Pardon for scientist who sold atom bomb secrets

[seemslikeadream]

By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore and Robin Gedye

Pakistan is likely to pardon without trial the father of the country's atomic bomb even though he has confessed to selling nuclear technology to rogue states, a senior government official told the Telegraph yesterday.

Another promised international indignation in the event of pardon. "He is the world's biggest criminal, involved for 27 years in selling nuclear technology. If you let him off with a slap on the wrist, then what and of message are you sending to others?" he said.

Mr. Khan has let it be known that he is prepared to blow the whistle on the army's involvement. A cabinet minister revealed that Mr. Khan's daughter, a British citizen, had traveled to London with papers that could incriminate generals and other Pakistani leaders, including the former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/04/wpak04.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/04/ixnewstop.html

[varun]

1. He is also guilty...

..of stealing nuclear technology from the Netherlands.

But he is next to God in Pakistan. I dont think he will be punished.

[seemslikeadream]

5. German in spotlight over 'Islamic bomb'

Hamburg - A German businessman who allegedly helped Pakistan build its so-called Islamic bomb has denied in the media that he had ever visited Iran to assist its nuclear research and had called the claims "a bad joke".

The 80-year-old physicist was quoted Wednesday by the newspaper Sueddeutshe Zeitung as saying, "I can't understand where this suspicion comes from." He has been prosecuted in the past over allegations that he supplied disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan with key technology, but was acquitted.

The newspaper named him only as Otto H., adding that western intelligence services had identified him as the German middleman who was known to his Pakistani customers as "Brummer".

The paper said the IAEA had a list of three names involved in the Iran trade: H. and L. were the men accused of links to Qadeer Khan.

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=52&story_id=4351

[seasat]

2. This is an interesting line.

Mr. Khan has let it be known that he is prepared to blow the whistle on the army's involvement.

Now where did the current dictator Musharraf of Pakistan come from? Oh Yeah, he was a general in the Pakistani Army. You'd better bet they'll pardon him.

[cosmicdot]

3. were any of the never convicted BCCI investors involved in any of this?

which included American investors??

just asking


related story: "Experts Worry Terrorists Have Nuke Plans"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=346076


Pakistan's Nuclear Hero Defended

(or, perhaps better titled: "was the United States totally clueless while a Pakistani scientist supplied nuclear technology to Iran and North Korea")


By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 3, 2004; 10:18 AM


Online commentators in Pakistan are rallying to the defense of the
country's leading nuclear scientists, one of whom has confessed to
selling weapons technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya.

Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, is
reportedly under house arrest in connection with a U.S.-backed
investigation into the lucrative black market in nuclear weapons
technology. Correspondents John Lancaster and Kamran Khan (no
relation to the physicist) report in today's Washington Post that
Khan has signed a 12-page confession. Khan has also reportedly told
investigators that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf knew about
his efforts to help North Korea's nuclear program.

The revelation will likely stoke an already intense debate. While
many Pakistanis defend Khan as a national hero, others in the South
Asian media see Khan, a flamboyant self-promoter, as the scapegoat of Musharraf and the permissive nonproliferation policies of the U.S.
government.

~snip~

Pakistan proceeded to spend some $10 billion developing a nuclear
arsenal, say the editors of the Times of India. The money came from
Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and the
depositors of the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International), which became notorious in the early 1990s for myriad criminal activities. The bank, say the editors of the Times of India, was founded by a Pakistani and operated freely in the Persian Gulf oil
enclave of Dubai. It is inconceivable, they argue, that Western
intelligence agencies didn't know all about this black market.

~snip~


"Is it possible that the scientists involved in State-
managed clandestine deals overreached the arrangement of
cooperation?" "If so, was it a planned move governments] to overlook this extended relationship?" They answer that question with another question: "Or was the Pakistan government unable to question the illegitimate affairs within secret arrangements that involved a scientist like Khan?"

In other words, was the United States totally clueless while a
Pakistani scientist supplied nuclear technology to Iran and North
Korea?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8262-2004Feb3.html



George W. Bush and partners receive more than $2 million of Harken
Energy stock in exchange for a failing oil well operation, which had lost $400,000 in the prior six months. After Bush joined Harken, the largest stock position and a seat on its board were acquired by
Harvard Management Company. The Harken board gave Bush $600,000 worth of the company's publicly traded stock, plus a seat on the board plus a consultancy that paid him up to $120,000 a year. When Harken runs short of cash it hooks up with investment banker Jackson Stephens of Little Rock, Arkansas, who arranges a $25 million stock purchase by Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS). Sheik Abdullah Bakhsh, who joins the board as a part of the deal, is connected to the infamous BCCI.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0203/S00035.htm

[seemslikeadream]

4. Experts: Leaks from Pakistan's nuke program could have

extended to terror group.

Burt Herman

Al-Qaida apparently has shown interest in acquiring nuclear technology. Two Pakistani nuclear scientists were detained in late 2001 after meeting Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan on suspicion of giving away secrets, but they were later released without being charged. The military, which controlled the weapons program, also is known to have elements who sympathize with the Taliban and bin Laden.

The strongest known link between Pakistani scientists and terrorists were the 2001 arrests Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood and Abdul Majid, who worked for Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission until retiring in 1999. The commission, together with Khan's lab worked on the nuclear weapons program.

Mahmood's son told the AP in December 2002 that his father - a deeply conservative Muslim who sympathized with the Taliban - met bin Laden several times between 2000 and July 2001 and the al-Qaida leader asked how to make nuclear bombs.

The scientists were cleared of all charges and released in December 2001.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/04/international0329EST0452.DTL