Washington, Feb. 20 (AP): An Israeli businessman accused of being a middleman in the nuclear black market worked to supply not only Pakistan but also India, US court records indicate.
South Africa-based Asher Karni faces felony charges for exporting nuclear bomb triggers to Pakistan.
But court files in the case include e-mail exchanges between Karni and Indian businessman Raghavendra “Ragu” Rao showing that the latter was trying secretly to buy material for two Indian rocket factories.
Rao, the marketing director of Bangalore-based Foretek Marketing (Pvt) Ltd, today said the company last dealt with Karni three to four years ago for acquiring sound and vibration equipment meant exclusively for auto companies.
“I have closed deals with him and his company three to four” years ago, Rao told PTI over the phone from Bangalore.
The files show Rao’s e-mails from India asked Karni to procure three kinds of high-tech equipment while concealing that they were meant for two rocket labs. The US restricts exports of missile-related material to two organisations, the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.
One message from Rao warns Karni to “be careful to avoid any reference to the customer name”.
An August 2002 e-mail from Rao warns Karni to conceal the final customer of an accelerometer for the propulsion centre, noting its export is restricted because of its “possibility of being used in guidance systems for missiles”.
Rao denied the dealings had anything to do with supplying equipment to the rocket labs. He said Karni had got in touch with his company on his own, way back in 1998-99, as “we are representing certain foreign companies”. “But we closed dealings with him as we were not making much progress,” Rao said. They had last exchanged e-mails three to four years ago, he added.
Federal prosecutors said they found Rao’s e-mails while searching a laptop computer and six computer discs Karni had when he was arrested on New Year day on arriving in Denver for a ski vacation. The prosecutors filed the messages in court as part of their attempts to persuade US magistrate Judge Alan Kay to keep Karni behind bars before his trial.
After conferring with the judge yesterday, lawyers for both sides agreed to postpone a bond hearing for Karni until Tuesday.
The criminal case against Karni centres around his efforts to buy triggered spark gaps from Perkinelmer Optoelectronics of Salem, Massachusetts. The devices can be used in machines to break up kidney stones, but exports are restricted because they also are key to triggering nuclear detonations.
Karni, 50, has pleaded innocent. Authorities accuse him of using front companies and falsified documents to buy nuclear bomb triggers in the US and ship them to Pakistan.
The US is pressing Pakistan to shut down the black-market network it used to supply its nuclear weapons programme and, in turn, to supply Iran, North Korea and Libya.
The father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, this month said he ran the network but insisted Pakistan’s government was not involved.
The court files also include records of other deals Karni made with his Pakistan contact, Humayun Khan of the company Pakland PME. One involved the urgent request last May to buy infrared sensors for AIM-9L sidewinder missiles, which Pakistan uses on its F-16 fighter planes for air-to-air combat.
