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Cover Story

China's nuke know-how made in Canada

by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
Friday, May 6, 2005

The western world is only now waking to the nightmarish specter of China providing nuclear technology know-how to Pakistan and North Korea.

China's nuke know-how can be stamped: "Made in Canada".

CaNDU manufacturer, the atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (aECL), is among other things, the Mother of all Proliferators.

Reid Morden, former president and CEO of aECL, could star in his own made-for-television spy novel. Morden's credentials in the spy industry come from Canada's main intelligence agency, CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service, an agency Morden headed up.

"On October 13, 1995 the second phase of a Canadian deal with China was signed in Ottawa during the controversial and much-protested visit of Premier Li Peng (aKa the "Butcher of Beijing"). Documents were signed by Li Peng, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, as well as aECL President Reid Morden and his counterpart in the China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) Jiang Xinxiong. Morden stated: `We are now essentially ready to complete work on a commercial contract.'" (David Martin, Nuclear awareness Project, November 1996).

Like James Bond, Morden gets around.

after a stint selling nuclear plants to China and other countries for companies dominated by the Montreal-based Power Corporation, Morden was called to Manhattan when he became Paul Volcker's No. 2 man on the Independent Inquiry Committee probing the United Nation oil-for-food program.

But the oft-quoted anti-Weapons of Mass Destruction crusader Reid Morden is not Canada's only contributor to getting nuclear technology into the wrong hands.

In the latest international blunder, at least five of nine Pakistani scientists who have gone on the lam deep into the so-called axis of evil, were trained in peace-loving Canada.

"another top scientist, Dr. a.Q. Khan, the man who made Pakistan's nuclear bomb and who has also been linked to assisting Iran, Iraq and North Korea weapons programs, was also hosted by the atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (aECL)." (The asian Pacific Post, Jan. 16. 2003)

It's no longer an international game guessing if rogue scientists can really be trusted.

Recently, Pakistan's information minister acknowledged that Khan gave centrifuges to Iran, but insisted that the government had nothing to do with the transfer.

Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium--a process that can provide fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity, but also make materials for atomic warheads.

Pakistan has insisted that despite his crimes, Khan would never be handed over to a third country for prosecution.

Khan, the rogue scientist at the heart of an international nuclear black market, confessed last year that he sold nuclear technology to Iran, as well as North Korea and Libya. Investigations into his group's activities have widened to include other countries as well.

For its part, Canada was unmoved by evidence that showed Pakistan was making nuclear weapons and was also suspected of having connections with North Korea. In the face of both those concepts, aECL continued cooperating on several fronts with the South asian nation.

Pakistani scientists like Dr. Khan, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudhry abdul Majeed got their uranium enrichment expertise courtesy of the accommodating aECL.

Some 50 other leading Pakistani nuclear engineers--including five of the nine on the lam–were also trained in Ontario and New Brunswick.

Pakistani authorities have been warned in an internal memo prepared by engineers of the CHaSNUPP nuclear power plant, built with Chinese assistance in central Pakistan that many more of its 250 nuclear scientists and engineers were planning to make a run to other countries.

The runaway rogue nuclear scientists are looking for more money and better working conditions.

Well connected to the aECL, Khan has been a welcome visitor to Canadian nuclear sites.

Media reports also say that Khan's name appeared in a letter offering to manufacture a nuclear weapon for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The asian Pacific Post reported last month that a French-Canadian nuclear engineer who was working on Canadian CaNDU reactors in South Korea was befriended by North Korean agents seeking western technology and scientific secrets.

a second unidentified Canadian, who was working on the CaNDU reactors in South Korea, also met with the North Korean spies.

The French-Canadian engineer is believed to be an employee of aECL, which has built and operated four CaNDU reactors at Wolsong, South Korea since 1983.

The Canadian government goes a long way to cast Canada as a UN-loving, land of peacekeepers.

It's too late for Canada to take its nuclear know-how back from rogue scientists. Perhaps it's high time for the Land of the Maple Leaf to be keeping a lid on it.


Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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