Malaysia: Bush Overplaying Nuclear Role

From Yahoo/AP comes this little tidbit: bq. Malaysia's leader on Thursday questioned U.S. intelligence on this country's role in a global nuclear trafficking network, and said the man President Bush called its "chief financial officer and money launderer" would not be arrested, for now. And more: bq. Malaysia has said Bush is unfairly singling out this Southeast Asian country with his assertions about its role in the network run by the scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. bq. "There is no such thing as Malaysia's involvement," Abdullah told reporters Thursday, when asked to respond to the remarks Bush made in a speech. "We are not involved in any way. I don't know where Bush is getting his evidence from." Or, we are heavily involved but don't want anyone to know about it. bq. Bush said Khan and his associates used a company in Malaysia to make parts for centrifuges � which can be used to enrich uranium for weapons � and that front companies had been used to "deceive legitimate firms into selling them tightly controlled materials." bq. The Malaysian company doesn't deny making the parts, but says it didn't know what they were for. Yeah right - and we have some wonderful waterfront property to sell you. bq. Both U.S. officials and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency say the components were clearly for nuclear use, disputing Malaysian police assertions that they could have had other purposes. And who was making these parts: bq. The Malaysian company, Scomi Precision Engineering, says it supplied 14 semifinished machine components, ordered by Tahir, to Dubai. It says it understood the parts were for use in the oil and gas industry. bq. The company's parent, Scomi Group, is majority-controlled by Kamaluddin Abdullah, the prime minister's only son, who does not play an official management role in the company. Big surprise there. We were looking for a country to be making nuclear weapons. What we found was a network of countries each contributing their element of a nuclear program. This is much bigger and much worse.