Nuclear Warhead Blueprints On Smuggler's Computers

Slashdot reports that, according to leading US researcher David Albright, blueprints for a sophisticated and compact nuclear warhead have been found in computers belonging to the nuclear smuggling network run by rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The designs, found in heavily encrypted computer files in Switzerland, are supposed to be in the possession of U.S. authorities and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Investigators fear, however, that they could have been extensively and copied to "rogue" states within the nuclear black market

Albright, a physicist, former UN weapons inspector and authority on the nuclear smuggling ring run by Khan, said that the "construction plans" included previously undisclosed designs for a compact warhead that could fit Iran's medium-range ballistic missiles.

"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," wrote Albright.

For more information see this article in the New York Times, as well as another report in guardian.co.uk .