02-29-2004, 07:55 AM
US terms Khan's nuke network as 'criminal enterprise'
Press Trust of India
Washington, February 29
Dubbing as "criminal enterprise" the nuclear proliferation network of top Pakistani scientist AQ Khan, the US has insisted that those who indulge in trafficking of deadly weapons will be brought to justice.
Khan's network which sold nuclear equipment and materials to North Korea, Libya and Iran was a "criminal enterprise" motivated by "greed or fanaticism or perhaps both," National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice said at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Sun Valley, California.
"We must strengthen the world's ability to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of the world's most dangerous regimes," she emphasised.
Rice said the world "recently learned of the network headed by AQ Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. For years, Khan and his associates sold nuclear technology and know-how to some of the world's most dangerous regimes, including North Korea and Iran".
Although president Pervez Musharraf has pardoned Khan, Rice insisted that those who traffic in deadly weapons will be brought to justice.
"Working with intelligence officials from the United Kingdom and other nations," she said, "we unravelled the Khan network and we are putting an end to its criminal enterprise. Its key leaders â including Khan â are no longer in business, and we are working to dismantle the entire network.
"Together, the nations of the civilised world will bring to justice those who traffic in deadly weapons, shut down their labs, seize their materials, and freeze their assets."
http://hindustantimes.com/news/181_591960,00050001.htm
Press Trust of India
Washington, February 29
Dubbing as "criminal enterprise" the nuclear proliferation network of top Pakistani scientist AQ Khan, the US has insisted that those who indulge in trafficking of deadly weapons will be brought to justice.
Khan's network which sold nuclear equipment and materials to North Korea, Libya and Iran was a "criminal enterprise" motivated by "greed or fanaticism or perhaps both," National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice said at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Sun Valley, California.
"We must strengthen the world's ability to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of the world's most dangerous regimes," she emphasised.
Rice said the world "recently learned of the network headed by AQ Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. For years, Khan and his associates sold nuclear technology and know-how to some of the world's most dangerous regimes, including North Korea and Iran".
Although president Pervez Musharraf has pardoned Khan, Rice insisted that those who traffic in deadly weapons will be brought to justice.
"Working with intelligence officials from the United Kingdom and other nations," she said, "we unravelled the Khan network and we are putting an end to its criminal enterprise. Its key leaders â including Khan â are no longer in business, and we are working to dismantle the entire network.
"Together, the nations of the civilised world will bring to justice those who traffic in deadly weapons, shut down their labs, seize their materials, and freeze their assets."
http://hindustantimes.com/news/181_591960,00050001.htm