South Africa Asks Nations  to Step Up Khan Network Investigation

By Greg Webb
Global Security Newswire

VIENNA — A senior South African official today pleaded with other nations to improve their support of the investigation into a global nuclear smuggling network once led by top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan  (see GSN, Sept. 5).

Pretoria last week reached a plea bargain with a machinery manufacturer who has admitted to assisting the network from 1986 to 2003. 

Gerhard Wisser, a German national and longtime South African resident, pleaded guilty to several counts of illegal nuclear-related exports in exchange for paying fines and a suspended prison sentence.  He must also cooperate with future South African efforts to understand and prosecute the smuggling ring if he wishes to avoid imprisonment (see GSN, Aug. 1).

South African Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Abdul Minty today briefed the agency’s governing board on his nation’s investigation and the first successful conviction of one of the network’s smugglers.

The network once included individuals and companies in more than 30 nations before it crumbled in 2004 after international authorities intercepted a shipment of nuclear equipment bound for Libya. 

Only a handful of the smugglers have faced prosecution so far, and some proliferation experts have expressed concern that elements of ring could still be operating (see GSN, July 27).

While lauding the successful prosecution, Minty decried the lack of support from many nations during South Africa’s investigation.

“Cooperation by the authorities of affected countries was, unfortunately, uneven.  Whilst some authorities cooperated fully, others that were ideally placed to provide evidence either provided limited assistance or declined to provide any assistance whatsoever,” Minty told the board.

“If all governments and entities cooperated with the IAEA, then they would also, we think, be able to bring about prosecutions of this kind,” he later told reporters.

One Vienna-based diplomat expressed similar frustration, saying that some of the uncooperative nations are members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the informal club of nations that sets rules for nuclear trade.

“This lack of cooperation is a profound problem,” agreed nuclear expert David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security.  “Countries are not working together enough to get these members of the Khan network prosecuted effectively.”

Minty said South Africa’s investigation was a model for others to follow.

“We took very strong action in South Africa.  The investigations were extremely thorough,” he told reporters.  The effort “took up a great deal of our resources and also was extremely expensive to conduct.”

“What is now required from all countries affected by the illicit network is enhanced efforts by the respective authorities, in close cooperation with the IAEA,” he said.

U.S. Ambassador Gregory Schulte praised South Africa and echoed Minty’s call for more cooperation.

“We must be mindful that future networks might attempt to deliver nuclear materials and know-how, not only to states, but to terrorist groups as well,” he said in a statement to the board.

“Countries must remain vigilant and work together and with the agency to ensure that similar procurement networks do not contribute to illicit nuclear weapons programs in the future,” Schulte added.

Wisser’s plea agreement has drawn criticism from some nonproliferation advocates who have expressed frustration that no individuals have been placed behind bars for their smuggling efforts.  Ring leader Khan lives under house arrest in Pakistan and remains a national hero for leading the nation’s effort to acquire nuclear weapons.

Minty said South Africa’s primary goal was to continue its investigation, not to jail Wisser.

“The gentleman is in his 60s,” he said.  The suspended prison sentence would serve to encourage Wisser to provide more information and potentially testify against at least one co-defendant whose trial is scheduled to begin next week, according to Minty.

“There is an assurance that he has to disclose fully his knowledge” of the Khan network, Minty said.

“The international community will have to make its own judgment about [the plea deal].  But I think the fact that this is the first successful prosecution, with the scale of it, should speak for itself and of the commitment of our authorities to get to the truth,” he added.

One nonproliferation expert said the deal sends the wrong message.

“Wisser was trafficking in things that could lead to the death of millions of people,” said Jon Wolfsthal of the Center for Strategic and International Security.  “It clearly doesn’t look good if the first high-profile prosecution ends up with the guy not doing any time.  We want the trial to show that crime doesn’t pay.”

“What has been the consequence of the A.Q. Khan network?” he added.  “Who’s in jail?  Who had been punished?  Who has suffered?  So far not many.”

Albright added cautious agreement.

“I was disappointed Wisser didn’t do any jail time,” he said, but expressed hope that the case’s conclusion would free South African to share more information with German and Swiss officials who are preparing their own prosecutions of other Khan network participants.

Had the Wisser case gone to trial, those other cases could have been threatened, Albright said.

Minty’s statement to the board included excerpts from Wisser’s plea agreement, including a report that offers an unusually thorough description of how the Khan network operated.

The report details how Wisser’s company, Krisch Engineering, cooperated with Swiss firm Equipment, Processes and Engineering AG, known by its German acronym AVE, to supply machinery for producing uranium enrichment centrifuge components.

The components and equipment Wisser admitted to trying to export illegally include a flow-forming machine, autoclaves, vacuum pumps, induction furnaces and gas feed systems

A flow-forming machine is designed to precisely manufacture metal cylinders, such as the cylinders that are fundamental to uranium enrichment centrifuges.  The entire Wisser investigation was triggered by the discovery of Libyan documents describing efforts to acquire such a machine with his assistance. 

When Wisser needed parts from other manufacturers he used simple methods to forge documents to indicate that the parts would be used by legitimate users, the report says.

The report also describes how smuggling participants in Pakistan provided design information to colleagues in the United Arab Emirates who then turned in part to AVE in Switzerland.  AVE subsequently contracted out some of its equipment purchasing needs to Wisser’s Krisch Engineering and at least one other South African firm.

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