|
US hopes Qadeer Khan pardon yields results
He is a black-market profiteer who worked to help Iran and North Korea acquire the nuclear weapons secrets that President Bush said makes them part of an "axis of evil." Yet when mad scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan received a public pardon Thursday from Pakistanâs leader, there was nary a murmur of protest -- in fact there was praise -- from American officials. To weapons inspector David Kay and others, it was an outrage. "I can think of no one who deserves less to be pardoned," said Kay, former head of a U.S. team that searched for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He said Khan was "running essentially a Samâs Club" of weapons technology. Yet others say the public response may mask U.S. officialsâ real motivation.
What they are hoping, according to American officials speaking on condition of anonymity, is that Khanâs pardon becomes a plea bargain of sorts, with Pakistan trading leniency in exchange for Khanâs information about the still-at-large members of the worldwide nuclear black market. "We could beat our chests and be outraged," said Robert Oakley, a former ambassador to Pakistan who defended the Bush administrationâs low key response. "The most important thing is to get as much information possible as to where the links (to accomplices) were," Oakley said. "We have to make sure it doesnât happen again."
More than anything, the U.S. response shows just how solicitous American officials remain toward Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, that theyâre leery of any public criticism lest it destabilize this key ally in the war on terrorism. Any push by Musharraf for a trial of Khan could have led to a political showdown with Islamist and opposition groups who regard the scientist as a hero for founding Pakistanâs nuclear weapons program. Above all else, U.S. officials often say that if Musharraf were to be toppled, the alternatives -- in a country with strong nationalistic sentiment, powerful currents of Islamic extremism and nuclear weapons -- could only prove worse. So for now, U.S. officials seem willing to publicly accept Musharrafâs assurances that he will prevent further proliferation of nuclear secrets, even though some critics believe Pakistani military or intelligence officials might have helped Khan.
At the United Nations in New York, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he would talk to Musharraf by telephone over the weekend to make sure "there was no possibility" that remnants of the Khan network would survive. Powell did not criticize the president for pardoning the scientist but instead registered understanding. "He felt it was important for him to do," Powell said. Similarly, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, at a separate news conference, said, "Obviously, it is a difficult situation he has to deal with."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher credited Pakistani authorities with pursuing the investigation seriously ever since Iranian officials told U.N. nuclear experts more than two months ago about the leakage of secrets. "We think that Pakistan is taking serious efforts to end the activities of a dangerous network," Boucher said. Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "This is not about punishment. ... The Pakistanis have to use the most effective techniques to cut off this proliferation. There are others involved."
CIA Director George Tenet said Thursday that Khanâs network "was shaving years off the nuclear weapons development timelines of several states, including Libya" and "offering its wares to countries like North Korea and Iran." In the case of North Korea, however, Khan is believed to have begun providing sensitive technology only well after the country had developed the capability to produce plutonium-based nuclear bombs.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-02-07 |
