NEW YORK, Nov 3: A website that offered guide to build a nuclear bomb, set up with the approval of US President Bush, was shut down on Thursday after experts raised concerns over its contents, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The newspaper said the Bush administration started the site under pressure from congressional Republicans who hoped to use Internet to find new evidence of dangers posed by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before the US-led invasion in 2003.
The Times said that in recent weeks, the site had posted some documents that weapons experts said were a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.
A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access to the site had been suspended “pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.”
Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency fearing that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the agency, according to European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity.
One diplomat said the agency’s technical experts “were shocked” at the public disclosures.
The Times said that early Friday morning, a spokesman for Gregory L. Schulte, the American ambassador, denied that anyone from the agency had approached Mr Schulte about the website.
The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts say go beyond what is available elsewhere on Internet and in other public forums.
“For the US to toss a match into this flammable area is very irresponsible,” said A. Bryan Siebert, a former director of classification at the federal department of energy.
