r DECLASSIFIED Authority AA_a en · Sf fbcul - - Frl6--- l DF- I' I r J · LS No 80551 1 ' - C • •• -Dt 1-'f e an L Ladies and Gentle en Some reports or the effo -ts of the Libyan chi e f of state Qadhafi who is known to have a espe c ially rad ical attitude to gain possession of atomic w apons which towards the end of last year also appeared in German newspapers have caused us to make inquiries which finally resulted in the following docl l lcntary which contains downright sensational facts on the cooperation between Libya and Pakistan This could possibly lead to a omi e weapons falling into th hands of forces in the Middle East who on the basis of their past record can certainly not be considered especially re ponsible The facts involved should no t only give food for thought to some flrr is in England Holland and West Germany but are a challenge to their r e spective governments since the starting point for a Pakistani project in which the material for atomic weapons is to be produced in a German-British-Dutch project in the frame work of Euratom near the Dutch border where modern tech- Pat l'- r' p r t· L t nuclear weapons Up to now the treaty has been acceded to I · l Hoscow and Washington in order to prevent the spread of • • Treaty signed on July 1 1968 simultaneously in London t ' tI everywhere even in the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons India and Pakistan I created for that purpose However there seem to be gaps among them states with considerable nuclear programs like f the strict supervision of all international organizations by 105 states Forty-four states however did not join f 1 niques for the enrichment of uranium are practiced There they serve only peaceful means and are carried out under f· DECLASSIFIED ' ' ' I hl»br J fl ' - Authority - t F Ernst Martin reports When during the administration of 'If Prime Minister Ali Bhutto on May 18 1977 neighboring India announced it first nuclear explosion Pakistan made a great effort to start a massive nuclear program Eve r since it seems the Pakistanis have also been working towards the manufacture of nuclear explosives in their t LL r- country In August 1978 under strong pressure from the United States France stopped the delivery of a plant for the reconversion o f used nuclear fuel producing plu t onium among other things agree d on by treaty in 1976 Such a plant would have enabled the Pakistani leadership under L t -- t· General Zia-ul-Haq to produce sooner or later its own nuclear weapons Could it bo that Pakistan used the spectacular rescission of the French-Pakist ni agreement simply as a bluff so that undisturbed by a ny internationa l t protests it could de• elop a processing capacity of highly enriched uraniwn which can also be used for the production of bombs through the construction of a uranium enrichment plant in the framework of a top secret p oject Its model is the uranium enrichment plant in Almclo Holland This project built jointly by Great Britain the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany employs the at presentmost economical method the so-called gas centrifuge process Gaszcntrifugalverfahren Here it serves only peaceful purposes like the supply of light water gas-cooled reactors or high temperature reactors with enriched uranium 235 which occurs in natural uranium only in a concontration of about 0 7% and which has to be raised to about 3% Natural uranium is f ed into centrifuges that revolve at more than twice the speed of sound This is how enriched uranium 235 is produced The enrichment capacity of each individual centrifuge is rather low therefore thousands of centrifuges · 'Ir - - • • rJ _ '-• · ' -- 1 • -· 1 f l r L ' _ -- · - 1 Gr' I LI DECLASSIFIED - O• t 1 -· rI - • - d 'W w ·1J d Il l -3- • G Authority blM ·1 'l - I - ' t MP'I b _ have to be connected Such combinations called cascades J are under certain conditions able to produce almost pure uranium 235 as i t is needed for the production of atomic eapons The expe rts consider it simply a mat ter of time until developing countrie s too have such plants Question to the managing dira ctor of uranlt the German - partner in the Almelo projec t Do you think it is possible I that a country which is not a party to the non-proliferation t t- treaty can buy the components for such a plant in various places Answer I am convinced that a country t h at wants to enrich uranium for these purposes c 1nd which possesses a technical capability t o build f or instance an automobi le would a lso be able to develop and build at least a primitive ce ntrifuge which could be f acilitated by such shopping r t i' ' I I around for parts but this is not the basic bre akthrough this is only a ti me factor it would accelerate the process nut we arc not concerned with the question of whether one can enrich uranium or not ·-• I Question So this means that for instance de veloping i countries too would sooner or later be in a position to ' produce nuclear fuel highly enriched uranium and atomic r- weapons Answer It isn't all that simple either that a developing country with the most primitive capabilities could do this with the most primitive means But r-tr Martin I think it is essential to r e alize that in nuclear technology as in others there are no technical fixesA I think the prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons is a political question a question of cooperation between the states a question of controls as we have them in the IAEA in Vienna this is a question of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons treaty and not a question of techno1ogical Prevention ' DECLASSIFIED rr-- - 1 - r r • -- · U ·1 I i J • • j • 1 · •i •• · 1 I ·- I i • i U ' lo • - ' J l · • - 'l Authority Nl- l vbe f - 4 1 I t i J 1 -4- Apparently there are loopholes in the contro l mechanisms of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons treaty for the Pakistanis were able by an interesting circuitous route to gain access to the top secret technology of the gao centrifuge process The Pakistani scientist Dr Aku Khan after studying in Delft and Leuwen was introduced into the Ams t erdam firm of FDO unintelligible phras e whi ch is engaged in the development of the ultra-ce ntrifuge on commission from the Dutch government In this firm he gained knowledge of secret processes of the Almelo plant Today Dr Khan is the d irector of the top secret project f or the construction of a similar plant in Pakistan The project operates under the aegis of the Pakistani Atomic Energy Agency and t he Pakistani army in the person of Brigadier Ge neral Amis Ali Said His address is Special Works Organization 169 Kiston Keystone Rd Westridge Rawalpindi The Pakistani commercial mission in Brussels