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Western Intelligence Agencies Missed Link to A.Q. Khan's Nuclear Proliferation Network
Updated 6/2/2004 A man closely connected to Pakistan's nuclear arms trafficking network was convicted more than two years ago of exporting uranium enrichment equipment to A.Q. Khan, yet officials apparently did not follow through with an investigation.
- Customs examine British link in nuclear parts trade, The Guardian, 3/5/2004
- How the Pakistani Nuclear Ring Managed to Skirt Export Laws, Wall Street Journal, 3/23/2004
- Malaysia Arrests Nuclear Network Suspect, Washington Post, 5/29/2004
A business partner of the central figure in Pakistan's nuclear arms trafficking network was convicted in England more than two years ago of exporting equipment used to enrich uranium to the laboratory of Dr. A.Q. Khan, the reputed "father" of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. British investigators, however, apparently failed to connect the man to the larger Pakistani proliferation network.
In October 2001, a London court convicted Abu Siddiqui, a British businessman of Bangladeshi origin, of illegally evading British export laws by shipping vital nuclear components to Khan's lab in Pakistan. The shipments, made between 1995 and 1999, reportedly included computer equipment, a 12-ton heat treatment furnace, sophisticated measuring devices, and high-quality aluminum bars. According to prosecutors, Siddiqui purchased the components from Britain and North America. He reportedly took orders for the equipment directly from Khan, who was a friend of his father.
Corporate records from 1999 list Siddiqui as the "co-director" of a company known as SMB Europe Limited. The director of SMB Europe was Buhary Seyed Abu Tahir, the man allegedly at the center of Pakistan's black market nuclear network. In the early 1980s, Tahir founded SMB Computer, an information technology company, in the United Arab Emirates capital of Dubai. In recent weeks, SMB and Tahir have emerged as central figures in the Pakistani nuclear scandal. Last month, President Bush accused Tahir of running SMB as a "front for the proliferation activities of the A.Q. Khan network."
Although British authorities had convicted Tahir's business partner, Siddiqui, of selling nuclear technology to Khan's lab in 2001, the investigation did not lead to charges against SMB or Tahir. Siddiqui received a 12-month suspended sentence and a £6,000 fine. The judge in the case opted for leniency, ruling that Siddiqui had not acted out of political or religious motives and was not aware the equipment he sent to Pakistan was destined for Khan's nuclear testing laboratory.
SMB Europe was dissolved in April 2001, six months before Siddiqui's conviction. Dubai-based SMB Computers and its parent company, the SMB Group, remain in operation. Tahir is now suspected of serving as a key middleman for the Pakistani network that investigators believe supplied nuclear weapons technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
More Information
- "Exporter 'helped in nuclear race,'" The Daily Telegraph, 10/9/2001, Pg. 17
- SMB Europe Ltd. company information, U.K. Companies House