Stories like this one just make you go “What the F***?”

A Swiss investigation into an international nuclear smuggling network is being hampered by a lack of cooperation from the United States.

Authorities in Bern say they asked US officials for judicial assistance a year ago but have yet to receive a reply.

What could keep the United States government, Bushco or no Bushco, from doing everything they possibly could to assist an investigation into the smuggling of nuclear material? Isn’t that what we have been told to fear the most — the smoking gun of a mushroom cloud?

Update [2006-5-30 19:59:39 by Steven D]: Further info, including the update is below the fold.
It is, after all, in our interest to do all that we can to limit nuclear proliferation. Indeed, the very threat of Iran possibly developing a nuclear weapon capability has got the Bush administration itching to pull the trigger on a military attack on Iran’s nascent nuclear research infrastructure. So why would we want to hinder a Swiss investigation into an alleged nuclear smuggling ring?

Washington’s failure to respond to “multiple” Swiss appeals was revealed last week by former United Nations weapons inspector David Albright.

He told a US hearing into the nuclear trafficking ring run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb, that he found the lack of cooperation by the US “frankly embarrassing”.

“It is difficult to understand the actions of the US government. Its lack of assistance needlessly complicates this important investigation,” said Albright, who is president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.

Ah, Pakistan. Our alleged ally in the War on Terror. I can’t count how many “high level Al Queda” figures they captured for us (though they do seem unable or unwilling to land the big fish, Osama Bin Laden, himself). So maybe there’s some sensitivity on the part of the Bush administration to embarrassing Musharraf’s regime, since Khan is the “Father” of Pakistan’s bomb program, and a man already implicated in spreading nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya.

Still, that’s no reason for holding back information and/or other help from the Swiss investigators regarding these three individuals:

The Swiss authorities have arrested three men from the same family – Friedrich, Urs and Marco Tinner – on suspicion of helping to supply gas centrifuge parts for use in Libya’s nuclear weapons programme between 2001 and 2003. Gas centrifuges are a vital element in the production of weapons-grade material.

Urs Tinner is said to have supervised the production of more than 2,000 centrifuge parts in Malaysia. A German-registered freighter carrying components from Malaysia to Libya was intercepted in autumn 2003.

You recognize the significance of centrifuges, I’m sure. Why, in the months preceding the Iraq invasion, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney couldn’t stop talking about how dangerous centrifuges were and how Saddam had all thses aluminum tubes with which to make them. And the Bush administration has been quivering in fear over the 164 or so centrifuges Iran claims it has used to enrich uranium to the modest 5% level, far below what’s needed to produce weapons grade material.

So, what’s the deal? Why has our government been ignoring Swiss pleas for help regarding this network of alleged nuclear technology smugglers? Why don’t we want to help them to get to the bottom of this case? We should be just as concerned, if not much more so, than the Swiss, after all. It’s our cities which are the likeliest target of nuclear terrorism. It’s the very reason we’ve been told by the Bush White House that Iran must, at all costs, be prevented from getting the bomb.

According to the article, Libya and “law enforcement agencies in the Far East” (presumably Malaysian authorities among them) have been cooperating freely with the Swiss investigation. Now I know we have many layers of federal bureaucracy, and no doubt many approvals from various federal agencies are needed, before we can give the “go code” to cooperating with this international investigation, but surely after a year’s time all the i’s should have been dotted and t’s crossed. This is nuclear proliferation we’re talking about, i.e., real WMD’s (Weapons of Mass Death), and presumably something of great interest to our President, who never stops telling us how hard he works to keep America safe.

So, what gives Mr. President?

Update [2006-5-30 19:59:39 by Steven D]: It gets worse. Apparently the Bush administration refused to attend Congressional hearings seeking to reropen the investigation into A.Q. Khan’s network:

The Bush administration opted not to attend the hearings on the A.Q. Khan network conducted by the US Congressional Sub Committee on Terrorism and Nuclear Non-Proliferation. The committee met on May 25 and pointedly challenged Islamabad’s May 2 announcement that “the A.Q. Khan case was closed.” The four-member panel was chaired by Congressman Edward Royce of California and basically painted Pakistan as the most dangerous country when it comes to proliferation activities. The experts on the panel included David Albright of the Institute of Science and International Security, Leonard Weiss, an independent consultant and Andrew Koch and former Washington correspondent of the Jane’s Defense weekly.

Throughout the hour-long hearings, the experts presented numerous reasons why the A.Q. Khan investigation could not be closed. They argued that prosecutions were essential to ensure that this case served as a deterrence; that the US and IAEA must demand direct access to A.Q. Khan because Pakistani officials are not trustworthy; A.Q. Khan will be a key source of information on how far Iran has progressed in its nuclear program and Washington must access that information directly from Khan.

Other issues raised included the need for Washington to get information on the extent to which some Arab countries including Syria and Egypt have moved along on their nuclear programs. Information on such matters can only be accessed through meeting A.Q. Khan, they argued. In fact implicating the government of Pakistan in sharing nuclear technology with other Muslim states, the committee chairman claimed that Gen. Zia ul-Haq had spoke about sharing nuclear technology with the entire Muslim world.

So, again, what’s the deal, Mr. President? Why aren’t we interested in investigating A.Q. Khan further, or talking to him directly, or spiriting him away to Guantanamo Bay, or our prison facility at Bagram Air Force Base, for some “less than organ failure” interrogation sessions? Why are we allowing Pakistan to label the Khan investigation “Case Closed”?

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