Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, claims a15,000-word article in a forthcoming issue of the US magazine Atlantic Monthly, is living in isolation with his European wife, surrounded by guards and security agents, cut off from contact with the outside world, not allowed to read the newspapers or watch television, let alone to use the telephone or the Internet, and held beyond the reach of even the intelligence services of the United States.The article, the first of two by writer William Langewiesche, which is entitled âThe Wrath of Khanâ, states that Dr Khan is seen as the nationâs saviour and it is ânecessary to recognise that his largesse (to others) was not merely a matter of self-aggrandisement. He has been portrayed in the West as a twisted character, an evil scientist, a purveyor of death. He had certainly lost perspective on himself. But the truth is that he was a good husband and father and friend, and he gave large gifts because in essence he was an openhearted and charitable man.â
The article calls Dr Khan âan enigmaâ. He is said to have âaged considerably, and has lost weight and sickened, but apparently he is not being poisoned.â He has high blood pressure and is also âdeeply despondent,â convinced that he served his nation honourably, and that even as he transferred its nuclear secrets to other countries, âhe was acting on behalf of Pakistan, and with the complicity of its military rulers.â He sleeps poorly at night. Last spring he managed to slip a note out to one of his former lieutenants. It was a scribbled lament in which he asked about General Musharraf, âWhy is this boy doing this to me?â