Albright on AQ Khan

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post spotlighted the new book out by David Albright that sheds more light into the AQ Khan network: From the article:

As troops massed on his border near the start of the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein weighed the purchase of a $150 million nuclear “package” deal that included not only weapons designs but also production plants and foreign experts to supervise the building of a nuclear bomb, according to documents uncovered by a former U.N. weapons inspector.

The offer, made in 1990 by an agent linked to disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, guaranteed Iraq a weapons-assembly line capable of producing nuclear warheads in as little as three years …

Warrick cities newly uncovered memos that David Albright at ISIS obtained and is in his new book, Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America’s Enemies,
released last week. These documents provide a deeper insight and broader scope than previously known about the AQ Khan network.

Most interesting from one memo states:

“Pakistan had to spend a period of 10 years and an amount of 300 million U.S. dollars to get it,” begins one of the memos. “Now, with the practical experience and worldwide contacts Pakistan has developed, you could have A.B. in about three years’ time and by spending about $150 million.” “A.B.” was understood to mean “atomic bomb…”

Related to the recent posts on Khan, Albright was also on CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer last night briefly talking about Iran and AQ Khan. He noted

BLITZER: The father of the Pakistani bomb, you write extensively in the book, “Peddling Peril” he’s a free man right now, right?

ALBRIGHT: That’s right.

BLITZER: Is he under any restrictions whatsoever?

ALBRIGHT: No. He’s actually launched a media campaign to try to say he didn’t do any of this. And so, it’s almost outrageous that he want us becoming free mounting a media campaign to clear his name supposedly, and ironically when he’s in court, he actually says he has no contact with western media, so he’s trying to have it all ways, and I think it’s a travesty in justice.

BLITZER: Because he was involved in helping not only the Iranians but the Iraqis and others, Libya, right?

ALBRIGHT: That’s right.

BLITZER: You write extensively about that in the book.

ALBRIGHT: That’s right.

BLITZER: And then he was under house arrest by the Pakistanis, but no law even under house arrest.

ALBRIGHT: That’s right.

BLITZER: And the U.S. has never really had an access to questioning directly.

ALBRIGHT: That’s right. No one has. And the Pakistani government served as questioners for all, including the United States, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other countries. It was very unsatisfactory.