Well, so much for that Idea

The Bush Administration allowed Pakistan to get away with a long policy of black market nuclear weapons sales for both domestic and short-term foreign policy reasons. For the most part the press let them get away with it. Well, guess what, it appears to be starting up again.

From Reuters:

Pakistan has developed new illicit channels to upgrade its nuclear weapons program, despite efforts by the U.N. atomic watchdog to shut down all illegal procurement avenues, diplomats and nuclear experts said.

Western diplomats familiar with an investigation of the nuclear black market by the U.N.'s Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said this news was disturbing.

While Pakistan appeared to be shopping for its own needs, the existence of some nuclear black market channels meant there were still ways for rogue states or terrorist groups to acquire technology that could be used in atomic weapons, they said.

"General procurement efforts (by Pakistan) are going on. It is a determined effort," a diplomat from a member of the 44-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"This was discussed at an NSG meeting in Vienna last week."

Nuclear experts said these channels involved new middlemen who had not played a role in earlier deals which came to light last year.

"These are not the same people. They're new, which is worrying," said one Western diplomat.

...

Like nuclear-armed India and presumed atomic power Israel, who also remain outside the NPT, Pakistan has long been forced to use the black market to supply its atomic weapons program.

This was why Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced scientist who built Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and whose role was revealed in 2003, set up a clandestine procurement network with front companies and middlemen who duped manufacturers across the globe into thinking purchases of sensitive dual-use items were intended for civilian purposes.

Another fine example of "keeping the world safer"!