[Guardian-UK ] Ian Traynor - Nuclear bomb blueprints and manuals on how to manufacture weapons-grade uranium for warheads are feared to be circulating on the international black market, according to investigators tracking nuclear smuggling. Alarm about the sale of nuclear know-how follows the disclosure that the Swiss government, allegedly acting under U.S. pressure, secretly destroyed tens of thousands of documents from a massive nuclear smuggling investigation. The information was seized from the home and computers of Urs Tinner, a Swiss engineer in custody for almost four years as a key suspect in the nuclear smuggling ring run by A.Q. Khan, which trafficked nuclear materials, equipment and knowhow to at least three countries: Iran, Libya, and North Korea. While the Tinner files, believed to number around 30,000 documents, had been shredded, "We know that copies were made," said Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on the illicit networks at the British-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS).
2008-06-03 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive