You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
India-Pakistan
Nuclear scientist says he confessed to 'save' Pakistan
2008-04-07
Detained Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said he took the blame four years ago for passing atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in order to "save his country".
Guess he heard we wuz onto him ...
Khan, who has been under effective house arrest since confessing on television in 2004 to running a proliferation network, added that the country's new government had not yet contacted him about his possible release. Khan was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf after his confession but has remained in detention. Musharraf denied any state involvement in Khan's activities but has rejected international requests to quiz the scientist.

"I saved the country for the first time when I made Pakistan a nuclear nation and saved it again when I confessed and took the whole blame on myself," Khan told AFP in a telephone interview from his Islamabad villa late Sunday.

Khan is hailed as a hero by many Pakistanis for transforming the country into the Islamic world's first nuclear power. Pakistan carried out nuclear tests in 1998 in response to detonations by neighbouring India. "Even Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain (former prime minister) and Mushahid Hussain (a senator from the party that backs Musharraf) said I saved Pakistan by accepting the whole blame myself," he added.

Members of the new government have indicated that they may consider freeing Khan as they review Musharraf's policies over the past nine years and seek to roll back his powers.

But Khan said he had had no contact with the new administration. "No government official has so far contacted me about my release nor would I contact any of them to do so," Khan said. "You had better ask this question of the government."

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Monday he favoured lifting restrictions on Khan. "Yes, I don't want to see his movement restricted," Qureshi said in an interview with local Dawn television. "He is a Pakistani, a respected Pakistani, I think that he should be allowed to see his friends and I think that he should be allowed to go for a drive," the minister said.
He should also be allowed to fly. I can think of a couple places he might go ...
"I think he should be allowed to go and have a meal at a restaurant, I see no reason why he should be deprived of that, on the other hand we also have to be concerned about his security and health."

Khan was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006 and was briefly hospitalised last month with complications. "I have faith in Allah and believe that wisdom is hidden in everything. I believe in positive thinking and get comfort by reading the Holy Koran during my detention," he said.
Posted by:john frum

#3  ION NUKIES, TOPIX > NORTH KOREA: SOUTH KOREAN LEADER RUNNING THE RISK OF [Inter-Korean][Nuclear] WAR. Interesting considering the on-going Net, etc. debate over NOKOR's actual nuke capability, or lack thereof???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-04-07 23:31  

#2  Admirable, but IMO the USA will invade Paki only to prevent OSAMA +AQ, etc. from getting their hands on NUKES-WMDS + destabilizing Russ-China/Asia. TO SAVE THEIR WEAKENING REGIONAL-GLOBAL JIHAD, OSAMA + ISLAMISTS RIGHT NOW NEED BOTH A NUCLEAR IRAN + similar OUTSIDE/EXTERNAL ARSENALS [Islamist NucBloc?]in case Iran finally gets invaded.

Lest we fergit, iff and when the US-West is defeated or destroyed, and under OWG-SWO/CWO, the honeymoon will be over between RIGHTIST FASCIST + LEFTCOMMUNIST, COMMUNIST/SOCIALIST + ISLAMIST, + SHIA + SUNNI, etc. As argued or inferred long ago, WOT > WAR FOR OWG-NWO, etc. - DEFEATING OR DESTROYING THE US IN THE NAME OF OWG-NWO = "GLOBALISM" IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-04-07 23:28  

#1  I took one for the team sez the Doc. Also appears to have very few self esteem issues...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-04-07 17:14  

00:00