- WASHINGTON -- The US
government
has indicted Islamabad-based Pakistani businessman Humayun A Khan and his
Israeli partner Asher Karni for illegally exporting devices from the US
that could be employed to test, develop and detonate nuclear
weapons.
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- A federal indictment against Humayun A Khan was unsealed
on Friday along with a guilty plea by his alleged partner, Asher Karni,
who admitted routing sophisticated oscilloscopes and high-speed electrical
switches through South Africa to avoid raising authorities, suspicions.
The scopes and the switches were then shipped to Pakistan, the Associated
Press reported in an exclusive story run by Washington Post.
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- The export of the switches also known as triggered spark
gaps, which can be used in medical and military devices to Pakistan and
some other countries is prohibited under US law as part of Washington,s
nuclear non-proliferation efforts.
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- However, Humayun A Khan has denied any wrongdoing. During
a February 2004 interview with the Associated Press, while admitting his
ties to Karni, he said he had done nothing wrong. Although his company
is a supplier of high-tech products to the Pakistan Army, he said he had
imported military products only for use in army-run repair shops. He said
he also supplies equipment to civilian companies and Pakistan,s Education
Ministry.
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- "There is a saying we have that robbers and thieves
wear masks. Would I openly go and ask this man for something that I wanted
to put in a nuclear system and use my own name? It is absurd," he
told the American news agency. But according to a Homeland Security
official,
the case raises "serious concerns because nuclear proliferation is
not a domestic American threat but a global one.
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- The indictment against Humayun A Khan was unsealed on
Friday in a US District Court in Washington. Authorities said Khan, owner
and chief executive of Pakland PME Corporation in Islamabad, sought help
from Karni, an Israeli citizen living in Cape Town, South Africa, to export
oscilloscopes manufactured in Oregon. Oscilloscopes can be used to test
and develop nuclear weapons and missile-delivery systems. They require
special US Commerce Department export licences. Karni exported the
oscilloscopes
without licence three times between March and August 2003, routing them
through South Africa to Pakistan, officials said.
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- Meanwhile, authorities believe, Khan asked Karni to buy
triggered spark gaps for a Pakistani customer. The switches can be used
in medical equipment to treat kidney stones, but they can also be used
as nuclear weapons detonators. An anonymous source tipped federal
authorities
to Karni,s plans to ship 200 triggered spark gaps from New Jersey to
Pakistan
through South Africa, authorities said.
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- But the switch manufacturer, PerkinElmer Optoelectronics
of Salem, Massachusetts, agreed to ship malfunctioning triggered spark
gaps in a plot to foil Khan and Karni. Karni was arrested on January 1,
2004, as he entered the US at Denver (Colorado) International Airport.
He pleaded guilty in September to five federal felonies, including
conspiring
to export controlled nuclear technology items to Pakistan.
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- Meanwhile, by all accounts, Humayun A Khan is free and
living in Pakistan.
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- http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/
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