Let’s talk more: Smugglers Had Design For Advanced Warhead
An international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, according to a draft report by a former top U.N. arms inspector that suggests the plans could have been shared secretly with any number of countries or rogue groups.
The drawings, discovered in 2006 on computers owned by Swiss businessmen, included essential details for building a compact nuclear device that could be fitted on a type of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries, the report states.
“These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world,” Albright wrote in a draft report about the blueprint’s discovery.
“To many of these countries, it’s all about size and weight,” Albright said in an interview. “They need to be able to fit the device on the missiles they have.”
“These would have been ideal for two of Khan’s other major customers, Iran and North Korea,” wrote Albright, now president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. “They both faced struggles in building a nuclear warhead small enough to fit atop their ballistic missiles, and these designs were for a warhead that would fit.”
He contends in the report that IAEA officials confronted Pakistan’s government shortly after the discovery, adding that the private reaction of government officials was astonishment. The Pakistanis “were genuinely shocked; Khan may have transferred his own country’s most secret and dangerous information to foreign smugglers so that they could sell it for a profit,” Albright said.
Albright said it remains critical that investigators press Khan and others for details about how the blueprints were obtained and who might have them. Because the plans were stored electronically, they may have been copied many times, he said.