United Nations on Alert After Nuclear Plans Vanish

By Douglas Maher
June 8, 2005
All Headline News
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/2236569218
Vienna,Austria (AHN) - According to a report in The Guardian, Electronic drawings that give comprehensive details of how to build and test equipment essential for making nuclear bombs have vanished and could be put up for sale on the international black market, according to UN investigators. 
The blueprints, running to hundreds of pages, show how to make centrifuges for enriching uranium. In addition, the investigators have been unable to trace key components for uranium centrifuge rigs and fear that drawings for a nuclear warhead have been secreted away and could be for sale. 
Inspectors at the UN's nuclear authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have been investigating the worst nuclear smuggling racket ever uncovered, headed by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The operation was discovered two years ago to be selling sensitive nuclear technology to Libya and Iran. 
A senior official said several sets of blueprints for uranium centrifuges - the so-called P-1 and more advanced P-2 systems which were peddled by the Khan network - have gone missing.
Dr. Khan played the key role in developing Pakistan's nuclear military capability, which culminated in successful tests in May 1998.Coming shortly after similar tests by India, Dr Khan's work helped seal Pakistan's place as the world's seventh nuclear power. 
Abdul Qadeer Khan, was removed from the post of scientific advisor to Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali for his alleged involvement in the proliferation of sensitive technology to Iran and Libya in 2004. 
The action followed a meeting of the National Nuclear Command Authority, chaired by President Pervez Musharraf.
He was removed to facilitate an ongoing probe into the proliferation, officials in Islamabad said.
In late 2003, unable to ignore the mounting evidence of Khan's lifestyle including a $400,000.00 teflon marquee for his daughter's wedding,many trips around the globe,numerous BMW's,and dozens of homes for family members. Musharraf confronted Khan to ask why he had breached Pakistan's trust.
He would go on to reveal the names of those within the upper ranks of the Pakistani army who collaborated with him in his nuclear adventures. But was never prosecuted.