The mysterious world of Pakistan's Dr Strangelove

[Wonk]

By Jan McGirk
07 February 2004

"The whole point of the doomsday machine is lost ... if you keep it a secret," ranted Dr Strangelove in Stanley Kubrick's dark, satirical film four decades ago. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the newly disgraced father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, seems to have taken this advice to heart, blithely distributing nuclear secrets and components over a period of many years to Iran, Libya and North Korea. But the full extent of his largesse and the full explanation for it remain matters of urgent doubt.

This week's televised humbling of Dr Khan transfixed Pakistani viewers in much the same way as the unveiling of the Hutton report gripped Britain. Like Hutton, it has left many people wondering precisely how much of the truth remains untold. Following weeks of rumours and speculation, Dr Khan admitted on Wednesday's evening news to decades of systematic leaking, right under the noses of MI6 and the CIA, not to mention Pakistan's own all-seeing military spies, the ISI (InterServices Intelligence Agency).

(snip)

After graduating from Karachi University, he moved to Europe for further studies. In the early 1970s, he found a job at a uranium enrichment plant in the Netherlands run by the British-Dutch-German consortium Urenco. In 1976, he left in a hurry for Pakistan.

He was subsequently convicted in absentia by a Dutch court of attempted espionage relating to Urenco's centrifuge blueprints and sentenced to four years in prison, only for the judgment to be overturned on appeal. Yet Dr Khan had returned to Pakistan with enough knowledge to set in motion what had hitherto been considered beyond the nation's reach: a nuclear weapons programme.

much more...
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=488765

[varun]

1. USA has also tries to "hush up" this matter...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/482667.cms

India, US disagree on Khan-Mush episode
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK< SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2004 09:06:25 PM >


WASHINGTON: The United States and India, despite their famed strategic partnership of late, are disagreeing publicly on Pakistan .
Abdul Qadeer Khan

While New Delhi says Pakistan's nuclear shenanigans exposed over the past few weeks are not the country's internal matter and needs international scrutiny and discussion, Washington is backing Islamabad in quickly putting a lid on the whole issue.


Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Friday that Washington's primary goal was containing proliferation and busting Khan and his network had met that goal.


As for accountability and pardoning issues , Powell asserted that it was a matter between Khan, who he pointed out is a Pakistani citizen, and his government....