NUCLEAR WAL-MART: US AS GUILTY OF COVER-UP AS
PAKISTAN
By B. Raman
I do not wish it, but I
apprehend that if there is an act of terrorism involving
nuclear material in the US homeland by Al Qaeda, it would
have originated from Pakistani territory and Al Qaeda would
have most probably acquired the material either from Pakistan
or from one of the Central Asian Republics. And Al Qaeda's
acquisition of the nuclear material and the expertise in
using it would have been facilitated by the US role in the
cover-up of the involvement of the late
Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto and
Nawaz Sharif in the nuclear trade indulged in Dr. A. Q. Khan
and others on the orders of and with the total knowledge and
support of Musharraf, Benazir and Nawaz.
2. There has been a
well-staged drama going on for three years now as if the US
is anxious that A. Q. Khan be subjected to interrogation by
experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
Vienna, in order to find out the full ramifications of the
nuclear trade and to establish whether non-state actors
might have also been beneficiaries of this trade, but it
does not want to exercise too much pressure on Musharraf
lest he incur the wrath of his people.
3. The truth of the matter
is that it is not only Musharraf and other Pakistani
leaders, who do not want the truth to come out. Even the US
does not want the entire truth to come out since it would
show that it was all the time aware of the involvement of
Pakistani military and political leaders in this trade, but
preferred to close its eyes to it for geopolitical reasons.
It went after the Pakistani scientists----but not after the
Pakistani political leaders and military officers--- only
after the dangers of Al Qaeda getting hold of the nuclear
material and expertise from Pakistan increased. That too, it
went about it in a careful manner in order to spare any
embarrassment for the Pakistani leaders and military
officers and for its own policy-makers, who were projecting
the post-9/11 Musharraf as the greatest thing that could
have happened to Pakistan and the world.
4. Now that A. Q Khan is out
of the bottle, he is going after Musharraf with a vengeance
by claiming that whatever he did in assisting North Korea
for achieving an uranium enrichment capability was within
the knowledge of Musharraf and on his orders. He is not yet
speaking of the US, but wait and see. I am reliably told
that he is planning to come out with a statement that the US
was aware of Zia-ul-Haq's decision to give the military
nuclear technology to Iran, but it kept quiet because of the
helpful role being played by Zia in the proxy war against
the Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
5. Unless, of course, to
stop him from making any more damaging disclosures, the
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has him eliminated and
shows his death as due to natural causes since he was a
cardiac patient and suffering from other ailments. Before
the ISI, with the collusion of all the Pakistani leaders and
military officers involved in this trade, has Dr. A. Q. Khan
eliminated in the doctor's cabin, the IAEA should get hold
of him and take him out of the country.
6. But, of course, A. Q. Khan,
in foreign custody may not be as talkative and as
co-operative as A. Q. Khan in Pakistani territory, but the
chance has to be taken.
7. Since the restrictions on
his interacting with Pakistani and foreign journalists were
relaxed by the present Government, he has been making one
damaging disclosure after another, but his earlier
disclosures merely related to his claiming that the
statements made by him in the past were made under duress.
Previously, he did not give any details of the nuclear
trade. Now, he has started giving these details in respect
of North Korea, which is not an Islamic country.
8. The "Dawn" of Karachi of
July 5,2008, has reported as follows: " Detained nuclear
scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan on Friday accused President
Pervez Musharraf and the army of being involved in
transferring nuclear technology to North Korea. He said no
sensitive shipment could be sent to any country from any
airport in Pakistan without the knowledge and supervision of
the army. “People know that a military aircraft or a foreign
country’s plane was used for sending the consignment,” he
said. In one of his statements, Dr Khan said that the
uranium enrichment equipment had been sent from Pakistan in
a North Korean plane which was loaded under the supervision
of Pakistani security officials. Asked what was his
involvement in the transfer of nuclear technology, he said
only that centrifuges had been picked from Kahuta.
