http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001851037_khan05.html


Pakistan's nuclear hero apologizes for assistance to other countries

By The Associated Press and The Washington Post


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In a startling confession made on national television, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program said yesterday that he — not the government — leaked secrets to countries abroad.

Abdul Qadeer Khan admitted providing nuclear weapons expertise and equipment to Iran, Libya and North Korea, saying he had done so without authorization from the Pakistani government.

"My dear brothers and sisters, I have chosen to appear before you to offer my deepest regrets and unqualified apologies to a traumatized nation," Khan said in a taped four-minute address that aired on state-run Pakistan Television after a meeting between Khan and Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Khan agreed to speak on television in return for assurances that he would not be prosecuted for transactions that Pakistani investigators say provided him millions of dollars over a period of almost two decades, according to a Cabinet minister and an individual outside of government who was involved in brokering the agreement.

The deal appeared to eliminate the prospect of a public confrontation between the government and Khan that could prove uncomfortable for Musharraf if it led to disclosures that Pakistan's military played a role in Khan's activities.

It also appears to mean that Khan will essentially go unpunished for presiding over what Pakistani officials now acknowledge, after years of denials, was a far-reaching scheme to peddle hardware, blueprints and design assistance by means of a thriving nuclear black market stretching from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia.

Musharraf has been under heavy public pressure to go easy on Khan, 67, a European-trained metallurgist who is considered a national hero for his pivotal role in developing nuclear weapons that helped redress a strategic imbalance with archrival India. India tested its first nuclear device in 1974; Pakistan's first test was in 1998.

Leaders of an alliance of hard-line Islamic parties, the Muttahida Majlis Amal, have promised to hold a nationwide protest tomorrow against the investigation of Khan and other scientists and officials associated with the Khan Research Laboratories, which Khan founded nearly three decades ago in Kahuta, about 20 miles from Islamabad, to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs. Partly in response to U.S. pressure, Musharraf forced Khan to retire from the lab in 2001.

Pakistan launched its investigation last year after the International Atomic Energy Agency provided it with evidence that Pakistani scientists had provided hardware and expertise to Iran for building high-speed centrifuges to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs. The United States separately expressed concern that Pakistan had provided similar assistance to North Korea. Pakistani authorities subsequently widened their investigation after Libya admitted in December that it had a nuclear weapons program.

Over the past two months, Pakistani investigators uncovered evidence that Khan had conducted transactions with all three countries and made millions of dollars in the process. They found he had spread his wealth among foreign bank accounts, palatial homes in Pakistan and properties abroad, including a hotel named for his wife, Hendrina, in the West African state of Mali.

According to investigators, Khan said he provided the assistance to Iran, North Korea and Libya to deflect international attention from Pakistan's nuclear program.

He also has maintained, according to a friend of Khan's and a senior investigator, that three army chiefs of staff, including Musharraf, were aware of the assistance he provided to North Korea in exchange for help with Pakistan's ballistic missile program. Khan's statement yesterday contradicted that claim, however, and government officials, including Musharraf, have denied that military commanders knew of Khan's selling nuclear secrets abroad.

Many Pakistanis have questioned how Khan could have conducted such an ambitious series of illicit sales without some level of official support. Though he enjoyed great autonomy as lab director, security at the facility was the responsibility of the military and its Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

As a kind of insurance policy, Khan several weeks ago provided his daughter, Dina, who lives in England, with evidence that the military knew of his nuclear dealings abroad, instructing her to make the evidence public if the government were to prosecute or take other punitive action against him, according to a friend of Khan's who has spoken with him twice during the investigation.

But the government also exerted leverage on Khan. Lt. Gen. Ehsan ul-Haq, the head of the ISI, and Lt. Gen. Khalid Kidwai, the head of the Strategic Planning and Development Cell, last week confronted Khan with "reams of evidence" that he had not only made large sums from his foreign clients but also from improper deals with suppliers of technology for Pakistan's program, a senior official said.

They threatened to make the evidence public if he did not sign a confession, which he did Friday after discussing his options with S.M. Zafar, an attorney and former law minister, the official said.

The 12-page confession, which was drafted by Makhdoom Ali Khan, Pakistan's attorney general, will be presented to the IAEA at the conclusion of Pakistan's investigation as part of an effort to convince the world that Pakistan takes its responsibilities as a nuclear power seriously, the official said.


Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Stratfor thinks the U.S. is letting Musharraf off the hook as a quid pro quo for letting the U.S. roam inside Pakistan to nail Bin Laden:

Geopolitical Diary: Thursday, Feb. 5, 2004

Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of the Pakistani nuclear program, officially took full responsibility on Wednesday for the transfer of Pakistani nuclear technology to other countries in an operation that went back to the 1980s.
He confirmed it in a speech broadcast in English in Pakistan. The gist of his statement was that he did it, he did it alone, and no one else in the military -- and certainly not President Gen. Pervez Musharraf -- knew about it. It was not a convincing performance.

The essence of his speech was, "The investigation has established that many of the reported activities did occur, and that these were inevitably initiated at my behest. In my interviews with the concerned government officials, I was confronted with the evidence and the findings. And I have voluntarily admitted that much of it is true and accurate." He continued, "I also appeal to all citizens of Pakistan, in the supreme national interest, to refrain from any further speculations and not to politicize this extremely sensitive issue of national security."

It was a strange speech. First, it was in English, a language that is incomprehensible to 70 percent of the country, and it was in a stilted English -- odd for a man who is quite fluent. The core motive is said to be "personal greed and ambition." That may be the case, but Khan was extremely successful by Pakistani standards and a national hero. Men can be greedy, but this characteristic was not evident elsewhere in his life.

When we look at the speech, clearly Khan is falling on his sword and wants everyone to know that he is. He does not appeal for mercy, nor does he try to justify his actions. He seemingly implies that he didn't realize his actions would upset anyone. Of course, the most important thing he says is that the issue should not be politicized.

It is extraordinarily difficult to imagine that a conspiracy of this magnitude -- involving Khan, his subordinates, interactions with foreign governments -- could have been missed by the Pakistani military, which controlled the program. More importantly, the Inter-Service Intelligence agency was very close to the program. Hamid Gul, a former director-general of the ISI, had extremely close personal relations with Khan and other scientists. These relationships came under close scrutiny after Sept. 11, 2001, when the question of the security of Pakistan's nuclear program appeared on the U.S. radar. The idea that the ISI didn't know that this was happening is impossible to believe.

Khan's speech seems designed to shield not only Musharraf, but also the Pakistani military and intelligence establishments. It is important that no one there be responsible. A lone gunman had to be found, and the only candidate was Khan. But he suffers from one mild defect -- he is the most implausible candidate imaginable.

It is understandable that Musharraf would want a solution to this crisis that does not challenge any of Pakistan's institutions. The real mystery here concerns the United States. First, forget the Pakistanis. How did the CIA miss Pakistan's transferal of sensitive technical information to Iran and Libya, and how did it miss it for more than 10 years? Second, if the CIA did know about it, why didn't anyone -- Reagan, Bush, Clinton -- do something about it? Third, if the transfers were discovered only recently -- say, during the Libyan reversal -- and the United States did not want Musharraf to fall as a result, did the United States simply suppress all public discussion to work covertly with Musharraf? Fourth, after the United States went public with it, why would it settle for, or be interested in, the political execution of Khan? The real issue is and always was the ISI.
Why go public and let Pakistan off the hook so easily?

The Pakistanis can be understood. The United States discovers they have been selling nuclear secrets to everyone the United States hates and fears.
Pakistan can't deny it, but it can pretend that it was the bad man over in the corner there -- he did it. The bad man makes his public confession, exonerating everyone else. Musharraf is shocked -- shocked -- to discover this has been going on. Musharraf breathes a sigh of relief.

It's the Americans who are baffling. Why make a public issue of this if Pakistan gets off the hook anyway? Or, put differently, how can the United States let Pakistan off the hook if it was selling nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya? Unless the United States suppressed the information and got the situation under control, the response makes no sense. For example, perhaps Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi threatened to go public with the news if the Americans didn't move first. Without some such scenario, the response makes no sense. Since we doubt that Gadhafi threatened that, we are left with a quandary.

The mystery yields only one conclusion: The United States did not simply let Musharraf off the hook. Musharraf was allowed to escape his crisis by blaming Khan -- and we suspect that there is a pardon lurking in his future -- but Musharraf had to make other promises. The only thing the United States cares about more than nuclear proliferation to Iran and Libya
is: Osama bin Laden. In all likelihood, he is somewhere in Pakistan, in the tribal areas in the northwest. Last week, the United States announced intentions to go in after him this spring. That's tough country, and the United States needs the ISI and the Pakistani military.

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They wrapped it all up in a nice, neat little package. Pin all the responsibility on one man, and then pardon him. A sweetheart deal if I ever heard one.

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Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
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Chain Elongation References

I'm sure someone's working on it as we speak; people like this seem to die or disappear under very strange circumstances.

