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United States Working With Pakistan to Strengthen Export Control System, State Department Official Says By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — The United States is working with Pakistan to improve its national export control system to prevent future transfers of Pakistani nuclear technology abroad, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca said yesterday (see GSN, June 7). In testimony before a House International Relations subcommittee, Rocca praised export control legislation recently introduced in the Pakistani Parliament that she said “would go a long way towards meeting the standards that we are encouraging them to reach.” The legislation would reportedly impose penalties of up to 14 years in prison, a fine of more than $85,000 and seizure of all assets and property of any nuclear scientist found guilty of conducting illegal exports. Rocca told the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee that progress is being made in rolling up the international nuclear network revealed earlier this year by top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has confessed to having provided Iran, Libya and North Korea with nuclear technologies. Pakistan has provided “very good cooperation” in dismantling the network, she said. “The public exposure of A.Q. Khan’s activities and investigations by various governments has disrupted his black market proliferation network. It’s now in the process of being dismantled, and Pakistan is taking these investigations seriously,” she said (see GSN, June 22). Under questioning from lawmakers, though, Rocca said that Pakistan had not provided either the United States or the International Atomic Energy Agency with direct access to Khan to aid their respective investigations into the nuclear network. During a nonproliferation conference held Monday in Washington, Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Ashraf Jehangir Qazi said that Pakistan is providing the agency with information it learns through its own investigation into the network. Representative Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) criticized Pakistan for failing to make Khan available. “Despite Pakistan’s claims to the contrary and our apparent acquiescence, this is not an internal Pakistani matter. Once Pakistan decided to sell its wares internationally, it became a matter for the international community and for us,” he said during yesterday’s hearing. Ackerman and other Democratic subcommittee members criticized the Bush administration for failing to hold Pakistan responsible for Khan’s nuclear proliferation activities. “The administration is making a very bad bargain with Pakistan. In exchange for perceived cooperation on al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the administration is giving Pakistan a pass on nuclear proliferation issues,” Ackerman said. Delegate Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa) called for conditions to be placed on a five-year, $3 billion aid package to Pakistan set to take effect in fiscal 2005. The economic and security assistance package was announced last year following a meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf at the Camp David U.S. presidential retreat. “I would like to clearly state that I do not believe we will see an end to terrorism or nuclear proliferation until the U.S. Congress imposes restrictions on U.S. aid to Pakistan,” Faleomavaega said. Rocca, however, rejected the idea of placing conditions on the planned aid package. “There has been no cause at all for us to have second thoughts about providing that assistance to Pakistan, which, as I mentioned in my statement, continues to be very cooperative on all the fronts of … vital national interest to the United States,” she told the subcommittee.
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