U.S. Urges Tighter Export Controls as Alleged Nuclear Middleman Goes Missing in Malaysia

U.S. officials today urged Malaysia to increase export controls, just as a businessman suspected of supplying nuclear components to Libya went missing from Kuala Lumpur (see GSN, Feb. 17; Agence France-Presse/al-Jazeera, Feb. 19).

President George W. Bush in a speech last week called Buhari Sayed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan businessman living in Malaysia, the “chief financial officer and money launderer” of a nuclear smuggling operation headed by the Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. According to the Associated Press, Tahir sat on the board of a company owned by the Malaysian prime minister’s only son, Kamaluddin Abdullah (Rohan Sullivan and Patrick McDowell, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb 18). According to the New York Times, the company has been accused of providing Iran, North Korea and Libya with technology for making atom bombs. Tahir had been under close surveillance by the Malaysian government prior to his disappearance today (Raymond Bonner, New York Times, Feb. 18).

In Beijing on Monday, Undersecretary of State John Bolton clarified remarks by President Bush, saying that Bush had not implied that the Malaysian government was involved in shipping centrifuge parts to Libya for its uranium-enrichment program (Agence France-Presse, Feb. 18).

Bolton appeared to accept the explanation of the company involved, Scomi Precision Engineering, saying, “perfectly reputable companies” could manufacture “these devices and not have any idea what they’re ultimately being bound for.”

U.S. officials today urged Malaysia and other countries to tighten their export control systems to keep unwitting companies from being used. “In keeping with its commitment to nonproliferation, we are encouraging Malaysia to take the steps necessary to bring its export control system in line with international standards, in hopes of preventing future proliferation activities,” U.S. Embassy spokesman Frank Whitaker said (Patrick McDowell, Associated Press/Kansas City Star, Feb. 19).

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