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Israeli exported nuclear technology to pakistan Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040114-065537-2535rhttp://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040114-065537-2535r
Israeli faces Pakistan nuke export charges
By Shaun Waterman
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
Published 1/14/2004 8:55 PM
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- The District Court in Washington D.C. will hold a hearing -- probably next week -- to consider the case against an Israeli man charged with trying to illegally export nuclear technology to Pakistan.
Asher Karni, 50, was arrested in Denver, Colo., on Jan. 2 when he arrived for a skiing vacation. He is currently in the custody of U.S. Marshals in Colorado.
An affidavit from a U.S. federal agent says that Karni arranged the purchase and export to South Africa of 200 specially designed electrical switches from a company in Salem, Mass. He then re-exported the switches to Pakistan.
Because the switches, known as triggered spark gaps, can be used in the detonators of nuclear weapons, a license is required to export them to any country -- like Pakistan -- thought involved in making or trading weapons of mass destruction.
But because they also have a medical use in treating kidney stones, no license is required for their export to other nations such as South Africa.
The affidavit says the investigation started after an "anonymous source" in South Africa tipped off the Department of Commerce about Karni's plans -- including the fact that he would use a firm called Giza Technologies, based in Secaucus, N.J., as a middleman in the transaction.
The source would continue to provide investigators with detailed information about Karni's activities every step of the way -- even providing tracking and waybill numbers for shipments he was making.
Giza stated that the switches were going to a hospital in Soweto, South Africa, but the affidavit claims that even the very largest hospitals only ever have a use for a handful of the devices.
Moreover, when the switches -- which the U.S. supplier had rendered inoperable at the request of federal authorities -- arrived at his South African firm, the prosecution say, Karni immediately made plans to ship them with DHL via Dubai to an address in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. The address is the office of a company called Pakland PME.
The company's Web site says it deals in high-tech electrical and electronic equipment, but court papers filed by the prosecutor say its chief executive officer, Humayan Khan, has "ties to the Pakistani military."
Karni told South African authorities that the consignee for the switches was a company called AJKMC Lithography Aid Society.
Triggered spark gaps have no application in lithographic printing, but they are used in machines called lithotripters, which are used to treat kidney stones.
The case may have diplomatic repercussions -- Pakistan is one the United States' most important allies in the war against terrorism, but has also been accused of assisting the nuclear programs of rogue states like North Korea, Iran and Libya.
"Pakistan has always acquired its nuclear technology on the sly," a former Pakistani official told United Press International on condition of anonymity. "There has to be deniability, especially now that we are allies of the United States. That's why they use these kinds of murky businessmen -- if it ever came out that our government was involved in trying to break U.S. laws like this, it would be very embarrassing all round."
"You'll hear an official denunciation from Islamabad within 24 hours now this has hit the U.S. media, just you wait. But no action will be taken against anyone."
The former official also pointed out that AJMC is the initials of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Council -- the ruling party in the Pakistani part of the disputed territory of Kashmir. "They have all kinds of links with (Pakistani intelligence agency) the ISI," said the former official.
But a Pakistani diplomat, who also spoke on condition they not be named, dismissed the idea that Pakistan needed such technology. "As far as I know, our nuclear program is fairly self-sufficient at this point.
"Why would we need detonators unless we were building more bombs, which we're not?"
The diplomat also poured scorn on the idea that such an "idiotic" scheme -- and one involving an Israeli to boot -- would have been used to acquire "strategically vital materials."
"Why send the stuff via DHL? Why via Dubai?" asked the diplomat. "If this really was for the country's nuclear weapons program there are hundreds of safer ways. They are more expensive, but you wouldn't worry about a few thousand dollars if it was really in our strategic interests."
Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney said investigations were continuing and declined to comment on any possible links between Pakland or Khan and the Pakistani government. He said the court would hold a hearing, "probably be next week," to consider the prosecution's appeal against a bail grant by a Denver judge. The appeal says that Karni -- an Israeli citizen who lives in South Africa -- has access to substantial funds and no family or ties in the United States, and therefore represents a serious flight risk.
Copyright © 2001-2004 United Press International
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