What a surprise, selling nukes door to door. If it wasn't Khan, it would have been someone from the US, Soviet, French, Israeli, UK, Korea, India, China (who am I leaving out . .) weapons program.

While you are at it, please kill this guy Lou Dobbs interviewed tonight as well. He is the CEO of NOEIT, Inc. and I cannot remember his name (Atul something). In essence, he is the guy who goes around the country convincing CEOs to outsource jobs to third world countries.

He is an Indian or Pakistani, no wonder why he wants the US companies to outsource jobs to his country, so they can become rich to buy WMD and threaten us in the next 10 years or so. Glad to see Lou made him looked like a complete idiot on National TV.

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I'm afraid that when I die, I'll not go to hell, but to Pakistan.

Massive population growth.

Misogeny.

Arranged marriage.

Islamic fundamentalism.

National hero for developing nuclear bomb.

Military dictatorship.

Have I left anything out?

Still, it isn't as bad as N.Korea.

How does this $hit happen? I'm genuinely puzzled...

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'79 280SE
'87 560SEL
'83 280CE
'01 Nissan Micra
'98 VW Passat
'83 911 turbo

Folks in India absolutely hate folks in Pakistan. I'm beginning to understand why.

jjl I posted an article a while ago about a Pakistan judge who sentenced a guy to have his eyes destroyed by acid in a public spectacle due to his (the guy’s, not the judge’s) poring acid on his fiancé’s eyes and face. So they are all about equal justice. Right?

On the broader topic what often passes for human nature is, I suggest, a little disappointing.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Excerpt from President Bush's 2002 State of the Union address:

My hope is that all nations will heed our call, and eliminate the terrorist parasites who threaten their countries and our own. Many nations are acting forcefully. Pakistan is now cracking down on terror, and I admire the strong leadership of President Musharraf.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/international/asia/16NUKE.html

Pakistani's Nuclear Earnings: $100 Million
By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD

Published: March 16, 2004


AK RIDGE, Tenn., March 15 — The Bush administration said Monday that the clandestine network created by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist, netted $100 million for the technology it sold to Libya alone, and for the first time officials displayed a carefully selected sample of the type of equipment that the network sold to arm Libya, Iran and North Korea.

Under extraordinary security — guards with automatic weapons stationed every few yards — officials showed reporters the most basic of the high-speed centrifuges that Dr. Khan marketed to countries seeking to enrich uranium for bomb fuel. Many of the centrifuges, flown out of Libya and stored here at one of America's first nuclear weapons laboratories, were still in their original packing crates.

But the most critical components shipped out of Tripoli — including 4,000 more advanced centrifuges and the drawings Dr. Khan sold showing how to turn the uranium into crude warheads — were kept out of view. So were labels and other evidence that would link specific products to Pakistan, Germany, Malaysia and a dozen other countries where Dr. Khan's network of suppliers and manufacturers operated over the past decade.

North Korea and Iran are believed to have purchased essentially the same package of technology that Libya obtained after negotiating with Dr. Khan in the mid-1990's.

The event here on Monday was part of a weeklong effort by the administration to trumpet what it views as one of its biggest foreign-policy accomplishments growing out of the invasion of Iraq a year ago.

"We've had a huge success here," said Spencer Abraham, the secretary of energy, who is in charge of overseeing the American nuclear stockpile. Surrounded by the cache of nuclear equipment, Mr. Abraham argued that the decision announced in December by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to disarm completely and rapidly came because of "the resolve that we and others conveyed in Iraq, which has forced countries to make a choice."

Mr. Abraham said that virtually all of the 55,000 pounds of nuclear gear already brought out of Libya, which appears headed to a lifting of most American economic sanctions next month, now rests here, behind barbed-wire fences in the hills of eastern Tennessee.

The equipment, he said, was "the largest recovery, by weight, ever conducted under U.S nonproliferation efforts" but was "just the tip of the iceberg" because a shipload of Libyan equipment is currently sailing to the United States.

Such work, he said, "spells out our commitment to winning the war against terrorism."

Libya never began to produce enriched uranium, though experts here said that if assembled, the equipment that the United States, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other nations have recovered could have produced enough fuel to make up to 10 nuclear weapons a year.

Libya had obtained a bit less than half of the 10,000 centrifuges it hoped to operate, before determining that the program was not worth the diplomatic cost. "The program was much more advanced than we assessed," Robert Joseph, who heads counterproliferation efforts in the National Security Council, said here. "It was much larger than we assessed."

