Garland, who oversaw the Oklahoma City bombing case for the Justice Department, said it was 'the most important thing I have ever done in my life.'īut he will have far more on his plate if confirmed by the U.S. Libya did acquire machine tools and high-strength metals that could be used to make rotors, although such an undertaking would have required years to complete and substantial outside help.Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden's nominee to serve as attorney general, will face the peril of resurgent right-wing terrorism, according to a new report by The New York Times. In the case of the missing rotors, investigators see three possibilities: They were being manufactured by unknown suppliers who still have not yet come to light, they were never made or they were shipped and then diverted to another country.

Libyan officials have told investigators they had expected to receive all the parts and in some cases had visited facilities where the components were said to be made. 'They received thousands of parts, but lacked many of the ones considered to be the most sensitive.'Īmong the missing components were rotors, the rapidly spinning tubes that make up the core of the centrifuge, as well as bellows, rotor caps and other parts made from a high-strength metal known as maraging steel, U.S. 'The Libyans did not have the parts to assemble even a single centrifuge,' said one diplomat familiar with the IAEA's probe. and European officials close to the investigation. Some of the most sensitive parts never arrived there and were not part of the shipment of nuclear parts intercepted by U.S., British and Italian authorities last October, according to U.S. Now, it appears that Libya received only a fraction of the parts needed to build the machines. Libyan officials have acknowledged buying parts for at least 4,000 advanced centrifuges known as P2s - machines that, when assembled, would have given Libya the capability to produce enough enriched uranium for several nuclear bombs a year. The dramatic decision by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi in December to renounce his pursuit of nuclear weapons brought the Khan network to light and provided investigators with clues that led to the discovery of suppliers and shipping routes, according to U.S. Although the smuggling ring traded mostly in components for gas centrifuges - complex machines used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons - the network is also known to have supplied uranium and nuclear weapons blueprints to Libya. Khan and a small group of business associates were the architects of the trading network, which coordinated the manufacture and shipment of nuclear components from as many as dozen locations to Libya, as well North Korea, Iran and possibly other countries. 'But if we don't succeed, there's a real chance the network will reconstitute itself and spread again.' 'It is taking longer than anyone expected,' said David Albright, a nuclear expert and president of the Institute for Science and International Security. Yet, despite cooperation by numerous countries - and by Khan - the investigation has proven difficult and time-consuming. Unraveling the network and recovering missing parts and blueprints are viewed as urgent because of the possibility that nuclear technology could be diverted to unfriendly governments or terrorist groups. We don't think the story is fully revealed yet.'

'We continue to look for, and expect to make, new discoveries. 'We haven't gotten to the bottom of the story,' acknowledged one senior Bush administration official involved in the investigation. Yet, the investigators believe that some of the suppliers to the network have not yet been identified - and perhaps some customers, as well. investigators have identified many of the network's operatives and methods and recovered tens of thousands of parts in a dragnet that has reached from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and Europe. The whereabouts of the parts is one of several mysteries that has preoccupied officials involved in the biggest investigation of nuclear smuggling in history - the probe into the black-market network led by former Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. and international investigators are still struggling to account for a number of sensitive parts Libya ordered for construction of its uranium enrichment plant - parts that potentially could be used by other countries or groups seeking nuclear weapons. Despite a search that has spanned the globe, U.S. participants.įour months later, the wait continues. 'They clearly expected more things to turn up,' said one of the U.S.

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