'AQ Khan nuke network dangerous for world peace'

Washington, May 26: A Congressional panel took the Bush administration to task for not doing enough to pressurise Pakistan to unravel the depths of the damage caused by the AQ Khan nuclear network.

At a hearing of the Sub-committee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation here yesterday, its Republican chairman Ed Royce of California set the tone for the deliberations saying Khan's network has done ''incalculable and potentially catastrophic damage'' to international security. It has opened an era in which many states, including among the most unstable and most hostile to the United States, can now expect to develop nuclear weapons. ''This is Khan's grim legacy,'' he added.

The hearing brought out the grave danger of how the network may have helped Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups to obtain nuclear secrets and the possibility of radical Islamists seizing control of Pakistan's government and its nuclear arsenal.

Describing the AQ Khan network as the ''Wal-Mart of private sector proliferation'', Mr Royce said its handiwork has helped deliver two of the most threatening security challenges that the United States faces today -- North Korea and Iran.

It ran for over a decade a sophisticated and multinational clandestine network, built around Pakistan's own nuclear weapons programme that passed on nuke enrichment technology to hostile countries, as well as to Libya.

''US policy rightly attempts to work with and pressure the Pakistan government on counter-terrorism, proliferation and other concerns, but not to a destabilising degree,'' he said.

Mr Royce and the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee Mr Brad Sherman from California and Mr Gary Ackerman from New York said the AQ Khan network is far from closed.

They said the Bush administration has ''soft-pedalled'' the issue for too long while Pakistan has provided little information on the network which has caused enormous damage to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, to US national security and to international peace and stability.

The Congressmen also regretted that the international response thus far has not been sufficiently effective. Although revelations about the Khan network have re-energised support for a range of reforms, more extensive improvements to the international nonproliferation regime are still needed to block the emergence of new networks and to detect them promptly if they do arise, they said.

Despite several attempts, Khan, the so-called ''Father of the Pakistan's bomb'' was not allowed to be interviewed, none has been allowed even to question him, they complained. The US Congressmen wondered how such a network of proliferators would have done business internationally without the complicity of the Pakistan military or President Pervez Musharraf. They complained that the Bush administration with its leverage of military and development aid to Pakistan should be able to tackle the issue differently.

''Either the Pakistani government was complicit to some degree, or Khan was able to proliferate enrichment technology for years without attracting its attention. Both scenarios are deeply troubling,'' Mr Royce said.

He said that in the light of what is now known about the Khan network, we should be gravely concerned about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. The idea that Pakistan should be offered the same civilian nuclear energy cooperation agreement which being proposed for India is a non-starter, Mr Royce added.

He also wondered whether the AQ Khan network is trly out of business, asking it its not merely hibernating.

''We'd be foolish to rule out that chilling possibility.

Vigilance and greater international pressure on Pakistan to air out the Khan network is in order,'' he remarked.

Mr Brad Sherman said while proliferation should be on top of the agenda in discussions with Pakistan, Islamabad has been openly shopping for illegal exports of nuclear devices and technology.

Pakistan is a major NATA ally and yet refuses to cooperate on an important issue as the spread of weapons of mass destruction, he said.

Another US Congressman, Mr Ackerman said the Pakistan government has been the single most threat in terms of illegal spread of weapons and the administration remains unconcerned.

One of the witnesses at the hearing Mr David Albright, president of the Washington DC-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), said without assistance from the AQ Khan network, it is unlikely that Iran would have been able to develop the ability to enrich uranium using gas centrifuges, now that country's most advanced and threatening nuclear programme.

He said suspicions also remain that members of the network may have helped Al Qaeda obtain nuclear secrets prior to the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The damage caused by this network led former CIA director George Tenet to reportedly describe Khan as being at least ''as dangerous as Osama bin Laden''.

He said the Khan network succeeded for many years by exploiting weaknesses in export control systems and recruiting suppliers, including some in states that were members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The network's key customers were states contemptuous of NSG controls and committed to violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in their quest for secret nuclear capabilities.

One of the Congressmen pointed out that the United States, with the help of its allies, needs to pursue a broad range of foreign policy, intelligence, nonproliferation, export control, and law enforcement initiatives, as well as policies designed to close down nuclear smugglers' access to civilian industries in newly emerging industrial states.

Another witness at the hearing, Leonard Weiss, Independent Consultant and former staff member of the Senate government affairs committee, said the lifting of sanctions against Pakistan coupled with a 3.2 billion dollar aid package sent them the message that they could continue their nuclear weapons acquisition activities with the US government doing little to stand in their way as long as they continued funneling assistance to the Mujahiddin in Afghanistan and emboldened Pakistan to widen the Khan network and set off a new round of attempts on their part to get nuclear-related materials and components from other countries, including those with relatively tight export controls like the US and Canada.

UNI