Pakistan’s ‘illegal’ nuclear procurement exposed in 1987: report

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Pakistan’s nuclear procurement was exposed as early as 1987 with the arrest of a Pakistani national, resulting in sharp divisions in the US government, but then Regan administration decided to ignore it in lieu of Islamabad’s contribution in Afghanistan against the Russians, American media quoted the latest set of US declassified documents as saying, on Saturday. The arrest of a Pakistani national Arshed Pervez in July 1987 on charges of illegal nuclear procurement roiled US-Pakistan relations and sharpened divisions within the Reagan administration, according to recently declassified documents published by the National Security Archive and the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) director Kenneth Adelman wanted to crack down on the Pakistani nuclear programme by cutting military and economic aid. Adelman argued that failure to do so “would be seen as ‘business as usual,’” taking the pressure off Pakistan “at the very time we should be trying to increase pressure on them to stop … illegal procurement activities in the US”. By contrast, the State Department took a contrary view because US aid to Pakistan supported the mujahideen in Afghanistan. “We are particularly concerned about weakening the president’s hand in discussions with the Soviets on Afghanistan, which (are) at a critical stage.” Pervez, who had tried to bribe a Customs official to get an export licence, sought to purchase high strength maraging steel, uniquely suited for gas centrifuge enrichment technology, and quantities of beryllium for his country’s covert nuclear programme. This arrest and then an indictment in California on another case made headlines in the United States. The revealed document say Adelman wanted president Reagan to invoke the Solarz amendment (after then-Rep. Stephen Solarz, D-NY), which required an aid cut-off in the event that governments receiving US aid or their agents illegally tried to procure material that could be used for a nuclear weapons programme. Reagan, however, refused to invoke the Solarz amendment. Although Pervez would be found guilty, the White House kept US aid flowing to Islamabad for reasons of “national security.” For the Reagan administration, aiding the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan trumped non-proliferation policy interests. The report says the high priority given to a close US-Pakistan relationship may have encouraged, as some journalists have alleged, State Department officials to warn the Pakistanis of the imminent arrest of their agents. The declassified documents say a key figure in the AQ Khan nuclear procurement network, Inamul Haq, who was working closely with Pervez, evaded arrest by slipping out of the United States at the last minute. The declassified documents show the “illegal network” had Islamabad’s “approval, protection, and funding”. A few weeks later, under secretary of state for political affairs Michael Armacost explained to Pakistani ruler General Ziaul Haq that State had unsuccessfully tried to get information about the Customs Bureau’s investigation of Pervez, but “we did alert the GoP (Government of Pakistan) through letters, Ambassador Hinton, and our talks with the foreign minister that there was an issue here that needed to be addressed urgently.” “I understand the idea of warning, Zia replied.” The Pervez case demonstrates how the US government agencies, including the Customs Bureau and ACDA, sought to monitor and disrupt Pakistan’s nuclear procurement activities. For its part, the Reagan White House used loopholes in US non-proliferation laws to avoid the enforcement of sanctions on Pakistan. The documents released in Saturday’s publication illustrate these and related developments. They include: Records compiled by the US government lawyers for prosecuting Pervez, including correspondence between Pervez and the Khan front company, Multinational, Inc., Pervez’s correspondence with Carpenter Technology Corporation, the supplier of maraging steel, and Pervez’s personal notes, which include references to “atom” and “military” which his lawyers could not explain. A memorandum by Kenneth Adelman shortly after Pervez’s arrest said: “If we now ‘lawyer our way around’ the Solarz amendment”, and seek to avoid its enforcement, “Zia will conclude once again that he need do nothing about his bomb programme.” An ACDA memo on the applicability of the Solarz amendment which concluded that “there is no plausible end-use for 25 tonnes of grade 350 maraging steel other than in the manufacture of centrifuges” for producing highly-enriched uranium and “for which Pakistan has no use except in nuclear explosives”.