Asher Karni was sentenced August 4 to three years in federal prison for his role in a plot to export nuclear weapons parts to Pakistan. U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina handed down the sentence after Karni pled guilty last year to helping ship devices that could be used to test, develop and detonate nuclear weapons.
"I want you to know how serious I think your conduct was," Urbina told Karni. A federal indictment remains pending against Humayun A. Khan, a Pakistan businessman alleged to be Karni's partner and who was interviewed recently by CIR reporter Mark Schapiro on behalf of PBS' NewsHour and Frontline/WORLD programs. Read more on the Karni case here:
CIR investigates the thriving trade in ‘dual-use’ technology. This multi-media investigation follows the tangled web of interests and operators behind the thriving trade in nuclear technology, much of it from U.S. manufacturers, which finds its way to rogue nuclear powers like Pakistan.
CIR Editorial Director Mark Schapiro travels to South Africa on the trail of Asher Karni, a South African technology trader who almost succeeded in selling nuclear triggers to Pakistan. Stories appear as a web-only video exclusive for the PBS series Frontline/WORLD and in print for the May/June 2005 issue of Mother Jones magazine.
The three-part web documentary includes:
PART 1: Reconstruction of Karni’s deal through interviews with his rabbi, his lawyer and numerous associates in Cape Town. Click here to watch.
PART 2: An exclusive interview with the Commerce Department agent who was responsible for ultimately arresting Karni. Click here to watch.
PART 3: Telephone conversation between Schapiro and the Pakistani businessman, Humayun Khan, who has been accused by the Justice Department of trying to purchase the triggers. Click here to listen.
For the print version of the Karni story in the May/June 2005 issue of Mother Jones, click here.