Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 17, 1990 TAG: 9004170528
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
To deter such countries from continuing these practices, the report recommended that the United States and other supplier countries threaten to penalize them with economic and military sanctions.
Titled "Nuclear Exports: The Challenge of Control," the report was prepared by the private Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
There was no immediate comment from any of the embassies whose governments were mentioned in the report.
But Iraq has denied any intention to develop nuclear weapons. The denial came three weeks ago after British investigators arrested four people allegedly trying to smuggle to Iraq a device capable of triggering a nuclear explosion.
Afterward, President Bush called on supplier nations to exercise "special restraint" in the export of parts that could be used to develop nuclear weapons.
Of the five countries mentioned in the Carnegie report, Iraq's program was said to be far behind those of the other nations.
The report, written by Leonard Spector with the assistance of Jacqueline Smith, said the emerging nuclear states have been able to exploit weaknesses in the nuclear export control systems of the advanced supplier states. Spector is director of the endowment's non-proliferation project and Smith is the project assistant.
"In some instances, their agents have engaged in simple smuggling - for example, by attempting to export commodities without required export licenses or by making blatantly false declarations on export documents," the report said.
In other cases, it said, these agents have been able to minimize any suspect characteristics of the commodities at issue, taking advantage of a relaxed attitude by licensing officials or exploiting gaps in export regulations.
by CNB