Top Pakistani Scientist Receives Pardon for Nuclear Transfers

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf today pardoned Abdul Qadeer Khan, the “father” of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, for transferring nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea (see GSN, Feb. 4; Washington Post, Feb. 5).

The Pakistani Cabinet earlier today had recommended the pardon for Khan, according to the Associated Press (Matthew Pennington, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 5).

In a televised address yesterday, Khan publicly confessed to the nuclear transfers, saying he had conducted such activities without authorization.

“My dear brothers and sisters … I have chosen to appear before you to offer my deepest regrets and unqualified apologies to a traumatized nation. … There was never ever any kind of authorization for these activities by the government,” Khan said. “I take full responsibility for my actions and seek your pardon,” he said (Washington Post, Feb. 5).

Khan also said that his subordinates who were involved were acting on his orders.

“I wish to place on record that those of my subordinates who have accepted their role in the affair were acting in good faith like me, on my instructions,” Khan said.

U.S. officials, though, said they did not necessarily accept Khan’s claim that he and his accomplices were the only ones involved in the transfers.

“We’re not accepting or rejecting, we’re just digesting all of this,” a U.S. State Department official said.

In Pakistan, politicians and analysts said that Khan might be trying to take full responsibility in an effort to protect others.

“He was just one of the cogs in the machine,” said Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha, a Pakistani defense and strategic analyst. “He was a very important player, but he was not the only player,” Siddiqa-Agha said (Watson/Zaidi, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 5).

Khan agreed to the public confession in exchange for assurances that he would not be prosecuted for the transfers, which investigators have determined netted him millions of dollars, according to a Cabinet member and an individual outside of the government involved in the arrangement.

According to a friend of Khan’s, several weeks ago the scientist provided his daughter, who lives in the United Kingdom, with evidence that the military knew of the transfers and told her to make it public if he were to be prosecuted.

The head of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Lt. Gen. Ehsan ul-Haq, and Lt. Gen. Khalid Kidwai, head of the Strategic Planning and Development Cell, however, confronted Khan last week with evidence that he made money both from his transfers to other countries and from improper deals with suppliers to Pakistan’s own nuclear program, a senior Pakistani official said. They threatened to make that information public if Khan did not confess, which he did Friday after discussing his options with his lawyer, a former law minister, the official said (Washington Post).  

“We don’t know what kind of deal was struck, and we may not know for a while,” a Bush administration official said. “With Pakistan, sometimes you never know,” the official said (David Rohde, New York Times, Feb. 5).

Meanwhile, the news of the involvement by Khan and possibly other Pakistani nuclear scientists in nuclear transfers has led to an increased interest in a suspected attempt by Iraq prior to the 1991 Gulf War to purchase nuclear weapons designs, according to the Washington Post.

An offer by Khan to sell the designs was described in a 1990 memo by the Iraqi Mukhabarat intelligence service, the Post reported. According to a U.N.-translated version of the memo, obtained by the Institute for Science and International Security and detailed in a report released yesterday, a man identified as Malik relayed to Iraqi officials an offer from Khan to aid in producing enriched uranium and nuclear weapons.

ISIS President David Albright said the Iraqis were suspicious of the offer, but decided to seek samples from the man known as Malik. Those samples, however, were never delivered and the Gulf War essentially ended Iraq’s nuclear program (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, Feb. 5).

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