Corruption helps rogue states and extremist groups buy materials and secret information necessary to make nuclear weapons, expert says
BANGKOK, Nov 10 (TrustLaw) – Rogue states and extremist groups are using “the illicit back door of corruption” to buy the materials and secret information necessary to make nuclear weapons and it is possible al Qaeda could eventually detonate a crude Hiroshima-sized bomb, an expert from a global think-tank said on Wednesday.
There are still 23,000 nuclear weapons in existence with a total destructive capability of 150,000 Hiroshima bombs, Gareth Evans, the president emeritus of International Crisis Group, said at a major international anti-corruption meeting in Bangkok.
“It is sheer dumb luck that we haven’t had a major nuclear catastrophe in the past – either through a deliberate or more likely an accidental misuse of such weapons,” he told Reuters.
“The most troubling of all state security issues in the contemporary age - although too many policymakers have been too complacent about it for too long - is the threat posed by nuclear weapons in the hands of both state actors and non-state terrorist organisations.”
Would-be nuclear proliferators are using “the illicit back door of corruption” to obtain sensitive technology and the materials to make nuclear fuel suitable for weapons, such as highly enriched uranium, Evans said.
This has been achieved in particular through a network run by disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, he added.
The father of the south Asian country’s nuclear programme, Khan was at the heart of the world’s biggest nuclear proliferation scandal in 2004 when he confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea, which is under U.N. sanctions for testing nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009.
A U.N. report suggesting Pyongyang may have supplied Syria, Iran and Myanmar with banned nuclear technology is due to be passed to the Security Council for consideration of possible action after months in limbo because of Chinese objections.
Evans, a former Australian foreign minister, said that although it is unlikely extremist groups are able to make their own nuclear bomb fuel, “it is absolutely not fanciful to believe that a sub-state group like Aum Shinrikyo and al Qaeda, might eventually succeed in making and detonating … a crude Hiroshima-sized device”.
Aum Shinrikyo, a religious Japanese cult, gained notoriety in 1995 when it released sarin gas on the Tokyo underground during rush hour, killing 12 people and injuring thousands.
Evans also said graft helps fuel civil conflict, especially in mineral-rich countries such as Indonesia, Nigeria, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, by for example facilitating the smuggling of arms with the help of corrupt border officials or enabling rebels to sell diamonds illicitly and buy weapons with the proceeds.
Corruption also helps terrorists and undermines efforts to rebuild nations after conflicts, he added.
(Additional reporting by Tim Large)
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