Dr Khan said the army had “complete knowledge” of the
shipment of used P-1 centrifuges to North Korea and that it
must have been sent with the consent of Musharraf, who was
the army chief and president. “It was a North Korean plane
and the army had complete knowledge about it and the
equipment,” Dr Khan said. “It must have gone with his (Musharraf’s)
consent.” When asked why had he taken the sole
responsibility for the nuclear proliferation, Dr Khan said
he had been persuaded to do so by friends, including PML-Q
chief Chaudhry Shujjat Hussain, a key figure in the ruling
party at the time. They said that it was in the best
national interest. He said that he had been promised
complete freedom in return, but “those promises were not
honoured”. Dr Khan also said that he had travelled to North
Korea in 1999 with a Pakistan army general to buy
shoulder-launched missiles." “No flight, no equipment could
go outside without the clearance from the ISI and SPD and
they used to be at the airport, not me,” Dr Khan said,
referring to the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency
and the Strategic Planning Division that manages Pakistan’s
nuclear arsenal. Dr Khan said he had visited North Korea
twice, in 1994 and then in 1999, when he was sent to procure
missiles during the so-called Kargil conflict. Dr Khan told
Kyodo that the missiles were shoulder-fired SA 15.
Dr Khan told AP that Musharraf had requested him to make the
second trip and he did so accompanied on a special plane by
General Iftikhar Hussain Shah."
9. For many years, I have
been reporting in detail about the involvement of senior
Pakistani Army officers and political leaders in the supply
of military nuclear technology to North Korea in return for
the supply of long-range missiles and connected technology
by North Korea to Pakistan. I have also been reporting in
some detail about the triangular strategic co-operation
involving Pakistan, North Korea and Iran for over two
decades. Almost everything---conventional weapons or
missiles---that went to Iran from North Korea went via
Pakistan. North Korea's long-range missile development
programme was funded by Iranian money funnelled through
Pakistan.
10. The entire missile
arsenal of Pakistan is of Chinese or North Korean origin,
even though Musharraf and others claim that it is totally of
indigenous origin. Has any other country in the world
claimed to have carried out so many missile tests as
Pakistan has since Musharraf came to power? Does Pakistan
have the know-how and capability for manufacturing so many
missiles one after the other in quick succession? So many
long-range missiles in Pakistan's possession speak of the
voluminous nature of the missile supplies by North Korea. If
North Korea has given so many missiles to Pakistan for use
against India, it is reasonable to apprehend that it has
sold an equal number, if not more, to Iran for possible use
against Israel.
11. The truth of the extent
of the involvement of Pakistan and Iran --- separately of
each other as well as jointly--- has to be found out in the
interest of international peace and security.
12. The entire truth can be
found out only if the US wants it to be found out, even at
the risk of exposing the past mistakes of its policy of
supporting and pampering Pakistan, right or wrong.
13. Does the US want the
truth to be found out?
14. Since Pakistan tested
its first North Korean missile in 1998, I had written over
a dozen articles on Pakistan's nuclear Wal-mart. I am
annexing two of them.
(The
writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat,
Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also
associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies.
E-mail:
seventyone2@gmail.com)
ANNEXURE I
From my paper of April 7,
2003, titled "THE PAKISTANI-NORTH KOREAN WMD AXIS"
(http://www.saag.org/papers7/paper654.html). This was also
published by the "Indian Defence Review"
(January-March,2003) of the Lancer Publishers And
Distributors of New Delhi .
Quote Pakistan’s arms supply
relationship with North Korea dates back to 1971 when the
late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, the then Foreign Minister under
the late Gen. Yahya Khan, visited Pyongyang and sought
North Korean arms supplies to strengthen the Pakistani Armed
Forces in the face of a looming war with India. Pakistan
then did not have diplomatic relations with North Korea.
However, the visit led to the signing of an agreement on
September 18,1971, 10 weeks before the outbreak of the war
with India, for the supply of North Korean-made
conventional weapons to Pakistan. Under another agreement
signed the same day, the two countries agreed to set up
mutual consular relations, which were upgraded to
full-fledged diplomatic relations on November 9,1972.
Under the agreement of
September 18,1971, Pakistan received from North Korea, in
return for payment in US dollars, many shipments of items
such as rocket launchers, ammunition etc. In the 1980s,
Pakistan also acted as an intermediary in facilitating arms
supply agreements concluded by Pyongyang with Libya and
Iran. During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, North Korea
became a principal supplier of weapons to Iran, which was
the target of an arms embargo imposed by the Western
countries. To escape detection by the Western intelligence
agencies, North Korean arms shipments meant for Iran used to
be received by sea at Karachi and from there transported in
Pakistani trucks to Iran across Balochistan. Amongst the
supplies made by North Korea to Iran via Karachi were over
100 Scud B (known as the Hwasong 5 in North Korea)
ballistic missiles and equipment for the assembly,
maintenance and ultimate production of these missiles in
Iranian territory.
