The US is concerned that the illicit network set up by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan may have distributed designs for nuclear warheads as well as uranium enrichment technology. Stephen Hadley, US national security adviser, told reporters on Sunday: “We are very concerned about the A.Q. Khan network, both in terms of what they were doing by purveying enrichment technology and also the possibility that there would be weapons-related technology associated with it.”His comments followed reports in the New York Times and the Washington Post claiming that the Khan network possessed plans for a nuclear warhead compact enough to be fitted on to a ballistic missile.
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The A.Q. Khan network was shut down under US pressure in 2004. Mr Khan, who is widely revered in Pakistan as the father of its nuclear bomb, was put under house arrest, but was never charged with any crimes. He recently gave an interview pressing PakistanÂ’s new government for his release.
The US and its allies have never been allowed to interrogate Mr Khan directly. They are still trying to determine exactly what kind of nuclear secrets were sold and to whom.
Asked whether there was any evidence that the network had passed on weapons technology as well as uranium enrichment technology, Mr Hadley said: “We have had some concerns about it.”
The possibility that the network may have traded in warhead designs as well as enrichment technology was first raised in 2003, when Libya abandoned its covert nuclear programme. Tripoli handed over the blueprint for a nuclear warhead – based on an old Chinese design – that was too bulky to be easily delivered by a missile.
However, the New York Times and Washington Post reports say that investigators have found the blueprint for a more advanced warhead that would be much easier to fit on to a missile on computers allegedly belonging to the AQ Khan network. The design may be based on a recent Pakistani nuclear warhead.
The Swiss government recently announced that it had destroyed 30,000 pages of documents related to the nuclear plans to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. However, the blueprints were reported to be in electronic form and there may be other copies circulating.