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Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan Is Free: A Can Of Worms Reopened?

Posted by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist in War.
Feb 14th, 2009 | Comments

abdul qadeer khan

Abdul Qadeer Khan, described as Father of Pakistan’s (or Islamic) Nuclear Bomb, was freed from house arrest by the Islamabad High Court last week. The then president Pervez Musharraf incarcerated Khan five years ago after a great deal of pressure from the international community. However, the recent court judgement threatens to reopen a can of worms.

It reads like a sordid tale of the connivance of the successive US administrations and the Pakistani rulers in shoving under the carpet (for the past three decades) the evidence of nuclear proliferation in countries considered highly unstable/dangerous. And, in a manner of speaking, encouraging terrorism in the world.

The Wikipedia states: “In interviews from May through July of 2008, Khan recanted his previous confession of his involvement with Iran and North Korea. He said President Pervez Musharraf forced him to be a ’scapegoat’ for the ‘national interest.’

“Khan accuses the Pakistan Army and President Musharraf of proliferating nuclear arms. He said centrifuges were sent from Pakistan in a North Korean plane loaded under the supervision of Pakistani security officials.

“He also said that he had traveled to North Korea in 1999 with a Pakistani Army general to buy shoulder-launched missiles from the government there.

“The Pakistani government’s blanket denials became untenable as evidence mounted of illicit nuclear weapons technology transfers. It opened an investigation into Khan’s activities, arguing that even if there had been wrongdoing, it had occurred without the Government of Pakistan’s knowledge or approval.

“But critics noted that virtually all of Khan’s overseas travels, to Iran, Libya, North Korea, Niger, Mali, and the Middle East, were on official Pakistan government aircraft which he commandeered at will, given the status he enjoyed in Pakistan. Often, he was accompanied by senior members of the Pakistan nuclear establishment.” More here…

The Guardian reports: “Last year a United Nations nuclear watchdog said Khan’s network smuggled nuclear blueprints to Iran, Libya and North Korea and was active in 12 countries. Last month the US state department imposed sanctions on 13 individuals – two of them British – and three private companies because of their involvement in Khan’s network.

“Pakistan has prevented foreign investigators from questioning Khan, insisting it has passed on all relevant information about nuclear proliferation. That bar is likely to remain.” More here…

And here…

Photograph above courtesy Mian Khursheed/Reuters

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DLS

Swaraaj, thank you. You're the only one I've observed to date -- and I've been waiting quietly and observing since Khan was released -- to remark about this guy and his release and what it actually may mean. Don't people understand not only who he is and what he has done but the kind of status he has among his admirers and the politics about his release?

As for Pakistan and the ISI, etc., these were and are the fine folks who have made deals in the past with the terrorist tribes in the frontier zone, felt nukes should go to the Taliban for safekeeping, and when asked about starting a nuclear war with India said, "Why not?"

swaraaj

Thanks DNS.

The question being asked in my part of the world is why the US intelligence and political leadership entered into a nexus with the shady Pakistani military dictators/ISI for decades. Are they naive or else...?

This is almost a criminal nexus that distorts reality and has landed the world in one crisis after another. The nexus has led to a web of lies and created such a complex situation that there would be an unending war on terror.

Ironically, this criminal nexus is fanning the fire of terrorism and created the monster of jihadists who have nothing to do with the majority of peace-loving Muslims all over the world.

We all know now that how unaccounted US money is being pumped into Pakistan in the name of supporting an ally. But the money was actually used for creating a nuclear and armed Pakistan in the name of seeking parity with India.

But the Pakistani dictators also used the American funds to purchase the support of militants and terrorists for their own survival.

It so happened that these very militants/terrorists were hostile to the USA. So we now have a plethora of armed militants/terrorists, nurtured by the Pakistani establishment, who are creating terror worldwide.

Over the years the USA has aided and abetted in turning Pakistan into a nursery of terrorists. And contributed a great deal in weakening democratic forces in Pakistan because the successive myopic US leaders felt that it was easier to deal with, or dictate terms to, military dictators than indpendent political leaders.

Pakistani establishment has been a proliferator of nuclear arms to countries such as Iran and Korea. All this right under the nose of the CIA which has maintained a heavy presence in Pakistan for decades.

So nothing can happen in Pakistan without the knowledge/approval of the US administration.

It is for the Barack Obama administration to first understand this reality, and then clear the mess made by his predecessors.

StockBoySF

I hope someone nukes the terrorist named A. Q. Kahn.

Rudi

The US and China gave nukes to Pakistan to counteract the Indian/USSR alliance back in the 1960's and 1970's. No one, not even the US and the USSR, built nukes without outside help.

DLS

Rudi, we continue to support Pakistan to this day because if its government fell, the result would likely be worse, but that doesn't mean that the Pakistani government deserves to be freed of blame or that dislike of the regime should be conveniently be transferred to or to be projected upon the USA (not merely "the West") due to lefty politics. (This is the same issue here -- your point about US support and my point about the motives behind _all_ the criticism about it -- when we consider "blowback" with our former support of bin Laden in Afghanistan against the USSR. The _real_ issue is the nature of the _bad_ people here. The only difference with Pakistan is that our reluctant and currently-desperate support of it is long-term and broader in scope than what we did with bin Laden against the Russkies.)

StockBoySF

The difference between Iraq and Pakistan is that Saddam was more afraid of terrorists then we are. Saddam held his country together, even if he murdered and assassinated his own people. Pakistan supports terrorists who would blast the whole Earth back to pre-historic times if they had the nuclear arms to do so. I'm scared to death of the nuclear material in Pakistan and it falling into the hands of the terrorists. I said "nuclear material" because the terrorists don't even need an actual bomb to wreak havoc.

That's what I don't like about Bush's nuclear agreement (or treaty, I suppose) with India.... It encourages activity in an unstable region of the world which could give the terrorists more fuel for their fire.

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