In this transaction,
Pakistan played a double game. On the one hand, the then
ruling military regime of the late Zia-ul-Haq collaborated
with the USA’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the
Iraqi intelligence in destabilisation operations directed at
the Sunni Balochis living on the Iranian side of the
border. At the same time, it clandestinely allowed the
transport by road of North Korean arms and ammunition meant
for use by the Iranian Army against the Iraqis. Pakistani
army officers were also sent to Libya to help in the
training of Libyan Army officers in the use and maintenance
of North Korean weaponry.
During the Zia regime,
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and its North
Korean counterpart collaborated closely for the clandestine
acquisition of nuclear and missile-related equipment and
technology from the then West Germany and other Western
countries. Since North Korea did not have either a presence
or the funds and other capability to be able to indulge in
clandestine procurement from the West, it gave lists of its
requirements to the ISI, which procured them and passed them
on.
This co-operation between
the two countries, the foundation for which was laid by Z.
A. Bhutto, was further strengthened during the two tenures of
Mrs. Benazir Bhutto as the Prime Minister (1988-90 and
1993-96). It was during this time that Pakistan failed in
its efforts to develop an indigenous missile production
capability (the Hatf series) and it sought Chinese and North
Korean supplies of missiles as well as technology for their
production in Pakistan. During her second tenure, Benazir
visited Pyongyang during which the scope of the arms supply
agreement concluded when her father was the Foreign Minister
was expanded to include co-operation in the nuclear and
missile fields---including the training of the scientists
and engineers of the KRL (Kahuta Research Laboratories) in
North Korea, the training of North Korean scientists and
engineers in the Pakistani uranium enrichment plant at
Kahuta and the supply of the No-Dong missiles and the
related technology to Pakistan.
Earlier, during the first
tenure (1990-93) of Nawaz Sharif as the Prime Minister,
Lt.Gen.Javed Nasir, the Director-General of the ISI, visited
Pyongyang to sign a secret agreement with the North Korean
intelligence for the joint production through reverse
engineering of the US-made, shoulder-fired Stinger missiles
and their batteries. Some of the missiles in the stock of
the Pakistani army were given to the North Korean
intelligence for this purpose. The Iranian intelligence
agreed to fund this project. It is not known whether this
project succeeded in producing an imitated version of the
Stingers and their batteries. The ISI was particularly
interested in the batteries because it was unable to use a
large number of Stinger missiles in its stocks since the
life-period of the batteries supplied by the USA before 1988
to enable the use of these missiles against the Soviet
troops in Afghanistan had expired.
Throughout the 1990s,
whoever was at the helm in Islamabad, the trilateral
co-operation involving Pakistan, Iran and North Korea in the
development and production of the Scud—C (called Hwasong 6
in North Korea) and the No-Dong missiles continued without
interruption despite Teheran’s anger against Pakistan for
backing the Taliban and for failing to prevent the periodic
massacre of Pakistani Shias and Iranian nationals by the
Sunni extremist Sipah-e-Sahaba, Pakistan, and its militant
wing, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ).
During 1992, when Nawaz
Sharif was the Prime Minister, a team of Pakistani
scientists and engineers had visited North Korea’s missile
development centre, reportedly for a joint examination of
some technical problems encountered by North Korea in the
development of the No-Dong. The same year also saw a visit
by Kim Yong-nam, the then North Korean Foreign Minister and
Deputy Prime Minister, to Syria, Iran and Pakistan in
July-August. Pakistani and Iranian scientists and
engineers visited North Korea in May,1993, to witness the
launching of one No-Dong and three Scud missiles (model not
known).
The visit of Benazir to
Beijing and Pyongyang in December,1993, was followed by the
visits of a number of North Korean personalities to Pakistan
in 1994-95 to discuss bilateral nuclear and missile
co-operation. Important amongst these visits were:
* During April,1994, Pak
Chung-kuk, deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly, visited
Iran and Pakistan at the head of a team of officials of the
North Korean Foreign Ministry and the nuclear and missile
establishment.
* During September,1994,
Choe Hui-chong, Chairman of the State Commission of Science
and Technology, visited Pakistan at the head of a team of
North Korean nuclear and missile experts.
