts.
And exporting spark gaps to Pakistan without a license
is illegal even if the devices are for health care.
A PerkinElmer brochure notes they are useful ``for
in-flight functions such as rocket motor ignition,
warhead detonation and missile stage separation.''
PerkinElmer's corporate predecessor, EG&G, similarly
disabled a shipment of 40 similar devices called
krytrons in the 1980s during a sting operation against
Iraq's nuclear program.
Karni's case is not the first involving Pakistani
attempts to buy potential nuclear triggers. Pakistani
citizen Nazir Vaid was convicted in the United States
in 1985 for trying to buy 50 krytrons.
South African police searched Top-Cape's offices last
month, and Karni acknowledged he had shipped the spark
gaps to Pakistan, Brigham alleged in the affidavit.
Under U.S. law, prosecutors would have to prove only
that Karni exported the devices without a license. They
would not have to prove that he knew they would be used
in a weapons program.
Federal prosecutors are appealing a ruling by a Denver
federal magistrate that would set Karni free on $75,000
bond raised by supporters. Prosecutors argue that
Karni, an Israeli citizen, should be jailed because he
could flee to South Africa or Israel and avoid
extradition to the United States.
Karni's Denver lawyer, Harvey Steinberg, did not return
telephone messages. Giza's president and chief
executive officer, Zeki Bilmen, declined comment.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nuclear-Smuggling-Pakistan.html?pagewanted=print&position=
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