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Scandal of Pakistani nuclear secrets for sale was `tip of iceberg'

Independent, The (London), Feb 6, 2004 by Anne Penketh

PRESIDENT PERVEZ Musharraf pardoned yesterday the "father of the Islamic bomb" for selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea in one of the greatest proliferation scandals in history.

The President was attempting to bring to a close the snowballing affair which has confirmed the world's worst fear: that Pakistan is the hub of a massive black market network of nuclear proliferation that is still unravelling.

"Dr Khan is the tip of an iceberg," said Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A spokeswoman for the United Nations agency, Melissa Fleming, said: "We think this is the most serious case of nuclear proliferation in recent times."

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Abdul Qadeer Khan has the status of a national hero in Pakistan for his role in developing the atomic bomb as a deterrent against the country's arch-rival, India. Pakistan's surprise nuclear tests in 1998 may have brought international opprobrium and US sanctions, but they were more than matched by the surge in national pride at Dr Khan's achievement.

General Musharraf therefore took his time before moving against Dr Khan, whom he had sacked as director of his Khan Research Laboratories under American pressure after the terror attacks of 11 September 2001. But his charmed life had been under threat since the end of last year, when Iran told the UN nuclear inspectors that it had bought parts for its nuclear programme from Dr Khan.

In December, Libya said that it would let international experts destroy its weapons of mass destruction programmes. The IAEA, whose experts travelled to Libya, saw evidence implicating Dr Khan in Muammar Gaddafi's illicit purchases of uranium enrichment equipment.

Islamabad quietly dispatched its own investigative teams to Iran and Libya, and then, amid heated accusations from the IAEA, rounded up scientists, engineers and army officers for "debriefings".

Although never placed under house arrest, Dr Khan was being escorted by two military officers whenever he left his quarters, and requires permission before travelling abroad.

On 17 January, police arrived at his residence as he was hosting a dinner party, and arrested four of his guests, despite the Khan family's protests. They were his personal assistant, Islam ul-Haq, the nuclear scientist Muhammad Nazir and two security officials from his laboratory.

Dr Khan was taken in for his own "debriefing". Questions were asked about how, on his meagre civil servant's salary, he managed to acquire four houses in Islamabad, a lakeside holiday home, shares in two restaurants and a holiday home in Timbuktu, Mali.

With pressure from the Americans mounting, General Musharraf vowed to move against those who were selling nuclear secrets as "enemies of the state".

The game was up. On Sunday, Dr Khan's 12-page confession was handed to the President. In it, the scientist admitted to having swapped nuclear secrets for profit to "rogue states" such as Libya, North Korea and Iran from 1987 to the mid-1990s.

According to the IAEA, he sold gas centrifuges, used in enriching uranium, as well as nuclear blueprints and designs. He employed an empire of middlemen, who operated in Germany, the Netherlands, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. Malaysia said yesterday that it would investigate a company controlled by the Prime Minister's son for its alleged role in supplying components to Libya's nuclear programme.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are thought to have changed hands over the past 15 years in deals for goods as easy to hide as a floppy disk storing sensitive drawings or as bulky as thousands of centrifuge parts.

One diplomat said that one drawing appeared to be of Chinese design but cautioned against the assumption that it came directly from China, which is believed to have helped Pakistan to build its bomb in 1998.

But far from being paraded as a pariah and put on trial, the scientist has now been pardoned by the President after a dramatic televised apology on Wednesday in which Dr Khan sought to take full responsibility and absolve the government of any involvement in the nuclear leaks.

In his statement, Dr Khan went out of his way to explain that he had acted without the knowledge of the authorities or of other scientists, and begged the President's forgiveness.

Pakistani commentators said yesterday that the carefully choreographed apology smacked of a cover-up. In the light of yesterday's pardon, it looks like a deal to keep Pakistan's powerful military, and the President himself, away from any unwanted scrutiny in a trial.

Both General Musharraf and President Bush are walking a tightrope. President Bush cannot afford to destabilise his main ally in the war on terror at a time when General Musharraf has escaped two assassination attempts by Muslim extremists. The Muslim population has been vociferous in its support of Dr Khan, the father of the only known "Islamic bomb".

The IAEA stressed yesterday that despite General Musharraf's defiant stand at a news conference yesterday, in which he refused to submit to UN supervision of his weapons programme, the Pakistani authorities had in fact been co-operating with the UN watchdog.

Scandal of Pakistani nuclear secrets for sale was `tip of iceberg'

Independent, The (London), Feb 6, 2004 by Anne Penketh

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