False Report

Sent By Pakistan High Commission 

 REPORT PUBLISHED IN LONDON TIMES IS COMPLETELY FALSE

Press Release, Islamabad 20 December 2002

When the attention of the Foreign Secretary was drawn to a report published today in London Times alleging that a Pakistani scientist had offered Iraq nuclear weapons designs in 1990, he termed this story as completely false, irresponsible and obviously motivated. The fact of the matter was that this allegation had surfaced in 1998 in a Newsweek article. The matter was thoroughly investigated at the request of the IAEA which is responsible for Iraqi nuclear disarmament and possesses all relevant information relating to the Iraqi nuclear program. The allegation proved to be completely false.

Consequently, the IAEA had written to the author of the story correspondent John Berry stating unequivocally that his story was "inconsistent with the information available to the IAEA". The Foreign Office was releasing to the press this official IAEA letter

to Newsweek which had effectively closed this matter. The present case was simply a malicious regurgitation of an allegation which had been found to be completely false.

The Foreign Secretary added that it was evident that the campaign of inspired leaks based on pure fiction was continuing following on the baseless allegations regarding Pakistan’s cooperation with North Korea. It was obvious that these leaks were selectively targeting Pakistan while ignoring the well documented proliferation activities of the largest proliferator of weapons of mass destruction in our region which possessed not only an ambitious nuclear programme but also chemical and biological programmes.

Such reports may also be designed to provide alibis to the actual suppliers of technologies and financial credits to the Iraqi programme. In this context, it was noteworthy that the recent Iraqi declarations submitted to the Security Council had only been provided in their entirety to the Permanent Members of the Security Council. Many of the actual truths may therefore never come out.

Pakistan is seriously considering raising this matter in the UN Security Council when it takes up its seat beginning from January with a view to calling for an investigation to reveal the sources of such mischievous allegations and their true motivation. To put the record straight, Pakistan may also ask for full access to the Iraqi documents.

Click here to see official IAEA letter.