Nuke dealer retracts confession, US government says not so fast
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, admitted in an emotional television appearance four years ago that he had sold nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and LIbya. A.Q. Khan, as he is usually called, is believed to have run an international procurement network that straddled Asia, the Middle East and Europe. His name has become synonymous with the nuclear black market and weapons proliferation.
But in an interview published Friday in Britain's Guardian newspaper, his first with a Western news media organization since 2004, Khan said his confession was all a sham, forced on him by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. "It was not of my own free will. It was handed into my hand," he told the Guardian.
Khan, a national hero in Pakistan who is under virtual house arrest, also said he would never cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose investigators, along with many intelligence agencies, are still trying to track down what he sold, and to whom.
U.S. government specialists aren't buying Khan's new tune.
In an e-mailed response, one U.S. official said simply: "We haven't changed our assessment that A.Q. Khan was a
major--and very dangerous--proliferator. He sold sensitive nuclear equipment
and know-how to some genuinely bad actors."
The title of the book cited in the previous post is actually "Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons" Sorry for the error.
Posted by: dcr | June 09, 2008 at 12:08 PM
More background on AQ Khan, Pakistan's nuclear program, proliferation of nuclear technology and White House funding and complicity of same under Reagan/Bush Sr can be viewed at http://fora.tv/2007/10/30/Pakistan_and_the_A_Q__Khan_Network
Or read 'Trading Nuclear Secrets' by A. Levy and C Scott-Clark.
Another of the very dangerous chickens coming home to roost.
Posted by: DCR | June 09, 2008 at 07:39 AM
Was that the same "official" who claimed their assessment that Saddam had WMD which made him a major and very dangerous poliferator too?
I do remember that prior to 9/11 Pakistan was on the US list of countrys' of dubious character that beared considerable watching.
Once it was realized they needed Pakistan's support for the war effort in Afganistan, Pakistan's status changed. However, the nuke proliferation question needed to be settled to quiet opposition. Hence, Kahn was made the scapegoat; and perhaps willingly.
I've lost all faith in official statements coming out of this administration. They need to be vetted by the media for accuracy with a critical analysis of both the subject as well as person making the statement.
Posted by: Tahut | June 01, 2008 at 11:44 AM
Khan has carried the blame as the single contributor to North Korea and Iran obtaining nuclear technology. Khan carried the can so that Musharaf could appease Bush though he was obviously not the only one.
The British, the French and the Americans are culpable in the jewish acquisition of WMDs and the jews are responsible for providing China with US advanced technology weapons system, so in a world of equal rights and justice for all, why such indignation about Iran’s WMDs. Who died and made the duplicitous Americans, Lord and Master of us all.
Posted by: lydia | May 30, 2008 at 06:39 PM
I never bought the story that Khan was free-lancing, and that the Pakistani military and intelligence services didn't know what was going on. Wasn't the US acceptance of the "confession" by the US an effort to keep pretending that Musharraf was a good guy?
Posted by: Joe Buck | May 30, 2008 at 05:19 PM