Top US official helped Pak steal N-weapons secret report

Senior US officials helped Pakistan steal atomic weapons secrets through Turkish agents in exchange for money and other benefits, with ISI passing on the sensitive information to the now disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan, a media report claimed here on Sunday.

Intercepted communications showed that former ISI chief Mahmoud Ahmad and his colleagues stationed in Washington were in constant contact with attaches in the Turkish embassy, according to The Sunday Times.

The paper reported the account of whistle blower Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, who listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office.

She approached the newspaper last month after reading about an al-Qaeda terrorist who had revealed his role in training some of the 9/11 hijackers while he was in Turkey.

Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.

Edmonds claimed that she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington, who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.

Intelligence analysts said that members of the ISI were close to al-Qaeda before and after the 9/11 attacks on the US.

Ahmad was accused of sanctioning a $ 100,000 wire payment to Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, immediately before the attacks, the report said.

The newspaper claimed that it knew the name of the official, who has held a series of top Government posts, but he strongly denies the claims.

However, Edmonds said: “He was aiding foreign operatives against US interests by passing them highly classified information, not only from the State Department, but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money, positions and political objectives.”

In one conversation Edmonds heard the official arranging to pick up a $ 15,000 cash bribe. The package was to be dropped off at an agreed location by someone in the Turkish diplomatic community, who was working for the network.

The Turks, she said, often acted as a conduit for the ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency, because they were less likely to attract suspicion. Venues such as the American Turkish Council in Washington were used to drop off the cash, which was picked up by the official.

Edmonds said: “I heard at least three transactions like this over a period of 2 and half years. There are almost certainly more.”