* During November 1995, a
delegation of North Korean military officers and nuclear and
missile experts headed by Choe Kwang,Vice Chairman of the
National Defense Commission, Minister of the People's Armed
Forces, and Marshal of the Korean People's Army, visited
Pakistan. The delegation met senior officials of the Armed
Forces and visited Pakistan’s nuclear and missile
establishments, including the KRL The team included senior
officials of the Fouth Machine Industry Bureau of the
Second Economic Committee and the Changgwang Sinyong
Corporation ( also known as the North Korea Mining
Development Trading Corporation). During the visit, the KRL
and the Changgwang Sinyong Corporation signed an agreement
for the supply to Pakistan of the No-Dong missiles as well
as fuel tanks and rocket engines. The agreement also
provided for the stationing of North Korean missile experts
in the KRL for the training of their Pakistani counterparts
in the use and maintenance of the missiles supplied by
North Korea and for the supply and development of mobile
erector launchers for the missiles.
These visits contributed to
the speeding up of Pakistan’s missile programme and
culminated in the firing of the so-called Ghauri missile by
the KRL on April 6,1998, which was projected by Pakistan as
its own indigenously-developed missile. Despite this, the
US State Department imposed two-year sanctions against the
KRL and the Changgwang Sinyong Corporation on April 24,
1998, which expired on April 23, 2000. The KRL had earlier
been the subject of similar sanctions imposed by the State
Department in August 1993 for its clandestine procurement
of the M-11 missiles from China.
Thus, the sanctions imposed
on March 24, 2003, are the third against the KRL. These
sanctions have had no effect either on Pakistan or North
Korea. The KRL and the North Korean Corporation are
State-owned entities, run and managed by officers of the
Armed Forces of the two countries. Pakistan had used a
US-supplied aircraft of its Air Force for transporting the
missiles to Pakistan. The missiles and other weapons sent by
North Korea to Iran in the 1980s had transited through
Pakistani territory, escorted by the Pakistan Army.
Pakistan and North Korea have a joint project for the
reverse engineering of the US-made Stingers. North Korean
nuclear scientists witnessed Pakistan’s Chagai nuclear tests
of May,1998. Pakistan has been helping North Korea in the
development of its uranium enrichment facility. The two
countries have been training each other’s nuclear and
missile scientists in their respective establishments. In
return for the North Korean assistance, Pakistan had
diverted to North Korea wheat purchased from the USA and
Australia and had been paying it from its huge dollar
reserves built up after 9/11, thereby enabling Pyongyang to
withstand the economic boycott by the West. To hoodwink the
US intelligence, Pakistan had got transported some of the
Chinese as well as North Korean missiles by road via the
Karakoram Highway. Pakistan's diplomatic mission in
Pyongyang is generally headed and staffed by serving or
retired army officers, who had previously served in the
clandestine nuclear and missile procurement set-up of the
ISI. The latest instance in this regard is Maj.Gen. (retd)
Fazle Ghafoor.
In spite of all this, for
the US to pretend as if the repeated violations of nuclear
and missile related regulations by Pakistan were the
misdeeds of errant individual entities for which the State
cannot be held responsible shows the extent to which it is
prepared to close its eyes to what Pakistan has been doing.
If there is one country in the world which has been
systematically violating with impunity all regulations
relating to nuclear and missile proliferation and from which
there is a real danger of leakage of weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) and related technologies to pan-Islamic
terrorists, that is Pakistan. The US double standards in
this matter are evident from the alacrity and vigour with
which it has acted against Iraq despite the lack of any
credible evidence against it and the care with which it
protects the regime in Pakistan, despite all the evidence
available against it.Unquote.
ANNEXURE II
A.Q.KHAN & OSAMA BIN LADEN
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers10/paper960.html
24-3-04
Gen.Pervez Musharraf,
Pakistan's US-blessed military dictator, continues to
assert, without any fears of contradiction or punitive
action by the US, that the action of a group of scientists
of Pakistan headed by A.Q.Khan in clandestinely selling or
transfering military nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and
North Korea was a rogue operation without the knowledge or
approval of the political or military leadership of the
country.
2. In his latest assertion
on the subject, he told the CNN, the US TV channel, in an
interview on March 19, 2004, as follows: " I am extremely
positive neither the Government nor the military was
involved. The Pakistan Government had carried out
investigations into the episode and concluded that it was
these individuals who carried out the proliferation of
nuclear technology."
