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Investigators Determine Libyan Nuclear Weapons Designs Were Crude
U.S. and European weapons experts have said that nuclear weapons designs provided to Libya by top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan were of his own crude device, and were not of more sophisticated Pakistani nuclear weapons, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 6). The nuclear weapons designs found in Libya were wrapped in plastic bags from an Islamabad dry cleaner, according to the Times. “The Libyans said they got it as a bonus,” an official said. While Khan has been given credit as the “father” of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, Western experts have said that credit is not Khan’s alone. According to a U.S. expert, Pakistan conducted two “parallel” nuclear weapons programs — one headed by Khan and one conducted by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. “Khan ran the bad one,” the U.S. expert said. “If you had to have a design circulating around the world, we’d be worse off if it was a design other than Khan’s,” the U.S. expert said. Even so, “a bad bomb is still a nuke,” the U.S. expert said. “It can still do pretty terrible things to your city,” the expert added (William Broad, New York Times, Feb. 9).
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