You rang, Dr Khan?

Sometimes following the esoterica of the nuclear black market seems so weird that it seems like a scene out of the Addams Family. Let’s see: Dr Khan would be Gomez, the bright, energetic businessman; and, in a nice case of life imitating art (sort of), Lurch would be played by Lurch.

Okay, I used artistic license; it’s Lerch, Gotthard Lerch actually. Still, Lerch seemed to serve Dr Khan just as faithfully as Lurch served Gomez Addams. Here is some of what Mark Hibbs wrote about him the September 24 issue of Nuclear Fuels:

He could have been a professor in Syria

Given all the recent frenzy over whether Israel attacked a nuclear facility of some kind, or something else, in Syria in September I think it bears remembering that Syria was not a client of Dr Khan; though not due to lack of availability on the part of Dr Khan.

Let's read what Mark Hibbs wrote in the September 24 issue of Nuclear Fuels:

The nuclear black market – fun for the whole family

There are various ways to measure the worth of a man. One of them is to count the number of books written about him. In that regard I note the newest book, formally published later this month, to examine Dr Khan's entrepeneurial network. It is America and the Islamic Bomb: The Deadly Compromise by David Armstrong and Joseph Trento. Here is the blurb from the Amazon listing:

To ask the question is to answer it

I think events of this year alone show that the answer to the question, explicit in the title of this 2006 congressional hearing, is no. I recommend taking a glance so you can see how little we have advanced since then.

May 25, 2006:
Hearing: The A.Q. Khan Network: Case Closed?
HEARING TRANSCRIPT (.HTM)

HEARING TRANSCRIPT (.PDF = 517 KB)

The real cost behind Trident replacement and the carriers

The lifetime costs – £5bn, or 40% of the defense equipment budget – is unjustifiable at a time of tightening public budgets

When you absolutely, positively have to fight proliferation… Send a lawyer

Now I'm sure you agree that when asked to name the first person who comes to mind when it comes to combating illegal nuclear black market traffickers Alberto Gonzalez is not on the tip of your tongue. In fact, now that he is no longer US Attorney General, you probably don't think of him at all.

But actually when he spoke at the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement Summit on June 11 in Miami, Florida (and where better than Miami to talk about criminal behavior?) he actually a few some interesting things to say.

Goddamn it Jim, I’m a patriot, not a scummy smuggler

Did you know we have a NSOI? Neither did I. But thanks to this September 30 US State Department press release, I do now.

Evidently Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ednan Karabayev signed the Program of Cooperation between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on Combating the Smuggling of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials.

Khan and PSI

Another noteworthy comment by David Albright in the course of his testimony was on the challenges governments and international organizations face in addressing illicit trade. For example, he wrote:

Programmes