Rogue Nations May Have Nuclear Blueprints

Former Weapons Inspector Says Pakistani Scientist Could Have Given Iran, North Korea Weapons Plans

(CBS)  There's new concern tonight that sophisticated designs for nuclear weapons may have made their way into the hands of rogue regimes and groups which, thus far, have been unable to develop nuclear arsenals. CBS News correspondent Thalia Assuras reports from Washington.

A former U.N. weapons inspector has revealed that blueprints for nuclear devices were found two years ago on computers connected to an international nuclear smuggling ring with links to Iran and North Korea.

Communist North Korea was forced by the United Nations to halt its nuclear development program, and the International Atomic Energy Agency is presently working to verify that Iran is not trying to make nuclear weapons of its own. The Bush administration insists the Islamic Republic has engaged in a secret weapons program for years - charges the country's leaders deny.

Former weapons inspector David Albright says in a new draft report that blueprints for a compact nuclear device, small enough to fit on ballistic missiles already possessed by Iran and North Korea, were found on a computer in Switzerland two years ago.

"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," Albright says in the draft, which was obtained Sunday by the Washington Post. He says Iran and North Korea were known to be customers of the illicit nuclear information network.

"They both faced struggles in building a nuclear warhead small enough to fit atop their ballistic missiles and these designs were for a warhead that would fit," Albright says in the report.

The former U.N. weapons inspector is currently with the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based think-tank.

The black-market nuclear trading ring was run for years by the disgraced former head of Pakistan's nuclear program, scientist A.Q. Khan.

Four years ago, Khan admitted to providing less-sophisticated weapons designs to Libya and other dubious regimes, though in a recent phone interview with CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer from Islamabad, where he is under house arrest, he made an about-face.

"I was not involved in any nuclear proliferation," Khan said.

Traveling Sunday in Europe with President Bush, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told reporters: "We're very concerned about the A.Q. Khan network, both in terms of what they were doing by purveying enrichment technology and also the possibility that there would be weapons-related technology associated with it."

The drawings were on computers owned by Swiss businessmen connected to Khan's group. The businessmen are currently under investigation.

Assuras reports the electronic blueprints have been destroyed, but there is no telling how many copies were made, or what may still be in circulation.