NEW YORK: Almost a year after the arrest of Abdul Qadeer Khan, who mentored Pakistan's atomic bomb, the extent of a nuclear black market opened by him is still being unravelled, the New York Times reported Sunday (Dec 26).

The paper said the investigation into Khan's role in the clandestine proliferation of bomb designs is being hampered by "discord between the Bush administration and the nuclear watchdog (International Atomic Energy Agency-IAEA), and by Washington's concern that if it pushes too hard for access to Khan, a national hero in Pakistan, it could destabilize an ally (Pakistan).

"As a result, much of the urgency has been sapped from the investigation, helping keep hidden the full dimensions of the activities of Khan and his associates," it said.

An extensive story in the Sunday edition of the paper details Khan's travels through 18 countries, including Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, "either to buy materials like uranium ore or sell atomic goods", and how the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been monitoring him for nearly 30 years.

"The breadth of the operation was particularly surprising to some American intelligence officials because they had had Khan under surveillance for nearly three decades, since he began assembling components for Pakistan's bomb, but apparently missed crucial transactions with countries like Iran and North Korea," it said.

The story quoted a senior European diplomat and a former Congressional official as saying that American officials were so confident they had "accurately taken his measure, that twice - once in the late 1970's and again in the 1980's - the CIA persuaded Dutch intelligence agents not to arrest Dr. Khan because they wanted to follow his trail."

In a twist worthy of a Hollywood thriller, the paper said American intelligence agencies only learned the full details of the transactions earlier this year when Libya handed over two large plastic bags with the names of an Islamabad tailor on one side and a dry-cleaner on the other. The two were among the several clues that it had come from the Khan Laboratories.

"The design inside included drawings of more than 100 parts, all fitting in a sphere about 34 inches in diameter, just the right size for a rocket," the story said.

There were handwritten notations in the margins that referred to Chinese ministers "presumably involved in the deal", one official who reviewed it disclosed.

The notations also referred to "Munir", apparently Munir Khan,

"Khan's rival, who ran the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission was in a contest with Khan to put together a Pakistani weapon that would match India's.

"In that race, size was critical, because only a small weapon could be put atop Pakistani missiles. One note in the margin of the design, the official said, was that 'Munir's bomb would be bigger'," the paper reported.

Courtesy Indo-Asian News Service