Posted on 02/01/2004 9:45:45 PM PST by HAL9000
Founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program admits transferring nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, an official says.
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Father of Pakistan nuclear program confesses to transfers to Iran, Libya and North Korea
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has acknowledged he transferred nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, a Pakistani government official said Monday.
Khan made the confession in a written statement submitted "a couple of days ago" to investigators probing allegations of nuclear proliferation by Pakistan, the official told The Associated Press on condition on anonymity.
The transfers were made during the late 1980s and in the early and mid 1990s, and were motivated by "personal greed and ambition," the official said.
(Seems Dubya is right about the "Axis of Evil")
Pakistan scientist admits leaking secrets
The father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, and four other scientists have confessed to sharing nuclear technology with Iran, Libya and North Korea, according to reports.
A 12-page report carrying the confessions has been submitted to President Pervez Musharraf, the reports said.
The National Command Authority, chaired by Musharraf, will now take a decision on their fate.
Khan, 66, was sacked as a government adviser on Saturday to "facilitate" the probe.
On Friday, Pakistan Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told the local Pakistani media: "There is no evidence against Dr A Q Khan and he is not a suspect as yet."
He added, "We are questioning a number of scientists and some of them are suspects, but Dr Khan is not amongst them."
Khan was the kingpin of a nuclear bazaar where the highest bidder was sold nuclear weapons technology, sources allege.
Whether Khan was acting on his own, or at the behest of key military figures within the Pakistani establishment, has yet to be determined.
Last week, Pakistani diplomatic sources claimed Bhopal-born Khan spent $1 millionin gifts and preparations for his two daughters' weddings.
Pakistani opposition figures told rediff.com that Khan, who is compared by his well wishers to Albert Einstein, had been gifted a villa on the Caspian Sea and access to exclusive caviar fishing rights by Iran in exchange for vital information about uranium enrichment technology.
Then, one of Khan's former Dutch colleagues, who worked with the Pakistani scientist at the exclusive FDO laboratories in Amsterdam, told rediff.com how Khan to steal confidential blueprints that facilitated Pakistan's nuclear breakthrough and established it as the world's seventh nuclear power after the United States, Russia, Britain China, France and India.
Last Thursday, Pakistani diplomatic sources, comparing Khan to a "Karol Bagh lala", detailed the metallurgist's purchase of a $400,000 Teflon marquee for one of his daughter's weddings as well as lavish gifts of BMWs and houses for his daughters and sons-in-law.
No questions were asked about Khan's lifestyle, his frequent trips abroad -- always first class -- and his lengthy periods of residence under an assumed name at some of the world's most expensive hotels.
Successive heads of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence ignored allegations of financial impropriety until 1990, when Lieutenant General Shamshur Rahman Kallu prepared a report for the attention of the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The report gathered dust until fresh investigations were ordered on the instructions of ISI chief Lieutenant General Mahmoud Ahmad, who handed his findings over to Musharraf in 2001.
Late last year, unable to ignore the mounting evidence of Khan's lifestyle, Musharraf confronted Khan to ask why he had breached Pakistan's trust.
In the unlikely event of his ever being prosecuted, he would reveal the names of those within the upper ranks of the Pakistani army who collaborated with him in his nuclear adventures.
But the turmoil around Khan and his activities has also thrown up evidence of how much some of Pakistan's younger scientists resent his bagging all the credit for his adopted country's nuclear achievements. His fiery temper and his willingness to spend up to Rs 50 million in publicizing his own achievements has not helped either.
In one recent interview, he was asked about the benefits of being 'The' Dr Khan.
He replied: 'If I escort my wife to the plane when she is flying somewhere, the crew will take notice of who she is and she will receive VIP treatment from the moment she steps on the plane. As for me, I can't even stop by the roadside at a small hut to drink chai without someone paying for me. People go out of their way to show the love and respect for me. It is very gratifying.'
Asked when he last paid for dinner, Khan said in the same interview, 'It's been a long time, I can't remember, but I have never tried to take undue advantage of who I am. Once, I was leaving the VIP lounge at an airport, and the security guard asked to see my VIP lounge card. I didn't scream and wave my arms and say 'Don't you know who I am?'
'I just took my card out of my pocket and showed it to him, that man was just doing his job, and that wasn't a problem for me at all. His supervisor did come and yell at him though, he waved his arms and said 'Don't you know who this is? This is Dr Qadeer Khan!'
