History's Most Successful Nuke proliferator free again
Abdul Qader Khan, (72), the disgraced father of Pakistan Bomb, on Friday, Feb 6, 2009, was set from a five –year house arrest. The verdict was delivered by the Islamabad High Court after hearing his case in camera. The Zardari government did not contest the case. Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam ruled that the Khan’s detention ordered by the then President Pervez Musharraf was ‘unlawful’. Khan, who is being treated for prostate cancer since 2006, said he has no plans to go abroad or to go into politics.
Islamabad has consistently refused permission to question Khan, both under Musharraf and now under Zardari.
Islamabad has consistently refused permission to question Khan, both under Musharraf and now under Zardari.
The court ruling doesn’t mean that Khan would now be available for questioning by IAEA and US for black-marketing nuclear technology. Islamabad has consistently refused permission to question Khan, both under Musharraf and now under Zardari. In fact Musharraf’s decision to ‘pardon’ the scientist and to place him under house arrest (in February 2004) was seen as a move to ‘quarantine’ him and to ‘insulate’ his accomplices in the army and government. It was also aimed at deflecting American pressure to unravel Khan Gate.
Only last month, the US imposed sanctions on Khan and 12 others involved with him in his nuclear Wal-Mart. He had admitted to transferring N–technology to Libya and North Korea in 2004 itself. Also to having traded in bomb designs and nuclear technology with the full backing of successive army chiefs of Pakistan.
Last July, Khan told the media that Pakistan had transported uranium enrichment equipment to North Korea in 2000 with the full knowledge of the country’s army, then headed by Gen Musharraf. The former leader rejected the charge. He has repeatedly stated that no-one apart from Khan had any knowledge of the transportation of nuclear technology. Khan affair is a closed chapter, said Foreign Office spokesman in Islamabad for the nth time on Feb 7 (2009).
Only last month, the US imposed sanctions on Khan and 12 others involved with him in his nuclear Wal-Mart. He had admitted to transferring N–technology to Libya and North Korea in 2004 itself. Also to having traded in bomb designs and nuclear technology with the full backing of successive army chiefs of Pakistan.
Last July, Khan told the media that Pakistan had transported uranium enrichment equipment to North Korea in 2000 with the full knowledge of the country’s army, then headed by Gen Musharraf. The former leader rejected the charge. He has repeatedly stated that no-one apart from Khan had any knowledge of the transportation of nuclear technology. Khan affair is a closed chapter, said Foreign Office spokesman in Islamabad for the nth time on Feb 7 (2009).
So, ‘freedom’ to the metallurgist turned nuclear scientist is bound to invite the wrath of Washington.
So, ‘freedom’ to the metallurgist turned nuclear scientist is bound to invite the wrath of Washington. American suspicions of him were a sequel to UN weapons inspectors discovering in 1995 documents describing an offer made to Baghdad before the 1990-91 Gulf war. These documents showed that Khan had offered Saddam Hussein help to establish a uranium enrichment plant.
A report titled Khan Gate- New Cover Up Bid’ on Global Geopolitics Net said A Q Khan enterprise had received a boost under General Zia-ul-Haq though Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had patronized him in his desperate bid for an ‘N-bomb’ IISS strategic dossier on Nuclear Black-markets says Pakistan’s N- goal was and is a state sponsored and promoted enterprise. ‘Pakistan embassies were systematically used and so were the Pakistan born foreign nationals. From the early 1970s until at least the late 1990s Pakistan embassies around the world, in particular in Europe were key components of the network and used diplomatic pouches to send material home, the IISS report points out.
Put differently, it means that Islamabad can’t shield itself behind Khan. Because British intelligence has listed way back in 2003 itself that no less than 95 Pakistani organisations and government bodies including diplomatic posts were players in the country’s N- imports. Some 50 individuals may have been actively involved in the Khan network, according to the deposition of David Albright before the Sub-Committee on international terrorism and non-proliferation of the US House Committee on International Affairs.
Through financial or ideological incentives, Pakistan also enlisted the contribution of foreign nationals of Pakistan origin. A Q Khan made extensive use of this method, asking several of his countrymen to come back to Pakistan, collect information, or assist with the procurement of spare parts, according to IISS. Khan tapped personnel connections invoking ‘IOUs’. These techniques ensured the longevity of the network despite regime changes.
Islamist fundamentalists sympathetic to Jihadis are reportedly finding their way into the Pakistan nuke laboratories. These reports need to be confirmed independently though given the milieu in which Pakistan finds itself today, the jihadi infiltration into the country’s scientific laboratories, if true, doesn’t come as a surprise.
There is a China angle to Pakistan nuclear bomb and Khan’s nuke Wal-Mart. There is a China angle to Pakistan nuclear bomb and Khan’s nuke Wal-Mart.Zulfikar Ali Bhutto initiated N- cooperation with Beijing in May 1976. His daughter Benazir Bhutto took the cooperation to new heights during her two stints as Prime Minister (1988-90 and 1993-96), and allowed Khan to deal with North Korea in return for missile technology.
By 1983 itself, the United States came to believe that Beijing might have helped Pakistan overcome some difficulties in its nuclear campaign. How much of Pakistan’s clandestine activity is known to Washington? There is officially no word. In September 2005, Ruud Lubbers, who was Dutch prime minister, publicly stated that CIA had made them to free Khan, not once, but twice in 1975 and again in 1986. The Lubbers allegation remains unanswered till date.
The New York Times ( Feb 7, 2009) reports that computers seized from his network had upward of three different designs for a nuclear weapon, some of Chinese origin and others with substantial modifications made by Pakistan for its own nuclear arsenal. The evidence lends credence to the view that Khan had stepped in where China could not go in bailing out needy nuclear clients.
