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CIA chief Tenet "debriefs" Dr Khan?
2004-02-26
A top US intelligence official interrogated Dr A. Q. Khan during his recent visit to Islamabad early this month to verify the authenticity of the information supplied by Pakistan to the US on nuclear proliferation, reliable sources told The Nation Tuesday. The US embassy neither denied nor confirmed the information, but Pakistani officials dismissed it summarily.
"Lies! All li.., er, what was that question again?"
George Tenet, the CIA chief, had a debriefing session with Dr Khan on February 12 in Islamabad, sources said. The debriefing session was arranged following Bush administration’s assertion to have a direct contact with Dr Khan. Within 48 hours after the debriefing session Dr Khan went through a, what a Pakistani spokesman termed “routine,” medical check-up on February 14 for cardiac stress.
That may have been Khan’s reported "heart attack". Must have been one hell of a debriefing George laid on him.
A US embassy spokesman neither denied nor confirmed the debriefing session between Khan and Tenet. “I cannot confirm this information,” the spokesman said when approached by phone for his comments. Asked specifically if he would deny that Tenet had interviewed Khan he said he would not confirm.
"I can say no more"
"I can neither confirm nor deny that Mr. Tenet slapped the livin' spit outta the greasy little sonofabitch."
Unlike US embassy spokesman, Shaukat Sultan, the Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) was quick to deny this report. “Absurd,” Sultan curtly said when contacted to seek his side of the story. Saying there is nothing of this sort (meeting between Khan and Tenet) Sultan said the cooperation about investigation into nuclear proliferation was at the government-to-government level. He said Pakistan was providing information only to International Atomic Energy Agency.
"Just this morning, we sent them a copy of the Rawalpindi phone book, in fact..."
However, the US embassy spokesman answering a question whether Islamabad was cooperating well to meet the expectations of Washington said consultations, meetings and dialogues were going on. “This is an ongoing process,” he said. Asked if the investigations into worldwide nuclear proliferation had come to a conclusion, he said: “It’s far from over. Everyone is continuing to learn more.”
"It ain’t over till we say it’s over"
Well-placed diplomatic sources confirmed to The Nation that Musharraf regime had turned over tons of information acquired from the scientists to the United States. “It will take several months to go through the results of the investigations and the contents of the statements given by Dr Khan, and his Pakistani and foreign associates,” sources said. The data and documents were made available to the CIA officials to allay US apprehensions that Islamabad might not be telling the whole truth. “The US wanted to double-check the information provided by Pakistan,” diplomatic sources said. In addition to answering CIA chief’s questions this month, Dr Khan was also quizzed by a few more US officials in earlier sessions as well.
Cross-checking what they tell us against what we already know. Since Pakistan doesn’t know what we know, they’ll be having a lot of sleepless nights.
General Musharraf had announced pardon for Dr Khan on February 5 proclaiming that he would stand between the Dr Khan and the international community.
Two days later, February 7, US Secretary of State made a telephone call to Musharraf.
"Perv, are you nutz? Think about what you just said. You don't want Rummy to come over there and talk to you, do you?
On February 9, the Foreign Office issued statement saying Dr Khan was not given a blanket pardon.
Must have been one hell of a phone call.
The FO spokesman said the pardon was granted for what Dr Khan had confessed meaning if there was information about Dr Khan’s involvement in anymore proliferation activity, the pardon would be withdrawn.
He had better have spilled his guts.
“The US officials are sifting through the statements and information supplied by Islamabad to establish whether Khan had provided nuclear technology only to Iran, Libya, and North Korea or there are other countries too,” sources claimed. The US investigation team, it was learnt, was trying to locate a link between Dubai-based firms, being accused of trading nuclear equipment, and front companies set up by Saddam Hussain and one Asian country to acquire centrifuges.
But, I thought Sammy had turned Khan’s offer to sell him nuclear technology down? Wonder if the name of that "Asian" country begins with the letter "M"?
Dismissing the common perception in Pakistan that the whole affair was timed to force Islamabad rollback its nuclear programme, the diplomatic sources said, “The American objective is to have complete information about the so-called underworld of nuclear proliferators and uproot their network once for all.” The sources claimed that the US was most concerned about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the information from Pakistan would help improve the existing system that failed to stop nuclear proliferation.
Posted by:Steve

#1  Hard to believe that Tenet would be "turning the screws" so to speak.

But, I can see him standing in the corner for some added benefit.
Posted by: Daniel King   2004-2-26 1:27:44 PM  

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