Bush to Target Atomic Black Market

In a new drive to curb the spread of weapons of mass destruction, President Bush today will issue a series of proposals targeting the international black market in nuclear technology, a senior administration official said Tuesday.

Until now, most counter-proliferation efforts have focused on curtailing the spread of such weapons by rogue regimes and other states. Bush’s initiative would target the “second path” of proliferation, the existence of which had “become very clear” in the wake of the newly exposed activities of Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan’s top weapons expert, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In confessing to having passed nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, Khan underscored the crucial role of private individuals in the global proliferation of nuclear components and technology.

In a speech at the National Defense University this afternoon, Bush also intends to propose incentives to deter governments from acquiring nuclear weapons, largely by guaranteeing them a reliable and cost-effective supply of fuel for their civilian nuclear reactors in exchange for giving up facilities to produce their own fuel, the official said. Facilities used in the production of fuel for power reactors also can be used to make bombs.

Although this approach resembles one advocated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the president’s proposal is more likely to produce the desired responses, the Bush administration official said. “We’re trying to address the same problems,” the official said.

Bush will propose creating an IAEA safeguards and violations committee to monitor compliance, the official said. Administration officials previously have been harshly critical of the IAEA.

In targeting individuals and small groups of weapons traders operating surreptitiously, Bush will also propose expanding the role of an 11-nation partnership known as the Proliferation Security Initiative, which he formed last year. Members of the group have used their own laws and resources to try to contain shipments of dangerous technologies.

Bush intends to call on the group to move beyond interdiction by working more closely together to freeze assets and seize materials, a tactic also being used to fight terrorism, the official said.

Bush will urge the United Nations to pass a U.S.-authored anti-proliferation resolution, which calls on member nations to pass laws that criminalize proliferation activities and to enact strict export controls. The draft is in preliminary negotiations at the world body.

Bush will also call for the closing of a “major loophole” in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that has allowed countries such as North Korea and Iran to acquire fissile materials that can be used in weapons and then withdraw from the treaty, the official said.

Bush’s initiative comes as his administration has drawn criticism for going easy on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf after he pardoned Khan.

The U.S. has neither imposed sanctions on Pakistan nor demanded an independent investigation into the Pakistani military’s possible role in aiding the sale of secrets.

U.S. officials said Bush was determined to act more broadly to contain the spread of weapons. “It’s a very high priority for this administration,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Tuesday.

“There are shadowy networks that exist that seek to spread weapons of mass destruction.... There are individuals who provide technology and know-how to rogue states,” McClellan said. “In a post-Sept. 11 world, it’s important that we do everything we can to stop proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

The senior administration official said Bush, in his remarks today, would “go into great detail” about the network of individual weapons proliferators “motivated by greed who find eager partners in some of the outlaw regimes.”

He also will call for an expansion of programs like those that helped the states of the former Soviet Union dismantle their weapons and find jobs for their scientists and nuclear technicians.

The president will urge the world community to help fund that effort, the senior administration official said.

Bush also wants to prevent the acquisition of nuclear technology by states that do not now have “a full-scale and functioning enrichment and reprocessing plant,” the official said.

Under such a stipulation, Japan could move forward but Iran could not.