Updated: April 2006

Notes and Sources:

1. This chart summarizes data available from public sources. Precise assessment of a state's capabilities is difficult because most weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs remain secret and cannot be verified independently.
2. There have been reports that nuclear materials were shipped via Sudan from Germany to Libya and Pakistan, and from Iraq to Algeria, but these remain unconfirmed. "Former Officer Reveals Black Market Uranium Sales," Al-Mustaqbal (Paris), 11/21/87, p. 13; in Nuclear Developments, 2/25/88, pp. 30-31. Horst Bieber, "Illegal Movement of Weapons-Grade Uranium Seen Still Possible," Die Zeit (Hamburg), 1/22/88, pp. 11-14; in Nuclear Developments, 3/14/88, pp. 32-39. "Minister Denies Iraqis Storing Nuclear Material," Mena (Cairo), 7/25/91; in Proliferation Issues, 8/8/91, p. 25. Mark Hibbs, "Interpol Investigating Report of Uranium Market in Mozambique," Nuclear Fuel, 8/5/91, p. 5. Indrani Banerjee, "Details of Nuclear Weapons Program Revealed," Sunday (Calcutta), 4/24/93, pp. 34-38; in Proliferation Issues, 5/18/93, p. 12. Ian Traynor and Ian Cobain, "Clandestine Nuclear Deals Traced to Sudan," Guardian, 1/5/06. "Status of Signature and Ratification," Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, 3/20/06, (http://www.ctbto.org).
3. For a comprehensive analysis of chemical weapons allegations and open-source evidence regarding the Sudan, see: Michael Barletta, "Chemical Weapons in the Sudan: Allegations and Evidence," The Nonproliferation Review (Fall 1998), pp. 115-36, (http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/npr/vol06/61/barlet61.pdf). "Membership of the OPCW / Status of Participation in the Chemical Weapons Convention," Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," 2006, (http://www.opcw.org). For analysis and evidence regarding U.S. allegations about the al-Shifa Pharmaceutical Factory in Khartoum, see: David Hirst, "Why Our Drug Factory? Why Not the Arsenal?" The Guardian (London), 8/22/98, (http://reports.guardian.co.uk/sp_reports/usbombs/408.html). David Hirst, "The 'Secret' Factory that No One Tried to Hide," The Guardian (London), 8/23/98, (http://reports.guardian.co.uk/sp_reports/usbombs/424.html). Daniel Pearl, "Sudan Plant's Apparent Owner Has No Known Extremist Ties,"Wall Street Journal, 8/24/98, p. A9. Barbara Starr, "More Questions than Answers," ABC News, 8/26/98, (http://www.abcnews.com:80/). Jacquelyn S. Porth, "U.S. Has Chemical Weapons-Related Soil Sample from Sudan Plant," United States Information Agency, undated, (http://www.usia.gov/topical/pol/terror/98082502.htm). Steven Lee Myers and Tim Weiner, "Possible Benign Use Is Seen for Chemical at Factory in Sudan," New York Times, 8/27/98, p. 1. "Sudanese Opposition Corroborate American Accusations," Al-Hayah (London), 8/26/98, p. 6; in FBIS document FTS19980827000590, 8/27/98. Terry Atlas and Ray Moseley, "'Smoking Gun' for Sudan Raid Now in Doubt," Chicago Tribune, 8/28/98, (http://chicagotribune.com). Daniel Pearl, "More Doubts Rise Over Claims for U.S. Attack," Wall Street Journal, 8/28/98, p. 8. Mark Hubbard and Clive Cookson, "Diplomats Query US Allegations on Sudan," Financial Times (London), 8/29/98. Tim Weiner and Steven Lee Meyers, "Flaws In U.S. Account Raise Questions on Strike in Sudan," New York Times, 8/29/98, p. 1. Lois Ember, "Soil Sample Key to U.S. Missile Strike in Sudan," Chemical and Engineering News, 8/31/98, p. 6-7. Russell Watson and John Barry, "Our Target Was Terror," Newsweek, 8/31/98, pp. 24-29. Richard J. Newman, "America Fights Back," U.S. News & World Report, 8/31/98, pp. 38-46. Vernon Loeb and Bradley Graham, "Sudan Plant Was Probed Months before Attack," Washington Post, 9/1/98. Paul Richter, "Sudan Attack Claims Faulty, U.S. Admits," Los Angeles Times, 9/1/98. Bob Arnot, "Sudan: Bad, Yes, But Is it Guilty