The $100 million estimate was nearly twice as high as the highest previous estimate of what Libya paid for its nuclear technology. That figure does not include what Iran and North Korea or other customers of the Khan network that the officials declined to identify Monday, citing continuing investigations, paid to the network of suppliers.

On Saturday, Iran announced a freeze on inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency to protest the terms of a resolution that chided the country for failing to cooperate fully with inspectors. On Monday, the head of the agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in Washington that Iran had changed its position and would allow the inspections to resume on March 27.

The $100 million figure does, however, explain how a government scientist like Mr. Khan could afford a lavish lifestyle, in Pakistan, in homes around the world and at his hotel in Mali. One official noted that given the relatively small number of principal players in the Khan network — maybe a dozen people in all — it "made it a very lucrative trade."

"The network's financial dealings were deliberately complex and we do not yet have a complete picture," said Jim Wilkinson, a deputy national security adviser who made the trip here. "The developing picture, however, indicates that the Khan network received at least $100 million for supplying technology, equipment and know-how" to Libya, he said. "It was truly one-stop shopping."

Under a tent in a parking lot of the heavily guarded complex here, officials set up a display of dozens of large wooden packing crates that contained Libya's disassembled nuclear program, as well as small number of items that they had declassified. Among them were four aluminum centrifuges, called P-1's, the nomenclature for the first generation of Pakistani centrifuges based on a design that Dr. Khan stole from Europe and used to make the uranium for the first Pakistani nuclear weapons.

Gleaming, the aluminum tubes stood more than six feet tall, with three pipes coming out the top of each. The centrifuges, basically hollow metal tubes, spin at the speed of sound to separate uranium 235 — which is used as the main ingredient for bombs — from unneeded uranium 238.

In front of the display lay a six-foot-long piece of cascade piping — the line that in an operating plant would tie the centrifuges together. A set of thousands of centrifuges, called a cascade, concentrates the rare U-235 isotope to make potent bomb fuel. Each centrifuge in a cascade makes the uranium a little more enriched in the U-235 isotope.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

let's say in the Prez and I ask you for advice on Pakistan.

Remember that Pakistan is in possession of nukes.

The government is an unstable military dictatorship.

The security services often act independently of the head of government.

Pakistan has a neighbor on one side it hates (India) and on the other side a country in fears (Iran).

The northern border is occupied by some of the most fierce warriors on the planet, which is why Pakistan has essentially ceded control to local tribal leaders.

The population is large and educated mostly by religious zealots, many imported from Saudi Arabia.

Having been a colony, they deeply resent external interference.

What should Prez Botnst do about/with those guys?

B

PS This just in: http://www.iht.com/articles/510505.html

While in India, Powell says Pak nuke network must be eliminated.

Speaking in India. Whadda coincidence.

Idea 1) In the true tradition of Pakistan justice, we flay this c**ksucker madman alive, and then we, along with India and Iran have a little talk with the Pakistani leadership. We tell them they have 2 choices: 1) we’d be more than happy to give them technology for growing food beyond their wildest dreams, seed stock, desalinization plants to make limitless clean fresh water, provide education, and instilling in this poverty strewn country a view of tomorrow where they can compete in a global economy and have more prosperity than any ever imagined. Or 2) we do nothing. No imports, no exports. They become an island. Give them 30 seconds to decide. Naturally they’ll want to take the offers and then turn their backs when convenient. At that point, we seal the borders and let them suffer. They will retaliate.

Idea 2) we pursue an endless series of largely pointless negotiations. We try to get them to share at least some of the places to which they’ve sold nuke technology. We go after those places as each case deems fit. Maintain the status quo. Hope that their hateful little souls don’t burn the end of the short fuse of poverty and lash out against Iran and India. All the while hoping they will do serious damage to Iran and India. This is about what our gov is doing.

Idea 3), again, flay this c**ksucker madman alive along with everyone in the Pakistan nuke program, and then pursue idea 2.

That aside, I nominated you for prez. What do you suggest?

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

As usual Tracy, I think you've nailed it.

B

Let's see:
Is Pakistan a threat to its neighbours: yes
Is Pakistan a democracy: no
Do the Pakistan people have freedom: no
Is Pakistan harbouring terrorists: yes
Are there WMDs in Pakistan: yes

Prez: "Sounds like Iraq and Afghanistan, let's invade"

Wait a minute, forgot one thing:
Does Pakistan have oil: no

Prez: "Don't bother"

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2011 Prius

Rather than limiting it to oil, I'd say, "vital strategic importance", which includes oil.

Even so, I think your list nicely fills-in Tracy's.

B