which is now located in Bonn tried to procure large quantities of the materials and equipment necessary for the construction of a uranium enrichment plant So it has to be assumed that the Pakistani authorities already have an exact knowledge of the plant Just how far the secret Pakistani project has come along is proved by references in international magazines like Nucleonics Week of October 12 1978 Pakistan may be about to complete gas centrifuge systems for the enrichment of uranium for military purposes These reports were prompted by a question raised in the British Parliament by the group leader of the Labour Party by which he drew the attention of the British Trade Secretary to the possibility of a military use of the goods delivered to Pakistan by the firm Emerson Electric Emerson Electric at the time was • I r- ' 1 4 -· ' '· • • • •• L -s • DECLASSIFIED Authority bj b i qf'l i- ·· r • - - I· - • 1 f1t •I · 1 • ' ti 1 1 J r J -5- r supplying so-called inverters to Pakistan which supply ' ' the necessary high-frequency current to the centrifuges The Pakistani embassy insisted that these supplies were intended for a textile mill in Pakistan Only after the question raised by the Labour leader the British govern- ment tightened the export regulations for secret materials Question to the leader of the parliamentary group of the Labour Party Mr Frank Allaun Do you have knowledge of the fact that the inverters delivered to Pakistan by Eme rson Electric we re used or are to be used for the 1' manufacture of nuclear weapons Answer Yes I have Because these inverters are of a type a fre quency which is used by the British Atomic Ene rgy Agency nd are not suitable for textile mills And se condly b cause just at that time the prime minister of Pakistan Ali Bhutto stated publicly in October of last year that his country was on the verge of securing the capability to manufacture nuclear weapons Question Mr Allaun I have heard that a German firm is involved in these sales Is that true Answer Yes and I can disclose this for the first · I time that a German firm is working for the Pakistani government as a supplier The firm is called Team Industries with headquarters at Leonberg-Eltingen And I think that this unusual method of procuring equipment supposedly for a textile mill is somewhat suspicious when we know that it is not for a textile mill Team Industries of Leonberg-Eltingen has confirmed the deal with the British firm Emerson Electric and has insisted that under the export regulations in force it was perfectly legal Probably this is not the only Gerr an a ' p ' - I J I r -' - nr ' · - ' • •' u° f · l t - 1J DECLASSIFIED Authority hl f1 ·l · - I·•' t -6- I I - i •· ·1 I ' 1 f firm involved in such transactions It is especially disquieting tha t Pakistan has close well be financing this and other similar deals In spite of its membership in the non-proli f eration treaty Libya Libyan head of state Qadhafi stated du ing a visit to the Pakistani reactor Canoub We must gather together all t I l £ t our forces to fight our enemies As was variously reported Qadhafi in 1976 offered to finance the reprocessing plant that France had promised to Pakistan on the condition that Pakistan would let Libya have some of the plutonium This offer was transmitted in Septomber 1976 by two Libyan emissaries According to further Arab publications the Libyan prime minister Jalloud in October 1978 on a visit to Pakis t an res ·ated Libya's readines s to finance Pakistani r l 'II _ nuclear projects How little Pakistan can afford the luxury of an tomic bomb is demonstrated by its pres nt effort to finance the fight against starvation at home by a massive program through credits from the whole world These last pictures illustrate the r e port that Pakistan ha s ordered 32 Mirage fighter planes from France an order valued at about 600 million OM Quite apart from the financial aspect we see here that a country which is not a member of the non-proliferation treaty is constructing a highly up-to-date uranium enrichment plant The technical information is acquired abroad by sending a scientist to · the Dutch firm which is prominently involved in the development of the process The neces$ary parts are also bought circuitously abroad I am satisfied that the European firms involved did not know what the final use of their r • l 1 j-1 1 • If u - J u • '· t - ·•1 i I I is trying to got atomic we apons Already in 1974 the u · t • ti • contacts with radical Arab states like Libya Libya may i rf t • 1 - _ • DECLASSIFIED 1' - ·-· Authority bll4 1tlof1 r l I f - products would be in Pakis t an and that they acted within f ' j the framework of the export regulations presently in force The whole thing is financed by an Arab politician whose hatred for Israel and for all who desire peace in the --- Middle East is known to the whole world Especially with regard to tho c onclusion of the peace treaty betwee n Egypt and Israel t his t akes on a special meaning for t he ide a that Colonel Qadhafi and therefore almost automatically the fan a ical Pa lestinian leader Arafat may possess atomic weapons will no t let anyone in the West feel safe any more In February details of the close cooperation between r Pakistan and the PLO were published in London which show among other things that Palestinians are trained in Pakistan as pilots submarine crews infantry commandos and paratroopers and t ha t increasingly PLO couriers are using forged Pakistani passports to transport weapons and explosives The passports are forged with the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities so that if someone is caught with one of them they can easily disclaim responsibility As I said all this was published in London As concerns Libya I find that the most interesting • t piece of information comes from Bonn It says that the Federal Government has guarante d a credit for an order placed with Gennan firms to build military camps in Tripoli and Bengasi in Libya The order was placed by the Libyan arrny The Federal Government is guaranteeing 348 9 million DM and further orders are expected The Federal Government has further agreed to guarantee deals that are still being negotiated for a projected value of 5 6 billion DM Of course I am all for as many export deals as possible but when it comes to entering areas of such tension there are j I a whole lot of questions that ought to be raised Our e ample I of Libya and Pakistan and the close ties between Pakistan and • DECLASSIFIED _ # • I · i - ·J il i 1 Authority • b1MnCJCtf _ the PLO should make all those with any responsibility think twice f i 1 s- i 'fr- p ·u •• I - I ' - - l • - - - - '_'1 - I ' 6 t_ ' --- - I •p j ' 11 r · 1 '· 1 ' t ' • lt •• J J _ • 4 ' l I