Too?," MSNBC News, 9/2/98, (http://www.msnbc.com/news/190722.asp). Tim Weiner and Steven Lee Myers, "U.S. Defends Attack on Sudanese Drug Plant," New York Times, 9/3/98. "Report on Bin-Ladin's Activities, Wealth," Al-Watan Al-'Arabi (Paris), 9/4/98, pp. 23-28; in FBIS document FTS19980905000918, 9/5/98. Kenneth Roth, "Letter to Clinton Urges Sudan Factory Inspection," Human Rights Watch, 9/15/98 (http://www.hrw.org/hrw/sept/sudan915.htm). Tim Weiner and James Risen, "Decision to Strike Factory in Sudan Based on Surmise Inferred From Evidence," New York Times, 9/21/98, p. A1. Frank Smyth, "Culture Clash - Bin Laden, Khartoum, and the War Against the West," Jane's Intelligence Review, 10/1/98, p. 22. "Cohen Defends Bin Laden Raid Plans," MSNBC News, 10/6/98, (http://www.msnbc.com:80/news/202142.asp). Seymour M. Hersh, "Annals of National Security: The Missiles of August," New Yorker, 10/12/98, pp. 34-41. Daniel Pearl, "Sudan to Allow U.N. to Investigate Any Alleged Chemical-Arm Site," Wall Street Journal, 10/16/98, p. 13. Samuel R. Berger, "Why the U.S. Bombed," Washington Times, 10/16/98, p. 21. Karl Vick, "Many in Sudan Dispute Plant's Tie with Bomber," Washington Post, 10/22/98, p. 29. Daniel Pearl, "In Sudan Bombing, 'Evidence' Depends on Who Is Viewing It," Wall Street Journal, 10/28/98, p. 1. Glenn Zorpette with Steven J. Frank, "Patent Blunder," Scientific American, 11/98, p. 42. Sean D. Murphy, "Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law," American Journal of International Law 93:1 (January 1999), pp. 161-67. Vernon Loeb, "Embassy Attacks Thwarted, U.S. Says," Washington Post, 1/23/99, p. A2. Vernon Loeb, "Saudi Demands Compensation for Destroyed Plant," Washington Post, 2/4/99, p. A9. James Risen and David Johnston, "Experts Find No Arms at Bombed Sudan Plant," New York Times, 2/9/99, p. 1. Sheila MacVicar, "Blinded by (Bad) Science," ABC News, (http://www.abcnews.go.com), 2/10/99. Maureen Rouhi, "No Trace of Nerve Gas Precursor Found at Bombed Sudan Plant," Chemical and Engineering News, 2/15/99, pp. 11-12. Vernon Loeb, "Plant Owner to Sue U.S. to Free Frozen Assets," Washington Post, 2/26/99, p. A3. Ali Sultan, "Sudan Plant Owner: Bin-Laden Not Involved," Al-Ittihad (Abu Dhabi), 3/9/99, p. 23; in FBIS document FTS19990315001805, 3/9/99. Vernon Loeb, "Ex-CIA Analyst: El Shifa Not What U.S. Claimed," Washington Post, 3/30/99, p. 15. Tim Weiner, "U.S. Case Against Bin Laden in Embassy Blasts Seems to Rest on Ideas," New York Times, 4/13/99, p. 1, (http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/092198attack-sudan.html?Partner=PBS&RefId=Eutttn-uFBqv). See also: "The Terrorist and the Superpower," an investigative report by PBS &WGBH' FRONTLINE and the New York Times, 4/13/99, (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/). See especially Oriana Zil, "The Controversial U.S. Retaliatory Missile Strikes," (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/bombings/retaliation.html). See also interviews with Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, President, Republic of Sudan; Milton Bearden, former CIA chief of station in Sudan; Samuel R. Berger, U.S. National Security Advisor; Larry C. Johnson, former deputy director U.S. State Department Office of Counter-Terrorism; and Thomas Pickering, U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/interviews/). Edward Alden and Alex Barker, "US Feared al-Qaeda Links CLINTON ERA," Financial Times, 7/23/04, p. 6. "Sudan," Middle East Military Balance, (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies) 2/5/05, p. 5, (http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/balance/Sudan.pdf). "Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments," (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of Verification and Compliance) 8/31/05, pp. 62-63, (http://www.state.gov/t/vc/rls/rpt/51977.htm).
