Pakistani Nuclear Scientist Made Visits to Uranium-Rich African Countries

Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan made multiple trips to several uranium-rich African countries, Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, April 15).

Khan and his entourage used a hotel the scientist funded in Timbuktu as a Sahara Desert base to travel to Chad, Morocco, Mali, Sudan, Nigeria and Niger. The last four countries have known or suspected uranium deposits, according to Jon Wolfsthal, a nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“The two obvious possibilities are he was looking to secure supplies of uranium for Pakistan or to line up potential suppliers for his customers,” Wolfsthal said.

The trips continued as late as February 2002, a year after his nuclear network was reportedly closed down, AP said (Harris/Knickmeyer, AP/Washington Times, April 17).

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