According to the Britsh Telegraph newspaper, the US is increasing pressure on our `ally' Pakistan to allow its nuclear scientist AQ Khan, dubbed `the father of the Islamic bomb' to be questioned by the IAEA. after fresh traces of enriched uranium were found on equipment used at an Iranian military site and new info has surfaced about a secret Iranian nukes project.Dr Khan is under house arrest..or more likely, close watch as a major asset of the Musharraf regime. He supposedly knows where all the bodies are buried and exactly what the mullahs have nuclear-wise, having sold nuclear materials, plans and technology to Iran.
The US and the IAEA have been asking that Khan be questioned ever since Iran's clandestine nuke program came to light roughly three years ago. Musharraf has consistently refused....mostly because Dr Khan, who is very popular with the Pakistani public could bring to light embarrasing details on how major figures in the Musharraf regime and in Pakistani intel colluded in selling nuclear technology to Iran...and perhaps others. A secondary reason might very well be that Pakistan's nuclear weapons program has a few unknown elements that Musharraf would just as soon keep secret, especially from India and his `allies' the US.
If Dr Khan sings, it could provide major insights into the recent discovery, by IAEA inspectors, of enrichment contamination on machinery previously used at Teheran's Lavizan-Shian military complex.
That find pretty much contradicts Iran's claims that it wants nukes for peaceful energy uses rather than weaponry..but then, we knew that, right?
After Iranian dissidents outed Iran's secret nuclear program, the Lavizan-Shian facility was shut down in 2004 , on the orders of the Teheran government before IAEA staff could inspect it. The IAEA believes that Dr Khan could provide information about the work that was taking place there.
Musharref has paid no attention to the requests of the IAEA or his US ally and declared the case against Dr Khan as "closed", although virtually nothing has been investigated. And all 12 of Dr Khan's associates who were originally arrested on suspicion of involvement in the nuclear proliferation racket have now been released.
Gen Hameed Gul, the former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, told The Sunday Telegraph: "They want to squeeze Dr Khan to use his statements as evidence for the upcoming meeting of the UN Security Council. Support from Beijing and Moscow would only be possible if the US is able to provide ample evidence, and Dr Khan's words could be instrumental."
In the same paper,there's an article stating that IAEA officials investigating Iran's nuclear program say they have found convincing evidence that the Iranians are working on a secret uranium enrichment project that has not been officially declared.
No, not really?
Those of you who read JoshuaPundit regularly and saw my article on the mullah's facility at Neyshabour already knew this two months ago.
According to the article, IAEA officials are trying to establish whether Iran has what they call "parallel" nuclear enrichment facilities, which they suspect are being developing at closed military bases around the country. Like Neyshabour.
The current discussions over Iran's uranium enrichment is based on the uranium processing plant at Isfahan and the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. The world found out about Natanz after Iranian exiles revealed its location back in 2003.
UN officials now believe that the Mullahs have set up a parallel enrichment project that would enable them to continue with their uranium enrichment activity in secret if Natanz and Isfahan would monitored..or destroyed by military attack.
The IAEA first got a clue when Iran mistakenly submitted a document about the production of "green salt". Green salt is similar to uranium that has been partially processed to weapons grade and Iran has not yet been able to explain why it's being produced.
The IAEA also inadvertantly discovered a set of drawings that show the Iranians are in the process of building an enriched uranium hemisphere, a construction that is only used to build nuclear weapons. Iran refused to hand over the drawings.
"It all fits into a pattern of behaviour that suggests the Iranians have something to hide," said a senior diplomat attached to the IAEA headquarters in Vienna.
Gee, yah think? And these are the people the UN and the Bush Administration want to give more nuclear technology to...in the belief that they can be trusted!
*sigh*
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