Free Republic

George W. Bush is hardly the first U.S. president to forgive sins against democracy by a Pakistani leader. Like his predecessors from Jimmy Carter onward, Bush has tolerated bad behavior in hopes that Pakistan might do Washington's bidding on some urgent U.S. priority -- in this case, a crackdown on al-Qaeda. But the scariest legacy of Bush's failed bargain with Gen. Pervez Musharraf isn't the rise of another U.S.-backed dictatorship in a strategic Muslim nation, or even the establishment of a new al-Qaeda haven along Pakistan's lawless border. It's the leniency we've shown toward the most dangerous nuclear-trafficking operation in...

From The Sunday Times September 2, 2007 How the West summoned up a nuclear nightmare in Pakistan Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark reveal how misguided deals with Pakistan have created a terrifying threat of nuclear terrorism General Pervez Musharraf was surprised. Visiting New York for a session of the UN, the last thing the Pakistani president expected was to be confronted with evidence of his country’s secret sales of nuclear bomb technology and equipment to members of the “axis of evil”. Yet here on the polished wooden table of Musharraf’s hotel suite, George Tenet, director of the CIA, was laying...

WASHINGTON - When US President George W Bush announced on February 11, 2004, that the infamous nuclear-black-market network run by Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan had been rolled up, everyone concerned with nuclear-proliferation issues breathed a huge sigh of relief.

TOKYO, Aug. 25 — Five executives of the Mitutoyo Corporation, a precision instruments maker, were arrested today on suspicion of illegally exporting equipment to Malaysia that could be used in making nuclear weapons. Japanese television broadcast video images of police raiding the company’s headquarters in the city of Kawasaki. A spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police said the president of the company, Kazusaku Tezuka, 67, and four other executives were taken into custody. The case turns on what the police said were shipments of advanced measuring devices that were sent to an unspecified recipient in Malaysia in late 2001 without...

ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has been found to be suffering from prostrate cancer, the government said on Tuesday. In a routine medical examination of the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear programme early this month, tests revealed slightly raised level of serum prostrate specific atigen (PSA), an official spokesman said. Immediately, a detailed examination was conducted at the KRL hospital to ensure an accurate diagnosis, including ultrasound and guided biopsy. The test results were also analysed by at least two leading histopathologists. The spokesman said the results had indicated adino carcinoma (cancer) of prostrate, adding that further...

Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who developed the Muslim world's first nuclear bomb and later confessed to leaking weapons technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, is battling prostate cancer, the government said Tuesday. The announcement could lead to renewed calls for Pakistan to let the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency question the 70-year-old scientist over his international black market dealings a request that Pakistan's government reiterated it would refuse. Khan was diagnosed with cancer earlier this month following a routine examination, according to a Ministry of Information statement that gave no details about his condition. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim...

Excerpt - Islamabad, 22 August (AKI)- The father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, disgraced scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the online site of the Pakistani GEO television network reported Tuesday. The cancer was detected during a routine medical test in early August and confirmed by a detailed examination at a hospital near Islamabad, the report said citing a government statement. "The results have unfortunately indicated adino-carcinoma (cancer) of the prostate. Further investigations are being conducted by a board of doctors," the statement said. Khan played the key role in developing Pakistan's nuclear military capability, which...

AQ Khan-esque N-trafficking continues: Jane’s WASHINGTON: Despite the break-up of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s nuclear smuggling operation, there have been several indications in the past two years that trafficking activities along similar lines continue, according to Jane’s. In a news report circulated on June 16, the generally authoritative British publication said that portions of the AQ Khan network appear to be intact. Several officials involved in investigating the network’s activities said it now appears that parts of the organisation are yet to be uncovered and includes individuals who are more senior in the Khan network than previously believed. The...

I suspected Khan for three years: Musharraf PTI | February 10, 2004 | 10:43 IST Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has acknowledged for the first time that he had suspected for at least three years that his country's top scientist was sharing nuclear technology with other countries, but argued the US had not given him convincing proof. In an hour-long interview with the New York Times on Monday Musharraf shared blame for the delay with Washington saying it was not until October that American officials provided him with evidence of the activities of the scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. "If they knew...

Of all the claims that Iran made last week about its nuclear program, a one-sentence assertion by its president has provoked such surprise and concern among international nuclear inspectors they are planning to confront Tehran about it this week. The assertion involves Iran's claim that even while it begins to enrich small amounts of uranium, it is pursuing a far more sophisticated way of making atomic fuel that American officials and inspectors say could speed Iran's path to developing a nuclear weapon. Iran has consistently maintained that it abandoned work on this advanced technology, called the P-2 centrifuge, three years...

