Answers Demanded on India's Nonproliferation Record

Answers Demanded on India's Nonproliferation Record

Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, today released letters to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Secretary of Energy asking for more information about a recent report that India has an illicit procurement program which supplies a secret part of its nuclear weapons program. The report, entitled "India's Gas Centrifuge Program: Stopping Illicit Procurement and the Leakage of Technical Centrifuge Know-How" was written by David Albright and Susan Basu of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). David Albright is a former U.N. weapons inspector and President of ISIS.

"President Bush has said that India ‘is a non-proliferator', but the ISIS report challenges India's record. When India conducted a ‘peaceful nuclear test' in 1974, they sent a signal to the world that they would pursue a nuclear weapons program. It now appears that India has been supplying its weapons program using backdoor methods that may contribute to the spread of sensitive nuclear-weapons related data," said Rep. Markey.

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"The Administration claims that India has a good nonproliferation record, but how does it account for the type of activities described in the ISIS report?" asked Rep. Markey, adding that, "The U.S. should not be exporting nuclear fuel and technology to India without fully investigating India's non-proliferation record. I hope that these allegations will be taken seriously by Congress and the Administration before any exemptions are made to U.S. law that would allow nuclear exports to India."

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http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1436&Itemid=125