Scandal of Pakistani nuclear secrets for sale was 'tip of iceberg'
By Anne Penketh and Jan McGirk
06 February 2004
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."
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.
But Ms Fleming made it clear that further damaging revelations about the
involvement of other countries may be forthcoming. "Some countries may have
been involved unbeknownst to them. We don't know how many more there are out
there," she said, refusing to identify suspect countries.
But diplomats said that the hunt for the middlemen who worked with Dr Khan now
stretched to Japan and Africa.
Dr Khan's confession has notably raised questions about whether he had sold
nuclear secrets to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, which was actively pursuing
a nuclear weapons programme before it was dismantled by UN inspectors. The
experts discovered in the late 1990s that a man claiming to represent Dr Khan
had allegedly approached the Iraqi government offering to sell nuclear bomb
designs just before the Gulf War in 1991. The IAEA spokeswoman also expressed
concern about the possibility that terrorists may have obtained nuclear
information. The Pakistani intelligence service encouraged the creation of the
Taliban in Afghanistan, and the al-Qa'ida leader, Osama bin Laden, could be
sheltering in the border region of Pakistan, if he is still alive.
Ms Fleming played down suggestions that the nuclear know-how could be acted
upon by individuals. "You would need the infrastructure of a state for the
centrifuges," she said.
General Musharraf said yesterday of Pakistan's national hero: "Whatever I have
done, I have tried to shield him." But he added: "One has to balance between
international requirements and shielding."
6 February 2004 10:20
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