Word: couchepin
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Normally placid Switzerland has been caught up in uncharacteristic intrigue since the government announced that it secretly destroyed highly technical blueprints for producing nuclear weapons. At a press conference on May 23, President Pascal Couchepin said the documents had been shredded to prevent them from falling into terrorists' hands. "The information contained in these papers presented a considerable risk to the security of Switzerland and the international community as a whole," he said...
...property, were to be used as evidence against the Tinners, who are still incarcerated pending further investigation. Swiss authorities said the documents were shredded under IAEA's supervision on November 14, 2007. Contacted by TIME, IAEA's spokesperson refused to comment on its role or involvement in the affair. Couchepin too declined to answer further questions...
...documents to aid its own efforts to stop nuclear smuggling, whatever the effect on the Tinners' trials. "The decision to destroy evidence related to an ongoing investigation is highly unusual and has raised questions over the possibility of CIA involvement," Egli says, pointing out that during his press conference Couchepin conceded that the Swiss government had also blocked an investigation into charges levelled by the federal attorney that Urs Tinner was engaging in illegal actions for a foreign country. Allegations that Tinner was a CIA agent were made in a book The Nuclear Jihadist by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins...
...Although no tangible proof has surfaced of U.S. involvement, the mere implication that a foreign power might have interfered in Swiss affairs is generating outrage in some political circles. The Green Party has called for an immediate parliamentary investigation of the allegations, saying, "The explanation given by Mr. Couchepin is not very convincing...
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