Abu Sayyaf Claims Ferry Sinking

Feb. 29 - Abu Sayyaf, a group associated with al Qaeda, has taken responsibility for the ferry explosion in the Phillipines that left 180 people missing.

UPDATE: According to Phillipine President Arroyo, there is no evidence that a bomb caused the fire aboard the ferry and dismisses the Abu Sayyaf claim.

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Malaysian connection to Dr. Khan

Feb. 21 - A report prepared by IAEA Director General Mohamed El Baradei for presentation to a board of directors meeting next month is to reveal that Libya made plutonium, according to diplomats (no names are given in the report.)

Libya's success in enriching uranium means that its weapons program was much more advanced than the IAEA had originally believed.

The man who was suspected of being the negotiator and representative for Abdul Oadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold nuclear technology on the black market to countries as Libya and Iran, is Malaysian resident Buhary Syed Abu Tahir and he admitted Friday that he was the middleman in many transactions on behalf of Khan in his black market network.

According to a statemen issued by Malaysian police, in 1995

"[Khan] had asked B.S.A. Tahir to send two containers of used centrifuge units from Pakistan to Iran," the statement by Malaysian police said.

"B.S.A. Tahir organized the transshipment of the two containers from Dubai to Iran using a merchant ship owned by a company in Iran."

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Kazakhstan in nuclear black market?

Feb. 20 - Kazakhstan has opened in inquiry into the possibility that the nuclear black market might be linked to the Almaty office of a Dubai company:

The black market's potential connection to Kazakhstan - which served as a nuclear testing ground until it disarmed after its 1991 independence - has raised concern about the proliferation of remnants of the Soviet weapons program. Kazakh officials strongly deny any highly enriched uranium - the form used in weapons - has leaked out of the country.

Note that this is still speculation, but questions have arisen repeatedly about the security of Soviet weapons and weapons programs since the fall of the Soviet Union.

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