3. His repeatedly-asserted
contention has been that after the interception by the
intelligence agencies of the US and the UK of a ship in
October last year which was found carrying to Libya a
clandestine consignment of centrifuges for uranium
enrichment got manufactured at the instance of A.Q.Khan by a
company in Malaysia with the assistance of a Sri Lankan
Muslim, he became aware of the extensive non-proliferation
activities of the A.Q.Khan group and immediately acted
against them.
4. According to Musharraf,
details of the clandestine travels and proliferation network
of A.Q. Khan came to notice during the subsequent
investigation. In one of his statements, he has even blamed
the US intelligence agencies for not uncovering this network
earlier than October last year and asserted that if they had
done so, he would have acted against it even earlier.
5. Not many experts and
analysts of the world have been convinced of the innocence
of Pakistan's military in this affair. Many of us,
including this writer, have been pointing out that this
proliferation started and continued at the instance and with
the blessing of Pakistan's military leadership. I have also
been pointing out in many articles that while the late Zia-ul-Haq,
Pakistan's military dictator, who ruled the country from
1977 to 1988, authorised the proliferation to Iran,
Musharraf himself had authorised that to Libya and North
Korea and was totally in the picture.
6. But, unfortunately, for
reasons of realpolitik, the US Administration has chosen to
accept the denials of military responsibility by Musharraf.
It has not only given him a clean chit, but has even
rewarded him and his country by confering on it the status
of a Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA).
7. Despite the efforts of
Musharraf, with the benediction of the US, to keep his
cupboard tightly shut to prevent the discovery of any more
skeletons, nuclear skeletons keep propping up here, there
and everywhere much to his consternation. The skeletons are
there everywhere if only the US wants to look at them.
8. Was the discovery of the
centrifuges in the ship intercepted last October the first
wake-up call as contended by Musharraf? No.
9. In 2000, Abdul Ma"bood
Siddiqui, a London-based chartered accountant of Pakistani
origin, had written a book on his reminiscences, which was
published by the Hurmat Publications of Islamabad. In that
book, Siddiqui claimed to be a close personal friend of
A.Q.Khan and to have accompanied him in at least three of
his travels abroad. He gives the following details of these
travels:
(Citation starts) "In
February,1998, I received a call from Tahir Mian (My
comments: He is the Sri Lankan Tamil who helped A.Q.Khan by
getting the centrifuges manufactured in Malaysia), a dear
friend of mine and a very close associate of Dr.Khan. He
said that A.Q.Khan is planning a visit to Timbuktu and you
are invited to join him. My joy knew no bounds at the
prospect of spending a few days with A.Q.Khan. I reached
Dubai on 19 February 1998 and met Dr.A.Q.Khan. He had with
him one Mr. Hanks, a Dutch businessman dealing in air
filtration system, solar energy, metallurgical machinery
and materials. Lt.Gen.Dr. Chauhan, former Surgeon-General of
Pakistan Army and now Director-General of Medical Services
Division of KRL ( My comments: The Khan Research
Laboratories of Kahuta, which produces enriched uranium for
atomic bombs) and Brig.Sajawal. Dr.Khan told us that we
would fly to Timbuktu via Casablanca in Morocco and Bamako,
capital of Mali. (My comments: Mr.Nawaz Sharif was the Prime
Minister at that time)
"At Casablanca, the First
Secretary of Pakistan Embassy, Mr.Inayatullah Kakar,
received us. The Honorary Consul-General of Pakistan in
Morocco Hussain bin Jiloon gave a dinner in honour of
Dr.Khan, which was also attended by our Ambassador Azmat
Hussain. Next day, we caught the Royal Morocco Airline for
Bamako. From Bamako, a plane was chartered for US $ 4,000 to
take us to Timbuktu. We had only a few hours at Timbuktu,
which we spent in sight-seeing. We returned to Dubai by the
same route.
" Next I met Dr.Khan on 28
June 1998 in Kuala Lumpur at the wedding of Tahir Mian. (My
comment: Nawaz Sharif was still in power). It was decided
there to make another trip to Timbuktu because the last
visit was short and we could not see much of the city. I
got the summons in February 1999 and was on my way to Dubai
on 19 February 1999. (My comment: Nawaz Sharif still in
power) Dr.Khan was already there with his old group with
additions of Dr.Fakhrul Hasan Hashmi, Chief Scientific
Adviser to Dr.A.Q.Khan, Brig.Tajwar, Director-General
Security KRL, and Dr.Nazir Ahmed, Director-General S&TC
Division KRL. Dr.Khan told us that this time we would take a
different route to Timbuktu. We will fly there via Sudan and
Nigeria.
