Nations Said to Court A.Q. Khan Associates

A number of foreign governments could be attempting to recruit some former members of the proliferation ring once operated by Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Washington Times reported yesterday (see GSN, March 25).

This has caused some concern in the U.S. intelligence community about the potential for the nuclear black market operation to be reconstituted.
Two sources from U.S. spy agencies and other officials familiar with reports on the matter said intelligence collected since early 2010 indicates that operatives from multiple foreign nations have reached out to engineers, scientists and money-men who were involved with the disbanded nuclear smuggling network. Those countries reportedly include Brazil, Iran, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.
"They have propositioned them to get them to come out of retirement," a high-ranking U.S. intelligence officer said.