Khan made ‘business trips’ to Afghanistan, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Some nuclear scientists working in the Khan Laboratories visited Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001, according to the International Herald Tribune ( Dec 31, 2004)
CIA is not unaware of Khan’s contacts and activities either. George Tenet, a former CIA director, in his book, ‘At the Centre of the Storm”, writes that Khan had contacts in China and North Korea and through out the Muslim world. And opines that Khan is at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden.
George Tenet, a former CIA director, in his book, ‘At the Centre of the Storm”, opines that Khan is at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden. Freedom to Khan, who is facing American sanctions and threat of arrest, if ever he goes abroad, is a snub to the US. The White House under Barack Obama is turning screws on Islamabad to deliver on its anti-terrorism pledge. In a sense, the ‘uncontested’ ruling could be a part of new cozying up between President Zardari and the army, the most powerful instrument of Pakistan.
In the post-Musharraf phase, the army has regained some of its lost sheen by appearing to stand up to American pressure. The ‘release’ from house arrest of Khan will add to the army chief Kayani’s stock and may help him insulate the army from Khan Gate fall-out. Also the intelligence agencies, particularly, the ISI, which were accomplices in the highly profitable network.
The ‘release’ from house arrest of Khan will add to the army chief Kayani’s stock and may help him insulate the army from Khan Gate fall-out.
A report titled Khan Gate- New Cover Up Bid’ on Global Geopolitics Net said A Q Khan enterprise had received a boost under General Zia-ul-Haq though Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had patronized him in his desperate bid for an ‘N-bomb’ IISS strategic dossier on Nuclear Black-markets says Pakistan’s N- goal was and is a state sponsored and promoted enterprise. ‘Pakistan embassies were systematically used and so were the Pakistan born foreign nationals. From the early 1970s until at least the late 1990s Pakistan embassies around the world, in particular in Europe were key components of the network and used diplomatic pouches to send material home, the IISS report points out.
Put differently, it means that Islamabad can’t shield itself behind Khan. Because British intelligence has listed way back in 2003 itself that no less than 95 Pakistani organisations and government bodies including diplomatic posts were players in the country’s N- imports. Some 50 individuals may have been actively involved in the Khan network, according to the deposition of David Albright before the Sub-Committee on international terrorism and non-proliferation of the US House Committee on International Affairs.
Through financial or ideological incentives, Pakistan also enlisted the contribution of foreign nationals of Pakistan origin. A Q Khan made extensive use of this method, asking several of his countrymen to come back to Pakistan, collect information, or assist with the procurement of spare parts, according to IISS. Khan tapped personnel connections invoking ‘IOUs’. These techniques ensured the longevity of the network despite regime changes.
Islamist fundamentalists sympathetic to Jihadis are reportedly finding their way into the Pakistan nuke laboratories. These reports need to be confirmed independently though given the milieu in which Pakistan finds itself today, the jihadi infiltration into the country’s scientific laboratories, if true, doesn’t come as a surprise.
There is a China angle to Pakistan nuclear bomb and Khan’s nuke Wal-Mart. There is a China angle to Pakistan nuclear bomb and Khan’s nuke Wal-Mart.Zulfikar Ali Bhutto initiated N- cooperation with Beijing in May 1976. His daughter Benazir Bhutto took the cooperation to new heights during her two stints as Prime Minister (1988-90 and 1993-96), and allowed Khan to deal with North Korea in return for missile technology.
By 1983 itself, the United States came to believe that Beijing might have helped Pakistan overcome some difficulties in its nuclear campaign. How much of Pakistan’s clandestine activity is known to Washington? There is officially no word. In September 2005, Ruud Lubbers, who was Dutch prime minister, publicly stated that CIA had made them to free Khan, not once, but twice in 1975 and again in 1986. The Lubbers allegation remains unanswered till date.
The New York Times ( Feb 7, 2009) reports that computers seized from his network had upward of three different designs for a nuclear weapon, some of Chinese origin and others with substantial modifications made by Pakistan for its own nuclear arsenal. The evidence lends credence to the view that Khan had stepped in where China could not go in bailing out needy nuclear clients.
Khan made ‘business trips’ to Afghanistan, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Some nuclear scientists working in the Khan Laboratories visited Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001, according to the International Herald Tribune ( Dec 31, 2004)
CIA is not unaware of Khan’s contacts and activities either. George Tenet, a former CIA director, in his book, ‘At the Centre of the Storm”, writes that Khan had contacts in China and North Korea and through out the Muslim world. And opines that Khan is at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden.
George Tenet, a former CIA director, in his book, ‘At the Centre of the Storm”, opines that Khan is at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden. Freedom to Khan, who is facing American sanctions and threat of arrest, if ever he goes abroad, is a snub to the US. The White House under Barack Obama is turning screws on Islamabad to deliver on its anti-terrorism pledge. In a sense, the ‘uncontested’ ruling could be a part of new cozying up between President Zardari and the army, the most powerful instrument of Pakistan.
In the post-Musharraf phase, the army has regained some of its lost sheen by appearing to stand up to American pressure. The ‘release’ from house arrest of Khan will add to the army chief Kayani’s stock and may help him insulate the army from Khan Gate fall-out. Also the intelligence agencies, particularly, the ISI, which were accomplices in the highly profitable network.
The ‘release’ from house arrest of Khan will add to the army chief Kayani’s stock and may help him insulate the army from Khan Gate fall-out.
Significantly, Khan is very effusive of Zardari government saying ‘All this (release from detention) happened because of the keen interest taken by the president, the prime minister and especially Rehman Malik (advisor to the PM on Internal Security), who has looked into the case, reviewed it, discussed it with the government, discussed it. A give away to ‘inside trading’. Jury is out.
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