" We left Dubai for Khartoum
on 21 February 1999. The Education Minister of Sudan
received the group and we were lodged at the State Guest
House. After making a short stopover in a Nigerian city, we
reached Timbuktu on 24 February 1999. After spending a
couple of days, we were on our way back and our first stop
was Niamey, capital of Niger. Our next stop was N'Djamena,
capital of Chad, where we were accorded official protocol.
Next day, we flew to Khartoum. After Dr.Khan has attended to
some business, we visited the Shifa factory that was
destroyed last year by the American missiles. Dr.Khan met
the Sudanese President. We were back in Dubai on 28 February
1999.
" We were again airborne for
Timbuktu on 20 February 2000 (My comments: Musharraf had
seized power on October 12,1999) From Dubai, we flew to
Khartoum, where two Sudanese friends joined us. We reached
Niamey, capital of Niger, on 22 February 2000. Our
Ambassador Brig. Nisar welcomed the group and gave a dinner
in honour of Dr.Khan. Brig.Nisar had also served as the
Military Secretary of Nawaz Sharif. Niger has big uranium
deposits. We reached Timbuktu on 24 February 2000 for a stay
of two days and were lodged in the newly-built (completed in
December 1999) Hotel La Colombe. We started the return
journey on 26 February 2000 touching various countries on
the way. We broke our journey in Nairobi, capital of Kenya,
where First Secretary in the Pakistan Embassy Mr.Najmus
Saqib, welcomed us. We were back in Dubai on 29 February
2000 after having visited 10 African countries."
10. These accounts of three
of the travels of Dr.A.Q.Khan establish conclusively the
following facts:
* He had kept the Pakistani
Foreign Office informed of his travels. The Foreign Office
had instructed the Pakistani diplomatic missions in the
countries visited by him to accord the due honours of
protocol to him.
* In all the countries, he was received by officers of the
Pakistani diplomatic missions and entertained by the heads
of missions.
* In Sudan, he was accorded
the honours of protocol generally given to a member of the
Cabinet and called on the President of the country.
* He was accompanied by
senior serving scientists of Pakistan's nuclear
establishment, who were among those responsible for
Pakistan's military nuclear development. They could not have
gone abroad and remained absent for days without the
knowledge and clearance of the Government.
* At least one Lt.Gen.
belonging to the Pakistan Army's Medical Corps, who had
headed it, and two Brigadiers had accompanied him. They
could not have gone and remained away from the country
without the knowledge and clearance of the Military
Headquarters. .
11. The uranium enriched at
KRL, Kahuta, used to come from Africa, mainly Niger. This
partly explains the frequent travels of A.Q.Khan to Africa.
From the accounts given by the Pakistani author, two
intriguing questions arise:
* Why did Khan consider it
necessary to visit the site of a factory in Sudan, which
became the target of US Cruise missile attacks after the
explosions outside the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam
by Al Qaeda in August 1998? The Americans had alleged at
that time that this factory belonged to Osama bin Laden and
was producing chemicals for weaponisation purposes. Denying
this, the Sudanese authorities had claimed that it was
producing anti-malaria drugs.
* Why was he visiting frequently Timbuktu, which has
apparently no importance from the nuclear point of view?
Pakistani officials have alleged that he had illegally
constructed a hotel there ( Hotel La Colombe?) in the name
of his wife. If he was going there to supervise the
construction of the hotel, he should have been accompanied
by experts in building construction and the hotel industry.
No such person accompanied him. He was always accompanied by
scientists and Army officers associated with KRL and Tahir
Mian, who was helping him in the procurement of centrifuges.
12. It is reliably learnt
from well-placed observers that it also came out during the
recent interrogation of the associates of Khan in Pakistan's
nuclear establishment that after Osama bin Laden shifted
from Khartoum to Afghanistan in 1996, Dr.Khan was also
looking after bin Laden's extensive investments in the
mining industry in many African countries and that the money
invested in the Timbuktu hotel had come from these
investments of bin Laden. The Pakistani authorities have
reportedly suppressed this information and not shared it
with the US.