A nuclear conflict in the making?

The head of the CIA, George Tenet, gave a speech in Washington this month in an effort to explain why the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq had failed to corroborate key parts of the US intelligence assessment used by the Bush administration to justify its invasion.

After detailing the problems in assessing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes in such a closed and secretive country, Mr Tenet went on to highlight recent CIA successes in capturing top terrorists and exposing a nuclear black market centred on Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan that provided knowhow and equipment to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

'Now, as you know from the news coming out of Pakistan, Khan and his network have been dealt a crushing blow, with several of his senior officers in custody,' Mr Tenet said, adding: 'Malaysian authorities have shut down one of the network's largest plants.'

Just when accuracy was required by the CIA, its director got it wrong. The manufacturing plant in Malaysia he referred to did make parts for the Khan network; but it had not been shut down. This mistake was the start of another counterproductive spat between the US and a moderate Muslim state in Southeast Asia that is on the same side as America in the counter-terrorism campaign.

The issue is a politically sensitive one for the Malaysian government as it intensifies a drive to crackdown on high-level corruption, ahead of general elections in which Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi hopes to secure a strong personal mandate to rule.

The factory to which Mr Tenet referred but did not name is part of the Scomi Group, a publicly listed oil-and-engineering concern controlled by Mr Abdullah's only son. The US and British intelligence services alerted their Malaysian counterparts in November that the factory had exported advanced centrifuge parts that could be used to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs, and that the latest shipment had been seized on a ship bound for Libya.

This week, Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said that Malaysia had been unfairly singled out by Mr Bush because it was a Muslim country, and would make an official protest. Mr Abdullah also accused the US president of tying Malaysia to the nuclear trafficking ring. 'We are not involved in any way,' he said. 'I don't know where Bush is getting his evidence from.'

In fact, Mr Bush, in an address to the National Defence University in Washington on February 11, indicated that the Malaysian government had co-operated in the probe and that Scomi was a legitimate firm that had been deceived by a Dubai-based front company headed by Mr Khan's deputy, Sri Lankan businessman Bukary Syed Abu Tahir, into selling the centrifuges without knowing they were bound for Libya. Scomi says it thought the equipment was for the oil industry, while Malaysian police say they have found no evidence of wrongdoing by Scomi.

Mr Bush also corrected Mr Tenet's mistake, saying: 'Malaysian authorities have assured us that the factory the network used is no longer producing centrifuge parts.'

But according to The New York Times, the parts were highly specialised and would mean Libya could double the rate of uranium enrichment. The paper said that a senior US official disputed Scomi's account. How the dispute will play out may depend on what the Malaysian government decides to do with Mr Tahir. He has been questioned by police but not arrested.

Mr Bush claimed that Mr Tahir acted as the Khan network's chief financial officer and money launderer. 'He was also its shipping agent, using his computer firm as cover for the movement of centrifuge parts to various clients,' he added.

Malaysia has reportedly promised that it will share information with the US from its investigation into Mr Tahir. But police say they are not detaining him because he has apparently broken no local laws. Malaysia has ratified the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. However, it is unclear whether its laws cover prosecution for the trafficking of nuclear parts.

Michael Richardson, a former Asia editor of the International Herald Tribune, is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. The views expressed in this article are those of the author