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Defence Notes

	April 11, 2005

Pakistani charged with exporting N-devices



A Pakistani businessman, Humayun A. Khan, was charged with arranging the shipment to his homeland of equipment used in nuclear weapons development in violation of US export restrictions, the US Homeland Security Department has said.

A federal grand jury in Washington week indicted Khan, 47, on charges of conspiracy and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison, according to a news release from Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Khan is believed to be at large in Pakistan, said Dean Boyd, a Homeland Security spokesman. As part of the case, US authorities unsealed a guilty plea by Asher Karni, 51, an Israeli national who lived in Cape Town, South Africa, before his arrest in 2004. He admitted making unlawful exports to Pakistan and India.

US agents arrested Karni on Jan. 1, 2004, as he attempted to enter the US at Denver International Airport. His guilty plea last Sept. 14 to five federal felonies was kept under seal until this week.



Colonel exposed by Tehelka begins prison term Former Col. Anil Sehgal has begun a four-year prison term handed down by a military court that tried him and other senior officials in a defence scandal uncovered by the now defunct Tehelka website in 2001.

“The findings and sentence awarded to Col. Anil Sehgal by the General Court Martial were promulgated Friday at Ambala Cantonment after confirmation,” a Defence Ministry statement said.

Sehgal was charged with five offences under the Army Act that included unbecoming conduct and acting in a manner prejudicial to good order and military discipline.

He was found guilty on four charges. The trial began in 2004.



Indian space mission



In 2007, the world will see the first Indians take a space holiday. The two Indians, whose names are not being disclosed, are paying $20 million each for “this out of the world experience”.

The cost includes three months training at Nasa, the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Moscow and accommodation in Russia before the launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz-FG launch vehicle.

They will spend eight days in space and live aboard the International Space Station. They will orbit the earth 120 times, travelling over three million miles at 26,720 kmph.

Till now, only two people have been space tourists - American businessman Dennis Tito in 2001 and Mark Shuttleworth, the first African in space, in 2002.

Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson, in India to finalise the deal and impress other Indian millionaires, told this correspondent in an exclusive interview, “Space travel is today a trillion dollar industry. However, following the Columbia disaster, nobody wanted to go into space. So we couldn’t sell seats. The next flight is in 2006, when two people - an American and a Japanese - will go up. In 2007, the world will see the first Indians travel to space for a holiday. One of them will fly in fall, the other in spring.”

“India has a lot of billionaires. And I am certain more people will come forward to experience space travel. The Soyuz-FG launch vehicle goes from 0 to 17,000 miles per hour to reach orbit in nine minutes. It takes a day from there to reach the space station. Floating weightless in zero gravity for 10 days is a real high. Besides, the sight of earth from outer space is worth more than $20 million,” he added.

Individuals who wish to fly to the ISS need to be flight certified by passing the Space Adventures Orbital Flight Qualification Exam. So they have to go through 1,000 hours of training and are taught minute details about space, the shuttle, safety procedures, the launch vehicle and space suits. They also experience weightlessness in a zero gravity jet and learn how to live and operate aboard the ISS.

“In the ISS, the visitor will be given company by the four permanent members of the space station. There he can do many things to enjoy - write a book, explore science missions, make movies, broadcast live and be part of reality television. Mr Tito enjoyed photography and took pictures of the earth from 246 miles above its atmosphere. Mark used his time aboard the ISS to conduct his own research on AIDS.”

“Space travel is totally safe. The Soyuz TMA is recognised as one of the world’s most reliable spacecraft,” he said, adding, “Space will soon become a very popular tourist destination. Therefore we are trying hard to increase the present seat capacity of two tourists a year to eight passengers in the next five years.”