This pretty well implicates the current and ongoing Iranian nuclear program...
Posted on 02/04/2004 8:35:57 PM PST by hotpotato
The father of Pakistan's atomic weapons programme last night admitted on national television that he had illegally traded nuclear secrets to other countries.
Contradicting reports from recent days, Abdul Qadeer Khan also claimed that he had done so without the knowledge of the government.
Speculation is now mounting that Dr Khan may not be prosecuted. A former army chief, Mirza Aslam Beg, an ally of Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, yesterday told the Guardian he believed Dr Khan would have to be kept out of court "because he knows too much". Mr Beg added: "If [Dr] Khan had appeared in a court of law many things would have come out. That is very dangerous for President Musharraf."
The startling admission by Dr Khan follows an investigation - pushed upon Mr Musharraf's regime by evidence gathered from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the CIA - which strongly implicated him.
Dr Khan, 69, returned to Pakistan in 1976 after studying in Europe to lead the country's nuclear programme, and finally became special science and technology adviser to the president before being sacked last month. He has been accused of helping Libya, North Korea and Iran to develop their atomic weapons programmes.
In yesterday's broadcast, he said: "I take full responsibility for my actions and seek your pardon. I offer my deepest regrets and unqualified apologies to a traumatised nation."
He said that the evidence presented to him by investigators had left him with little option. "The investigations have established that many of the reported activities did occur and these were inevitably initiated at my behest ... I have voluntarily admitted that much of it is true and accurate. I also wish to clarify that there was never ever any kind of authorisation for these activities by the government."
Diplomats and analysts consider it unlikely Dr Khan could have transferred nuclear technology without the knowledge of the country's military elite.
Dr Khan is revered in Pakistan and attempts to prosecute him would be likely to provoke uproar. A prosecution would also be a minefield for Mr Musharraf. The president has arranged a meeting of security chiefs responsible for the nuclear programme to discuss a possible pardon, official sources said.
Dr Khan gave blanket corroboration to the findings of a two-month investigation into allegations of nuclear proliferation. Investigators say he confessed last week to selling centrifuges for refining uranium and designs for nuclear installations to the three states via middlemen in Europe, south-east Asia and the Middle East.
Intelligence officials told Associated Press yesterday that Dr Khan had agreed to cooperate with the investigators in exchange for immunity.
In a statement yesterday Pakistan's government said Dr Khan, who has in effect been under house arrest since being sacked, accepted "full responsibility for all the proliferation activities conducted by him [while] at the helm of affairs at Khan Research Laboratories".
Dr Khan founded the laboratory in the 1970s and stayed in charge until retiring in 2001.
Mr Beg said anyone else involved in the nuclear proliferation scandal would be pursued and their actions made public. But many analysts expected a swift pardon for Dr Khan. "It's all gone to book," said a foreign political analyst. "It's stitched up."
The Foreign Office yesterday urged Pakistan to "adhere to its commitments" not to allow exports of nuclear technology or equipment. Both the British and US governments ideally would prefer punitive action against Dr Khan as a deterrent to others contemplating nuclear proliferation, but they do not want any action that undermines Mr Musharraf.
Britain recognises that the president, viewed as a friend of the west in the "war on terror", faces a huge internal problem given that senior members of the Pakistani army would have been implicated in the proliferation and that Dr Khan was anational hero.
This pretty well implicates the current and ongoing Iranian nuclear program...
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.