From News Dispaches
WASHINGTON: CIA Director William Webster said that there are indicators that India is building a hydrogen bomb and he warned of a nuclear arms race between India and neighboring Pakistan, the Washington Post reported.
Testifying before a Senate panel, Webster confirmed that West Germany had sent India a shipment of American beryllium a lightweight metallic element, without first obtaining required U.S. permission for its re-export.
Webster said that the CIA looks for “indicators” of a country’s interest in obtaining a thermonuclear bomb and that beryllium is “usually used in enhancing fission reaction.”
Thermonuclear Weapons
There are other indicators that tell us India is interested in thermonuclear weapons capability,” he added.
In an exchange with John Glen DOhio chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Webster confirmed that among the “other indicators” were activities at India’s Bhabha Atomic Research Center north of Bombay involving purification of lithium used to produce tritium needed in thermonuclear explodes.
An Indian Embassy spokesman, R. R. Dayakara, dismissed such reports as “baseless”. He said his government’s long standing position is that “we are committed to peaceful uses of nuclear energy.”
Glenn noted that it was 15 years ago yesterday that India first detonated an atomic device which it called a “peaceful nuclear explosion.” India later halted this program, but their have been reports in recent years of its renewal,
De Facto Nuclear Powers
Webster expressed considerable concern about the failure of the international community to take action to stop India and Pakistan from engaging in a rivalry that he said, “has all the earmarks of a (nuclear arms) race.”
Pakistan is regarded as a “de facto” nuclear power as well and like India has been developing and testing indigenously built ballistic missiles. However, Pakistan is generally viewed as far behind India in nuclear and missile capabilities.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 26, 1989
