karachi
MPA (400+ posts)
An angry, humiliated and wounded Pakistan's controversial nuclear scientist AQ Khan has finally made public and official what has long been suspected - his nuclear proliferation activities that included exchanging and passing blue-prints and equipment to China, Iran, North Korea, and Libya, which was done at the behest of the Pakistani government and military, and he was forced to take the rap for it.
Khan writes about the Pakistani leadership in a December 2003 letter to his wife Henny that has finally been made public by an interlocutor. The interlocutor is a journalist contact by the name of Siman Henderson. Henderson has now made the letters public.
''The b******* first used us and are now playing dirty games with us. If the government plays any mischief with me take a tough stand. They might try to get rid of me to cover up all the things they got done by me,' Khan writes about the Pakistani leadership. The letter was exposed by Henderson in 'The Sunday Times'.
Describing the four-page letter as ''extraordinary,'' Henderson says in numbered paragraphs, it outlines Pakistans nuclear co-operation with China, Iran and North Korea, and also mentions Libya. Some of the disclosures are stunning, and in one para that is bound to embarrass Beijing, besides implicating it, Khan writes about how Pakistan helped China in enrichment technology in return for bomb blueprints.
The newspaper report said the first customer for one of its enrichment plants was China which itself had supplied Pakistan with enough highly enriched uranium for two nuclear bombs in the summer of 1982.
"We put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250km southwest of Xian," Khan's letter said.
It went on: "The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tonnes of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%)." (UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plant.)
Blunder Mistakes
A poster on a Western forum, who claims to be an avid China watcher pointed out these glaring errors in the alleged letter
Quote:
We put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250km southwest of Xian). It went on: The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tons of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%). (UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plant.)
1. The Chinese would not give Pakistan enriched Uranium for a bomb since there is no way to hide the origin of that uranium (enrichment facility), and if it fell into the wrong hands, the country of origin gets blamed.
2. The processing plant was constructed with Russian help, and not by Pakistan as the letter alleges.
Quote:
China currently operates only one indigenously built facility at Heping for uranium enrichment; it also operates two larger gas centrifuge enrichment facilities at Hanzhong built by Russian firms in the 1990s, both Russian-built plants are under IAEA safeguards.
Uranium Enrichment
Quote:
Years earlier, Khan had been warned about the Pakistan army by Li Chew, the senior minister who ran Chinas nuclear-weapons programme. Visiting Kahuta, Chew had said: As long as they need the bomb, they will lick your balls. As soon as you have delivered the bomb, they will kick your balls. In the letter to his wife, Khan rephrased things: The *******s first used us and are now playing dirty games with us.
3. So far there is no record of an official named Li Chew in the position alleged in the letter.
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Khan writes about the Pakistani leadership in a December 2003 letter to his wife Henny that has finally been made public by an interlocutor. The interlocutor is a journalist contact by the name of Siman Henderson. Henderson has now made the letters public.
''The b******* first used us and are now playing dirty games with us. If the government plays any mischief with me take a tough stand. They might try to get rid of me to cover up all the things they got done by me,' Khan writes about the Pakistani leadership. The letter was exposed by Henderson in 'The Sunday Times'.
Describing the four-page letter as ''extraordinary,'' Henderson says in numbered paragraphs, it outlines Pakistans nuclear co-operation with China, Iran and North Korea, and also mentions Libya. Some of the disclosures are stunning, and in one para that is bound to embarrass Beijing, besides implicating it, Khan writes about how Pakistan helped China in enrichment technology in return for bomb blueprints.
The newspaper report said the first customer for one of its enrichment plants was China which itself had supplied Pakistan with enough highly enriched uranium for two nuclear bombs in the summer of 1982.
"We put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250km southwest of Xian," Khan's letter said.
It went on: "The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tonnes of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%)." (UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plant.)
Blunder Mistakes
A poster on a Western forum, who claims to be an avid China watcher pointed out these glaring errors in the alleged letter
Quote:
We put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250km southwest of Xian). It went on: The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tons of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%). (UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plant.)
1. The Chinese would not give Pakistan enriched Uranium for a bomb since there is no way to hide the origin of that uranium (enrichment facility), and if it fell into the wrong hands, the country of origin gets blamed.
2. The processing plant was constructed with Russian help, and not by Pakistan as the letter alleges.
Quote:
China currently operates only one indigenously built facility at Heping for uranium enrichment; it also operates two larger gas centrifuge enrichment facilities at Hanzhong built by Russian firms in the 1990s, both Russian-built plants are under IAEA safeguards.
Uranium Enrichment
Quote:
Years earlier, Khan had been warned about the Pakistan army by Li Chew, the senior minister who ran Chinas nuclear-weapons programme. Visiting Kahuta, Chew had said: As long as they need the bomb, they will lick your balls. As soon as you have delivered the bomb, they will kick your balls. In the letter to his wife, Khan rephrased things: The *******s first used us and are now playing dirty games with us.
3. So far there is no record of an official named Li Chew in the position alleged in the letter.
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