Here's new information from the CIA confirming suspicions about the connection between Iran's nuclear program and Pakistan.
A new report from the CIA says the arms trafficking network led by a Pakistani scientist provided Iran's nuclear program with "significant assistance," including the designs for "advanced and efficient" weapons components.Posted by Alan at November 24, 2004 07:02 AMThe unclassified version of the report, posted Tuesday on the agency's Web site, does not say explicitly whether the network led by A.Q. Khan sold Iran complete plans for building a warhead, as the network is known to have done for Libya and perhaps North Korea. But it suggests that U.S. intelligence agencies now believe that the bomb-making designs provided by the network to Iran in the 1990s were more significant than the U.S. government had previously disclosed.
Until now, in discussing Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials have referred publicly only to the Khan network's role in supplying designs for older Pakistani centrifuges used to enrich uranium. But American officials have also suspected that the Khan network also provided Iran with a warhead design.
The CIA report is the first to assert that the designs provided to Iran also included those for weapons components.