According to the International Atomic Energy Commission and the Swiss Government, Pakistan’s Dr. Khan had available advanced nuclear weapons plans.
These are not the plans for a basic nuc-but a more modern compact package that can be carried by a missile.
The article didn’t mention whose drawings they were-Soviet, US, British, French, Chinese-or Other. The Dope is a smart place with a lot of smart people, can anyone speculate as to where these plans came from? I recognize that those folks here who may know probably can’t talk about it.
It took a huge amount of money, research, development, and testing to go from the first weapons designs to modern nuclear weapon designs. The alternative is to buy it or steal it.
I do not know to what extent Pakistan’s nuclear warheads are completely unique, but there is no doubt that China has over the years provided considerable expertise and material for Pakistan’s nuclear power and probably weapons programs. Cite.
But Pakistan does indeed have a self-sufficient nuclear weapons complex at this point, and I don’t see any reason why AQ Khan would have been providing expertise and drawing for anything other than Pakistani weapons, regardless of the origin and assistance in creating that indigenous program.
I don’t get it… this Khan guy is obviously a threat to world peace and non-proliferation. Why don’t we or the Israelis assassinate him and take him out of the equation?
Not that I’m actually generally in favor of assassination, but this guy has it coming.
India has developed missile mountable nukes in approximately the same time frame. Did they buy or steal it as well? If so, from whom? I can’t imagine China would help them.
that is certainly the simplest explanation. Though my WAG is that Khan was too closely tied to the Pakistani military to try to sell any of their secrets.
But you are correct, in the absence of any other evidence, the simplest explanation is usually the best.
The N.Y. Times article cleared up the mystery:
“There was stuff about dealing with Iranians in 2003, about how to avoid intelligence agents,” said one official who had reviewed it. But the most important document was a digitized design for a nuclear bomb, one that investigators quickly recognized as Pakistani.