Rogue nuclear scientists might have aided Iran

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan said Tuesday that rogue scientists driven by "ambition and greed" may have spread nuclear technology to Iran -- Islamabad's most explicit acknowledgment of such help, prompted by questioning from the U.N. atomic watchdog. The admission, after months of denials, is the latest in a wave of nuclear disclosures, following revelations from Libya and Iran. Pakistan said it was cooperating with the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA has also approached Pakistan and other countries in connection with traces of weapons-grade plutonium discovered on nuclear equipment in Iran, a diplomat familiar with the investigations said.

The contamination "certainly was one of the reasons they would be in contact with Pakistan and not a few other countries as well," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Those traces, discovered earlier this year, raised alarm bells at the IAEA and in Washington over fears Tehran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran said the equipment was contaminated before being imported in Iran -- prompting an IAEA search into where the equipment came from.

Pakistan, a close U.S. ally in the war on terror, has long been suspected of proliferation during its 30-year odyssey to build nuclear weapons as a deterrent against nuclear rival India. The two nations tested their first nuclear weapons in 1998.

Islamabad strongly denies allegations it sent nuclear technology to North Korea's communist regime in exchange for missiles or helped Libya or Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. A middleman claiming to represent Pakistan's top nuclear scientist offered Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq help in building an atomic bomb on the eve of the 1991 Gulf War, according to U.N. documents shown to The Associated Press last year.

But a sudden new openness about secret nuclear programs could raise new questions about Pakistan's role.

Libya over the past week has made a dramatic turn-around, promising to shut down its program to develop nuclear weapons and allowing IAEA to inspect its facilities. Under intense international pressure, Iran agreed this month to allow intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities and to answer IAEA questions about a program Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes.

A Pakistani spokesman insisted Tuesday that the government never authorized technology transfers to Iran.

"The IAEA has asked us for our cooperation. Based on that request, we are investigating individuals who might have violated Pakistani laws for individual commercial gains," Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told The Associated Press.

He did not elaborate on how they profited and what technology was involved, but he said among those being questioned was the founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan -- a national hero and 1990 winner of Pakistan's "Man of the Nation Award."

Some Pakistani scientists "might have been motivated by personal ambition or greed," he told a press conference earlier. "But let me add we have not made a final determination. Let's not jump to conclusions."

Pakistan started investigating several scientists at its top nuclear laboratory, the Khan Research Laboratories, last month. Mohammad Farooq, the lab's former director general and aide to Abdul Qadeer Khan, remains in detention. The questioned scientists could not be reached for comment.

The revelations about Iran could revive the allegations over North Korea and Libya.

"Even if irresponsible individuals were behind it (the alleged proliferation to Iran), it can't be ruled out that the same did not happen with North Korea," said Dr. A. H. Nayyar, a physicist at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University who has closely followed his country's nuclear program.

Masood Khan made repeated references in his press conference to the current strong "command and control system" governing Pakistan's nuclear program, an apparent hint that any nuclear leak happened before President Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999.

The White House on Monday said Musharraf -- a key U.S. ally in the war on terror -- has assured the United States that Pakistan is not currently offering technology related to weapons of mass destruction to Libya and Iran.

Nayyar saw two scenarios: The proliferation took place either during the late 1980s -- when trading nuclear technology "was not the taboo it is today" -- or in the 1990s, when Pakistan faced sanctions from the United States because of its nuclear program and its coffers were empty.

Pakistan itself is believed to have developed its program from the early 1970s onward using technology imported from China and from Western firms.

"It's very possible that individual scientists are being made scapegoats and there was some kind of state involvement," Nayyar added.