from the LA Times story:
Pakistan’s nuclear hero linked to ‘evil axis’ states
Experts say Abdul Qadeer Khan may have helped North Korea, Iraq and Iran develop nuclear weapons
UNITED NATIONS - If one man sits at the nuclear fulcrum of the three countries President George W. Bush calls the ‘axis of evil’, it may well be Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.
The 66-year-old metallurgist is considered the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb.
He is a national hero at home, where hospitals bear his name and children sing his praises. But US and other Western officials do not.
They say Dr Khan is the only scientist known to be linked to the alleged efforts of North Korea, Iraq and Iran to develop nuclear weapons.
‘If the international community had a proliferation most-wanted list, A. Q. Khan would be most wanted on the list,’ said Mr Robert Einhorn, who was assistant secretary of state for non-proliferation in the Clinton administration.
US intelligence has long known of Dr Khan’s activities.
But the extent of his ties to all three ‘axis’ nations became public only recently as North Korea admitted resuming its nuclear weapons effort, satellite photos showed that Iran may be conducting clandestine nuclear work and Dr Khan’s name appeared in a letter offering to ‘manufacture a nuclear weapon’ for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Pakistan denies giving nuclear assistance to other countries and insists that the scientist has done no wrong.
But under intense US pressure, President Pervez Musharraf abruptly removed him as head of nuclear weapons development two years ago.
However, experts doubt that a maverick scientist working alone could have engineered such sensitive deals with so many governments.
‘We know he’s been to North Korea at least 13 times, perhaps more,’ Mr Gaurav Kampani said of Dr Khan. Mr Kampani is a nuclear expert at the Centre for Non-proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California.
‘It’s obviously been sanctioned by institutions within the Pakistani government.’
Dr Khan has shrugged off the charges. Instead, he portrays himself as a scientist, a patriot - and a pacifist.
‘I built a weapon of peace, which seems hard to understand until you realise Pakistan’s nuclear capability is a deterrent to aggressors. There has not been a war in the last 30 years, and I don’t expect one in the future. The stakes are too high,’ he once said in an interview.
When he ran Pakistan’s bomb-building programme, he reported directly to the nation’s leader and had funds at his disposal. US officials say he owns several palatial residences.
In 1986, Pakistan and Iran signed a nuclear cooperation agreement after Dr Khan visited Bushehr, a nuclear power plant that Teheran is building with Russian help.
US officials say it was Dr Khan who initiated talks with the North Koreans in 1992 to obtain 10 to 12 medium-range Nodong ballistic missiles to help Pakistan boost its military profile against India. In April 1998, Pakistan test-fired a knockoff Nodong missile renamed the Ghauri I. A month later, North Koreans attended Pakistan’s first nuclear tests, say European diplomats.
In exchange for the missiles, US and other officials say, Pakistan gave North Korea designs for Dr Khan’s gas centrifuges and other assistance needed to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. --Los Angeles Times
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,164708,00.html
