Pakistan uranium sold to Libya
2004-02-20 13:52
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Libya received enriched uranium from Pakistan in 2001 for use in nuclear programmes, police said on Friday, citing the alleged chief financier of an international trafficking network.
Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a key operative in the alleged black market nuclear network run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, said Khan told him that "a certain amount" of enriched uranium was flown to Libya from Pakistan on a Pakistani airliner, Malaysian police said in a report released Friday.
Tahir is in Malaysia and has been questioned by local authorities in connection to his activities on Khan's behalf in this Southeast Asian country. The police released their report into the investigation Friday.
Tahir told investigators that Khan also said a "certain number" of centrifuges - sophisticated machines that can be used to enrich uranium for weapons and other purposes - were flown to Libya direct from Pakistan in 2001-02.
In addition, Libya set up a workshop inside the country to produce centrifuge components that could not be supplied from outside the country, the report says.
Machines for the workshop, identified as "Project Machine Shop 1001," were obtained by Peter Griffin, a Briton who once owned Dubai-based company Gulf Technical Industries, who also prepared plans for the machine shop, the report said.
Tahir told investigators that Libya contacted Khan in 1997 for help in building centrifuges.
Tahir accompanied Khan to a series of meetings with Libyan officials starting that year and lasting until 2002 and held in Istanbul, Turkey, Casablanca, Morocco and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, the report says. The Libyan delegation was led by Mohamad Matuq Mohamad, it says.
- AP