Smugglers Had Design for Advanced Warhead

A computer seized from a Swiss businessman, part of an international smuggling ring, included plans for constructing a small, yet deadly nuclear device. Former United Nations weapons inspector David Albright, now president of the Institute for Science and International Security, points out that the plans for the device may have long been sold and e-mailed far and wide, to regimes like Iran or North Korea, in an article written by Joby Warrick for the Washington Post. The small countries purchase rather than develop weapons research, and struggle to locate nuclear weapons that can fit their smaller ballistic missiles. The report puts a spotlight on the smuggling ring once led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, in operation from the mid-1980s through 2003. The Pakistani government has yet to allow international investigators to interview Khan, to determine where weapons plans may have been sold. Agencies like the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency decline to confirm Albright’s report, demonstrating divisions on how much the public needs to know. Weapons designed for security can fall into the wrong hands and come back to haunt their creators. – YaleGlobal