4. Reports on biological weapons proliferation have not identified Sudan as a country of concern. E.g., Graham S. Pearson, "The Threat of Deliberate Disease in the Twenty First Century," Biological Weapons Proliferation: Reasons for Concern, Courses of Action (Washington, DC: Henry L. Stimson Center, 1/98) Report No. 24, p. 26. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Technologies Underlying Weapons of Mass Destruction (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 12/93), p. 239. However, a 1997 news report mentioned a "chemical and bacterial weapons factory that the Sudanese government has established in the Khartoum Bahri suburb of Kubar, in cooperation with the Iraqi government." Jihad Salim, Al-Watan Al-'Arabi (Paris), 10/31/97; in FBIS FTS19971118000479, 11/18/97, "Report on Bin-Ladin, Zawahiri, 'Afghans." "Status of the Convention," The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Website, 6/05, (http://www.opbw.org).
5. Duncan Lennox, ed., "Country Inventory – In Service," Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems Issue 24, 5/97. There have been repeated but unconfirmed reports that Sudan may be in possession of Scud missiles exported from Iraq to avoid their destruction by UNSCOM. A 2/98 US congressional task force report produced by Yossef Bodansky alleged that in mid-1991, "about 400" Scud missiles were transferred from Iraq to Sudan, and that in late 1995, "some 50 'advanced Scud launchers' and a similar number of Al Hussein missiles" were shipped from Iraq to Sudan. However, the claim that Iraq retained hundreds of ballistic missiles after the 1990-91 Gulf War is wildly at variance with public estimates by other sources, which estimate that Iraq may have retained two to a maximum of a few dozen Scud missiles. US National Security Council (NSC), "Iraq's Program of Mass Destruction: Threatening the Security of the International Community,"11/14/97, p. 4, (http://www.usia.gov/regional/nea/gulfsec/nsc1119.htm). US Government White Paper, "Iraq Weapons Of Mass Destruction Programs," 2/13/98, (http://www.usia.gov/regional/nea/iraq/whitepap.htm). Anthony H. Cordesman, "Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East: National Efforts, War Fighting Capabilities, Weapons Lethality, Terrorism, and Arms Control Implications" (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2/98), p. 31. Michael Eisenstadt, "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD): Unresolved Issues," Policywatch #304, 2/27/98, (http://www.washingtoninstitute.org). For further background, see: "Iraqi Nuclear Equipment Said Sent to Algeria," Al-Ahrar, 7/22/91, p. 1; in Proliferation Issues, 8/8/91, p. 16. "Chronology 1991," Arms Control Reporter, 3/91. "Sudan Strengthens Forces as Fighting Steps Up," Jane's Defence Weekly, 5/9/92, p. 806. Duncan Lennox, "Ballistic Missiles," Jane's Defence Weekly, 4/17/96, pp. 40, 43-44.
6. Lennox. "Iran Supplying Silkworm Missiles, F-7 Aircraft," Al-Wafd, 1/19/92, p. 9; in Proliferation Issues, 2/14/92, p. 15.
7. The Military Balance 1998/99 (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1998), p. 265. "Sudan," Middle East Military Balance, 2/5/05, p. 10.

Originally prepared by Michael Barletta and Erik Jorgensen, May 1998;
Updated by Sammy Salama and Alexis Zeiger, April 2006.

©Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies. April 2006