Warhead design ties Libya nuke project to Khan

About two weeks ago, a 747 aircraft chartered by the US government landed at Dulles Airport here carrying a single piece of precious cargo: a small box containing warhead designs that US officials believe were sold to Libya by the underground network linked to Khan. The warhead designs were the first hard evidence that the secret network provided its customers far more than just the technology. Libyan officials have told investigators that they bought the blueprints from dealers who are part of that network, apparently for more than 50 million. What the Libyans purchased, in the words of an American weapons expert, was both the kitchen equipment 8216;8216;and the recipes.8217;8217; Experts say the designs resemble warheads that China tested in late 1960s and passed on to Pakistan decades ago.

US officials say it is difficult to believe that Pakistan8217;s nuclear secrets could have been exported without the knowledge of some in the military and the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, especially since some shipments were made on Pakistani military aircraft. Whoever was responsible, the warhead design appears now to have been a sought-after prize of the network of nuclear middlemen and parts producers that US officials say is being broken up, from Germany to Malaysia, and from Dubai to the Netherlands. 8216;8216;Ever since the Libya revelations, there have been a lot of detentions,8217;8217; one US official said.

The documents were hurried out of Libya on the first flight that could be arranged 8212; a January 22 charter that had just arrived in Libya with equipment for the CIA and others dismantling the Libyan nuclear complex. The documents are now being held by the US Energy Department, which oversees America8217;s nuclear arsenal.

The last shipment of missile parts to Libya was intercepted in October. According to US and European investigators, not all the paths led directly back to the Khan laboratory. Centrifuge parts were made in Malaysia, and other parts were obtained in Germany and Japan. But both the centrifuge designs and the bomb designs seized in Libya appear to have come from the same country, according to experts.

The discoveries in Tripoli are causing intelligence agencies and investigators to revisit some older cases, including one involving Iraq 8212; which documents suggest was offered nuclear technology before the start of the 1991 Gulf War. Hussein Kamel, a son-in-law of Saddam Hussein, after he defected in 1995, handed over a memorandum to CIA, dated June 10, 1990, which appeared to be a proposal from an unidentified middleman referring to offers 8216;8216;from the Pakistani scientist Dr Abd-el-Qadeer Khard8217;8217;. The IAEA later concluded that that the Iraqis never took up the offer.