U.S., Pakistan Say Khan Network Dead

The nuclear smuggling network once headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has been shut down, U.S. and Pakistani officials said yesterday, rejecting U.S. lawmakers’ comments Wednesday that the black market ring could still be operating (see GSN, June 28).

“The network as we knew it is out of business,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, but he allowed for the possibility that “copycats or other elements” could be trying to fill the void.

Two nuclear nonproliferation experts told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee Wednesday that too little has been learned about Khan’s network, leading to the possibility that parts of it persist.

Some U.S. representatives agreed, but a Pakistani government spokeswoman yesterday dismissed the idea, Dawn reported.

“Pakistan has carried out full investigations and shared our findings with the [International Atomic Energy Agency] and some other countries,” said Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam.  “The network has ceased to exist as far as Pakistan is concerned.”

“As the testimonies point out,” she added, “it is possible that such proliferation networks are active elsewhere” (Anwar Iqbal, Dawn, June 29).

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