Swiss engineers, a nuclear black market and the cia

The president of Swiss Confederation stepped to a dais in Bern in May and read a statement confirming rumour that had swirled through the working capital for calendar month. The authorities, he acknowledged, had so destroyed a huge trove of computing machine files and other stuff documenting the concern dealings of a household of Swiss applied scientist suspected of portion smuggle nuclear technology to Libya and Iran.

The files were of specific interest not only to Swiss prosecutors but to international atomic inspectors working to unwind the activities of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani bomb innovator turned black marketeer. The Swiss applied scientist, Friedrich tinsmith and his two sons, were accused of having deep associations with Khan, playing as middlemen in his dealings with rogue nations seeking nuclear equipment and expertness.

The Swiss president, Pascal Couchepin, took no inquiry. But he asserted that the files - which included an array of plans for nuclear arms and engineering, among them a extremely sophisticated Pakistani bomb designing - had been destroyed so that they would never fall into terrorist hands.

buttocks that functionary explanation, although, is a far more intriguing tale of spies, moles and the questionable compromises that governments make in the name of subject security.

The United States had urged that the files be destroyed, according to interviews with five electric current and former Bush disposal officials. The intent, the functionary said, was less to cross thwart terrorists than to hide grounds of a clandestine relationship betwixt the Tinners and the CIA.

Over four years, several of these functionary said, operatives of the CIA paid the Tinners as much as $10 1000000, some of it delivered in a bag stuffed with cash. In tax return, the Tinners delivered a flow of secret information that helped end Libya's bomb programme, reveal Iran's atomic labors and, ultimately, undo Khan's nuclear black market.

In addition, U.S. And European officials said, the Tinners played an important role in a clandestine U.S. Operation to funnel sabotaged nuclear equipment to Libya and Iran, a major but little-known element of the efforts to slow their nuclear progress.

The relationship with the Tinners "was very significant," said Gary Samore, who ran the National Security Council's nonproliferation office when the operation began. "That's where we got the first indications that Iran had acquired centrifuges," which enrich uranium for nuclear fuel.

Yet even as U.S. Officials describe the relationship as a major intelligence coup, compromises were made. Officials say the CIA feared that a trial would not just reveal the Tinners' relationship with the United States - and perhaps raise questions about U.S. Dealings with atomic smugglers - but would also imperil efforts to recruit new spies at a time of grave concern over Iran's nuclear program. Destruction of the files, CIA officials reasoned, would undermine the case and likely set their informants free.

"We were very happy they were destroyed," a senior intelligence official in Washington said of the files.

But in Europe, there is much consternation. Analysts studying Khan's network worry that by destroying the files to prevent their spread, the Swiss government may have obscured the investigative trail. It is unclear who among Khan's customers - a list that is known to include Iran, Libya and North Korea, but which may extend further - got the illicit material, much of it contained in easily transmitted electronic designs.

The West's most important questions about the Khan network have been consistently deflected by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, who resigned last Monday. Musharraf refused to account for the bomb designs that got away or to let U.S. Investigators question Khan, perhaps the only man to know who else received the atomic blueprints.

President George W. Bush of the United States, eager for Pakistan's cooperation on terrorism, never pressed Musharraf for answers.

"Maybe that labyrinth held clues to another client or another rogue state," said a European official angry at the destruction.

The Swiss judge in charge of the Tinner case, Andreas Müller, is not terribly happy either. He said he had no warning of the planned destruction of the files, and he is now trying to determine what, if anything, remains of the case against Friedrich Tinner and his sons, Urs and Marco.

Some details of the links between the Tinners and U.S. Intelligence have been revealed in news reports and in recent books, most notably "The Nuclear Jihadist," a biography of Khan by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins. But recent interviews in the United States and Europe by The New York Times have provided a fuller portrait of the relationship - especially the involvement of all three Tinners, the large amounts of money they received and the CIA's extensive efforts on their behalf. Virtually all the officials interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss matters that remain classified.