And who else???
Musharraf to address nation
AGENCIES[ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 02, 2004 04:47:53 AM ]
ISLAMABAD : Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf would address the nation over television after the Eid holidays next week to explain the need to crackdown against the father of the country’s nuclear bomb Abdul Qadeer Khan and other scientists for allegedly proliferating nuclear technology to Iran and Libya .
Many nations were in the road including nazi Germany. If we hadn't done it first, someone else would have. Stop your guilt.
Top Pakistani nuclear scientist confesses to leaking nuclear secrets
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's nuclear pioneer Abdul Qadeer Khan and four others have confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to groups working for Iran, Libya and North Korea, an official close to the government's nuclear proliferation probe told AFP late Sunday.
"Dr Qadeer and four others have accepted that they were involved in leaking nuclear know-how outside Pakistan to groups working for Iran, Libya and North Korea," said the official, who could not be named.
The information was leaked between 1986 and 1993, he added.
It was the first time North Korea had been named in the government's investigation.
The official said an 11-page report carrying the confessions has been submitted to President General Pervez Musharraf.
Asked if there will be criminal proceedings against those who have confessed he said: "It is up to the National Command Authority to take a decision of which the President Pervez Musharraf is the chairman."
It was not yet clear whether Khan had admitted to giving centrifuge designs for uranium enrichment to Iran and Libya, he said.
Another government official said Musharraf may address the nation soon after the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha begins later Monday.
Government officials have told AFP that Khan is a primary suspect in the alleged transfer of Pakistan's nuclear data to other nations in the late 1980s and early 1990s through the international black market mafia trading in nuclear technology.
The investigation follows information handed over by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from Iran, which referred to the possible involvement of Pakistani scientists and officials in selling nuclear secrets for personal profit.
Khan had been questioned regularly since the investigation started and the 66-year-old scientist, who is credited with making Pakistan a nuclear power, was sacked as a government adviser Saturday to "facilitate" the probe.
Five nuclear scientists have been exonerated by investigators while six other individuals, including three officials, are still being interrogated with the probe said to be on the verge of completion.
The names of the four others who had also reportedly confessed were not given.
Khan could not be reached for comment, but Ali Farooq, the son of scientist Dr Farooq Mohammad, who was the first to be detained at the start of the probe, told AFP Sunday, "these are just mere allegations. The authorities are trying to put all the responsibility on the scientists."
Opposition parties were furious Sunday at Khan's sacking and called for protests and an inquiry.
An Islamist alliance alluded to "external pressure", saying the West was uncomfortable with a nuclearised Islamic country, while another party alleged the action could be politically motivated.
The decision to fire Khan, which came after a meeting of the country's political and military leaders chaired by President Pervez Musharraf, shocked a nation accustomed to revering him as a hero.
"It is the ultimate insult to the people of Pakistan," Senator Saadia Abbasi of exiled prime minister Nawaz Sharif's secular Pakistan Muslim League told AFP.
Leader of six-party Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Mian Muhammad Aslam, told AFP: "MMA will raise this matter in parliament and also launch public protest to compel government to reverse disgraceful actions against our national heroes."
By taking this dude on Musharaff has just signed his own death warrant. Now, what i would like to know is what happened to make Musharaff take such a stance? Is this tied to the assasination attempts on Musharaff's life some weeks ago? Has Musharaff decided to take on the 'hidden hand' in Pakistan, and risk not only the ISI but also the powerful clerics and the rabble? And why? Have we (the US) promised Musharaff prtection (although i really do not see what type of protection we could truly deliver while he is still in Pakistan)? Does Musharaff know what he just did, and if he does (and i am 100% sure he knows the sword of damocles that is dangling over his head), what measures has he taken to protect himself?
Will he be alive tomorrow ....the day after ...the week after?
And what is India's reaction? The reason i ask this is nowadays India seems to be supportive of Musharaff under the ol' 'better the devil i know' concept. If Musharaff is usurped/exiled/killed/killed-and-then-chopped-up etc etc then India faces the prospect of a new Pakistani leader who is a 'little loco' (read raging muslim nut) with his zealot thumb on the nuclear button.
However at the end the question is this .........why did Musharaff do this???? What prompted him?
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