Posted on 12/23/2003 9:30:03 AM PST by knighthawk
Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has been questioned in Pakistan over possible transfers of nuclear technology to Iran, is regarded as a national hero for helping his country become a nuclear state. Dr Khan played the key role in developing Pakistan's nuclear military capability, which culminated in successful tests in May 1998.
Coming shortly after similar tests by India, Dr Khan's work helped seal Pakistan's place as the world's seventh nuclear power and sparked national jubilation.
In March 2001 he was promoted to the inner circle of the country's military leadership as special science and technology adviser to President Pervez Musharraf.
European studies
Abdul Qadeer Khan was born into a modest family in Bhopal, India, in 1935.
He migrated to Pakistan in 1952, following the country's partition from India five years earlier.
He graduated from the University of Karachi before moving to Europe for further studies in West Germany and Belgium.
In the 1970s, he took a job at a uranium enrichment plant run by the British-Dutch-German consortium Urenco.
But in 1976, Dr Khan returned home to head up the nation's nuclear programme with the support of then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
During his work, Dr Khan insisted that the programme had no military purpose, but following the 1998 tests admitted: "I never had any doubts I was building a bomb. We had to do it."
He went on to work on the successful test-firings of the nuclear-capable Ghauri I and II missiles.
As he was carrying out his programme, Dr Khan was also being investigated in the Netherlands for taking enrichment technology during his time in the country.
In 1983, he was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison by an Amsterdam court for attempted espionage, although the sentence was later overturned on appeal.
US sanctions
Dr Khan's facility, Khan Research Laboratories at Kahuta, became Pakistan's main nuclear weapons laboratory where uranium was enriched.
It has continued to attract US suspicion and this year Washington imposed sanctions on the firm for the alleged transfer of missile technology from North Korea.
Nevertheless, Dr Khan's standing in Pakistan is so high as the father of the nation's atomic bomb that his questioning in the current probe has been described merely as a "routine debriefing".
Despite media claims to the contrary, the government says he has faced no restrictions on his movement.
In later years, Dr Khan has launched a campaign against illiteracy and built educational institutes in Mianwali and Karachi.
He recently told yes.pakistan.com: "I am proud of my work for my country. It has given Pakistanis a sense of pride, security and has been a great scientific achievement."
A scientist who built Pakistan's nuclear bomb may have helped North Korea, Iraq and Iran. The national hero denies he's 'a madman.'
UNITED NATIONS — If one man sits at the nuclear fulcrum of the three countries President Bush calls the "axis of evil," it may well be Abdul Qadeer Khan.
The 66-year-old metallurgist is considered the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. He is a national hero at home, where hospitals bear his name and children sing his praises. U.S. and other Western officials do not. They say Khan is the only scientist known to be linked to the alleged efforts of North Korea, Iraq and Iran to develop nuclear weapons.
"If the international community had a proliferation most-wanted list, A. Q. Khan would be most wanted on the list," said Robert J. Einhorn, who was assistant secretary of State for nonproliferation in the Clinton administration. It began when India tested a nuclear device in 1974 and Pakistan immediately sought to catch up. Khan kick-started the country's nuclear program the following year, allegedly providing copied plans for gas centrifuges from the Urenco uranium enrichment facility in the Netherlands, where he had worked. He also obtained a list of suppliers that would prove invaluable. Khan ultimately was tried for treason in absentia in the Netherlands, but the case was dropped when prosecutors failed to properly deliver a summons.
"He stole the blueprints," said David Kay, who headed nuclear weapons evaluation programs at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna from 1982 to 1992. "But he's not a cat burglar who snatched some plans. He's a very good scientist."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.