Nuclear weapons plans lost, potentially sold to black market

[bascule]

AQ Khan, father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, recently recanted his confessions regarding selling centrifuge technologies, including plans and parts, to Iran and North Korea.

 

Now, he's denying claims that complete plans for nuclear bombs were sold by his group to the black market:

 

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jprNveWzuD_a9kRZ9Spjt5VY_UMgD91BU8700

 

A recently released report by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, reveals that digital copies of nuclear weapons plans are unaccounted for and may be in the hands of the black market. According to its author David Albright, a former UN arms inspector:

 

"It's a very different category of information, and it's very dangerous," he said. "There are no other designs out there. There is very little information of this quality out there outside of the nuclear weapons states."

 

Khan claimed Albright's report was funded by the CIA and was an attempt by the United States to spread negative propaganda about Pakistan.

 

This is some of the scariest stuff I've ever heard, but inevitable, I suppose. It seems like there's a fairly good chance that nuclear weapons designs are no longer a secret known only to existent nuclear powers.

[Pangloss]

Thanks for starting this. One of the thing I thought was so interesting about the story was the fact that it appeared all of a sudden on several major news outlets. The guy is under house arrest and previously had no communication with the outside world. Suddenly he was able to do live interviews. I've not yet seen a reason for that, and I suspect that there's more to this sudden flurry of AQ Khan news than meets the eye.

[bascule]

Thanks for starting this. One of the thing I thought was so interesting about the story was the fact that it appeared all of a sudden on several major news outlets. The guy is under house arrest and previously had no communication with the outside world. Suddenly he was able to do live interviews. I've not yet seen a reason for that, and I suspect that there's more to this sudden flurry of AQ Khan news than meets the eye.

 

I think it's somewhat suspicious he recanted his confession weeks before the UN report was released, a report which potentially links the stolen weapons plans to AQ Khan's cohorts. Although the report says nothing definitive about the plans being in the hands of the black market, it certainly implies that it's a strong possibility.