
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990                   TAG: 9003290441
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NUCLEAR DEVICES SEIZED

Six people were arrested in Britain Wednesday in what American and British officials said was an attempt to smuggle to Iraq electronic devices used to trigger nuclear weapons.

Electronic equipment that has military uses also was seized in Britain Wednesday, the officials said.

The moves capped an 18-month undercover investigation.

Officials said a sealed indictment returned by a federal grand jury in San Diego describes a scheme in which several foreign nationals tried to smuggle out of the United States through England small electronic devices that were said to be required by Iraqi officials for building nuclear weapons.

Some of the six people arrested in London have been charged in the indictment while others have not, officials said. They identified one of those arrested, Ali Daghir, as the leader of the smuggling ring.

The names and nationalities of the others were not divulged, but officials said they included citizens of Iraq, Britain and Lebanon.

The arrests were a result of a long and complex charade carried on by the British and American authorities, long-range undercover detective work and false documents. On several occasions, the whole investigation was nearly revealed.

Federal investigators developed the case after a California company, identified as CSI Technologies, was approached by Iraqi agents seeking to export items that cannot be sent out of the United States without a license from the federal government.

The company then approached the U.S. Customs Service and agreed to cooperate in an undercover investigation, officials said.

A person who answered the phone Wednesday at the CSI Technologies offices in San Marcos, not far from San Diego, hung up when a reporter identified himself.

The case adds fuel to the debate over Iraq's weapons programs, including a suspected program to build a nuclear bomb. But because of the secrecy surrounding the case, many questions remain unanswered, including details of the criminal charges and the exact status of Iraq's weapons programs.

The White House spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said Wednesday: "This issue raises once again our concern for the nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. It continues to pose a serious risk to U.S. interests, and it continues to exacerbate regional problems."

Abdul Rahmen Jamril, the press attache at the Iraqi Embassy here, said that he knew nothing about the case but that Iraq was "not developing nor does it intend to develop any nuclear capacity."

Some of the devices sought by the Iraqis, capacitors, are particularly well suited for triggering nuclear explosions.

This puzzles some intelligence experts who believe that Iraq's program lacks crucial supplies of plutonium and enriched uranium that would be needed to make nuclear weapons. One intelligence expert pointed out that capacitors also are used in separating the stages of missiles and rockets. Officials said Iraq also has a missile program that is far more advanced than the nuclear program.

by CNB