A.Q. Khan gave North Korea centrifuges, confirms Musharraf Pakistan is self-reliant in nuclear and missile development, says President TOKYO: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has confirmed that disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan provided North Korea with centrifuge machines and their designs, Kyodo news agency said on Wednesday. Mr. Khan, revered in Pakistan as the man who gave his country the weapons capability to balance that of the nuclear-armed neighbour India, admitted last year to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. In an interview with Kyodo on Tuesday, Gen. Musharraf spoke in public for the first time about...

ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: President General Pervez Musharraf has denied the allegations that transfers of centrifuge designs to N Korea by Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan helped N Korea in acquiring nuclear weapons. The president confirmed that Dr Khan provided centrifuge machines and their designs to N Korea, but said these transfers did not help North Korea acquire a nuclear weapons capability. “So, if N Korea has made a bomb...Dr. A.Q. Khan’s part is only enriching the uranium to weapons grade." said Musharraf. Asked to comment on reports that Mr. Khan gave about 20 centrifuges to North Korea, Gen Musharraf said: “Yes,...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 24 - Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, confirmed Tuesday for the first time that a Pakistani nuclear scientist had provided North Korea with centrifuge machines that could be used to make fuel for an atomic bomb, a Japanese news agency reported. In an interview here with the agency, Kyodo News, General Musharraf said the former head of his country's nuclear program, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, had sent "centrifuges - parts and complete" to North Korea.

AQ gave centrifuges to North Korea ISLAMABAD (AFP) - President Pervez Musharraf has confirmed that nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan provided North Korea with centrifuges and their designs, his spokesman said Wednesday. But military ruler Musharraf, who made the statement to Japan’s Kyodo news agency, added that the equipment handed over by Dr Khan did not in itself give the Stalinist state a nuclear weapons capability. “Yes, he passed centrifuges - parts and complete. I do not exactly remember the number,” Musharraf said when asked about reports that Islamabad had told Tokyo that Khan provided North Korea with about...

Bush, Vice President Cheney and top members of the administration reacted with shock when they found out that Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan’s top nuclear scientist, spent the past 15 years selling outlaw nations nuclear technology and equipment. So it was sort of a surprise when Bush, upon finding out about Khan’s proliferation of nuclear technology, let Pakistan off with a slap on the wrist. But it was all an act. In fact, it was actually a cover-up designed to shield Cheney because he knew about the proliferation for more than a decade and did nothing to stop it. Cheney went...

The Bush administration on Tuesday ducked for cover from stunning new revelations that the CIA prevailed upon the Dutch government to let Pakistan's nuclear smuggler AQ Khan escape Netherlands in the 1970s. Washington said the case was old and it could not comment on intelligence matters. "It's not something that I feel we really have anything to say about...because (a) it deals with events long in the past; (b) it deals with intelligence matters," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said at his daily briefing. QUESTION: Is it just because you didn't prepare any or you're not going to? MR ERELI:...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands declined to take action against a top Pakistani nuclear scientist in 1975 and 1986 at the request of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a former Dutch prime minister said on Tuesday. Former Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers told Dutch radio in an interview that the CIA had asked the Netherlands in 1975 not to prosecute Abdul Qadeer Khan, now dubbed the father of Pakistan's atom bomb, despite suspicions he was stealing information. "The Americans wished to follow and watch Khan to get more information," public radio quoted Lubbers as saying. The CIA declined to comment on...

Source: TheNation.com.pk PRESIDENT General Pervez Musharraf has said nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, was pardoned as the latter had provided security to the country when it was facing near extinction. He said this was the reason why Dr AQ Khan despite charges of proliferation levelled against him, was still a national hero. “He gave us security when we were threatened with extinction... That is why he is a hero. But the world doesn’t understand this,” The New Zealand Herald quoted him as saying.

Electronic drawings that give comprehensive details of how to build and test equipment essential for making nuclear bombs have vanished and could be put up for sale on the international black market, according to UN investigators. The blueprints, running to hundreds of pages, show how to make centrifuges for enriching uranium. In addition, the investigators have been unable to trace key components for uranium centrifuge rigs and fear that drawings for a nuclear warhead have been secreted away and could be for sale. Inspectors at the UN's nuclear authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), have been investigating the worst...

Pak nuke scientist A Q Khan met Osama: Report Sunday, 03 April , 2005, 12:24 New Delhi: Pakistani scientists Abdul Qadeer Khan and Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood had held meetings with Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders, exchanged letters with militant organisations like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and attended their gatherings and rallies, a media report said. "When the CIA searched (Sultan Bashiruddin) Mehmood’s UTN (Umma Tameere-Nau) office in Kabul, they found large amounts of data on the construction and maintenance of nuclear weapons from the Kahuta laboratories. It also found letters exchanged between the UTN and Islamist extremist organisations including Lashkar-e-Toiba",...