Re: Once Hero and Now Zero
As for anyone thinking (or trying to promote the idea) that A Q Khan has turned zero from hero, I think that it is not A Q Khan but those who think him as zero are actually going through mental diarrhea. As for present government using him (as sacrifice) to save guard Pakistan from sanctions or other problems, it only shows that how important that person is and how badly some in west hate him. Regardless, no Pakistani government (or any person leading the government) can make him zero.
Fact is that, even the moment at that particular ‘face the press program’ Musharaf was sacrificing him for the country; Musharaf clearly mentioned that A Q Khan is hero of all Pakistanis, hero of Pakistan and his (Musharaf) hero too. Now, just imagine that how a person on one hand claiming that A Q Khan is his hero and at the same time putting blame on him regarding proliferation, a blame that even ‘an idiot’s guide on understanding things’ would say that it is impossible that one man can do that without the knowledge of the government.
Events that led to the situation, Musharaf statements calling him his hero and hero of the nation, circumstances that Pakistan was going through and circumstantial evidence at the time, all that existed then, an intelligent person can easily see that he was not made zero but rather double hero. Before taking blames of nuclear proliferation he was a hero once and then later after taking the blame of proliferation on his head, he became hero twice. Please read carefully what I wrote earlier as that would make things more clear.
Now regarding Pakistan nuclear program and AQ Khan:
I want to clear two things through this mail:
*Did AQ Khan steal the nuclear technology? Answer is ‘No’. *
What happened? From what I know, Russians were doing research on enriching uranium and western intelligence stole that technology and information associated with it. The technology came to the organization A Q Khan was working in Netherlands. The stolen papers were in German, a language A Q Khan knew very well. His employers gave him the task of translating the work and thus A Q Khan got the knowledge.
Later during the time of Z A Bhutto, Bhutto appealed Pakistanis working abroad to come to the country and help develop (it was general appeal). A Q Khan specialization is in metallurgist. Thus, A Q Khan applied for a job as metallurgist in Pakistan steel, without any response. Fortunately, he sent his CV to prime minister too and to his surprise, he got a call from Z A Bhutto. Prime minister was interested in nuclear weapon and that is where the story started. What I know, Z A Bhutto asked him if he can make Pakistan nuclear and answer was ‘Yes’. Bhutto then told him to forget metallurgist job in Pak steel and go for nuclear research for Pakistan. Initially his work was under PAC (Pakistan Atomic energy commission) but people in PAC (most of them are incompetent) started making trouble and A Q Khan decided to leave Pakistan. Bhutto acted and made his work independent of PAC with fund started coming directly from ministry of finance.
AQ Khan having the knowledge and method of enriching the Uranium plus having experience in working in western research, started his research in Pakistan. By 80s, Pakistan probably had the most advanced research in enriching uranium, probably more advanced then Russia and USA.
Now, I do not think that if a person learns something at work and then move to another job, he is doing anything wrong. I also do not think that if a person uses the knowledge he learned or gained in his first job into his next job, it is unethical or stolen knowledge. Thus, I do not think that A Q Khan did anything wrong or stolen anything for Pakistan. Only what he did was that what he learned in his earlier job, he used that for the benefit of Pakistan (in his next job).
As for who made Pakistan nuclear?
A Q Khan made Pakistan nuclear power in by mid 1980s.
From site: //fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/nuke/chron.htm
1986--Bob Woodward article in Washington Post cites alleged DIA report saying Pakistan `detonated a high explosive test device between Sept. 18 and Sept. 21 as part of its continuing efforts to build an implosion-type nuclear weapon;' says Pakistan has produced uranium enriched to a 93.5% level.
There are two ways to acquire Nuclear weapons. One is by using highly enriched Uranium (HEU) and other is by using weapon grade plutonium (spent Plutonium). Spent plutonium is a byproduct of fuel used in heavy water nuclear reactors.
To make nuclear device using weapon grade plutonium (spent plutonium) is not a big deal as the material comes automatically when country has heavy water nuclear reactor (for research or to produce electricity) and produced enough material. Thus, in most countries, International atomic energy agency (IAEA) monitors and keeps records of all spent plutonium. Pakistan do not build their own heavy water nuclear reactor and thus even if Pakistan built a nuclear device using spent plutonium, it is scientific achievement but not something to crow about.
For nuclear device using highly enriched material, one needs to first gain technology to enrich uranium (it is not found as byproduct neither one can buy them). The technology of enriching uranium and all enriched uranium that Pakistan has, Pakistan is indebted to A Q Khan.
At present, what I know, no country has nuclear weapon using enriched uranium except Pakistan. Actually, very few countries in the world have the technology to enrich uranium to the level where they can produce nuclear device. These selected countries are almost all rich western countries, Russia and Pakistan. Iran may have obtained it by now. It is also possible (as many in west claim) that Pakistan has transferred it to China and Korea in exchange of missile technology.
In May 1998, Pakistan did several nuclear explosions. Most of them were using enriched uranium (credit goes to A Q Khan) though Pakistan claims that they also did explosion of device using spent plutonium (credit goes to Pakistan atomic energy commission, PAC).
Well, PAC using spent plutonium to make nuclear device for Pakistan is much later development (mid to late 1990s), some 10 years later. The reason being, as I mentioned earlier, Pakistan was already nuclear by mid 1980s made by A Q Khan.
Estimate of Pakistan nuclear capability in 2001 was:
from: //fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/nuke/
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) estimates that Pakistan has built 24-48 HEU-based nuclear warheads, and Carnegie reports that they have produced 585-800 kg of HEU, enough for 30-55 weapons. Pakistan's nuclear warheads are based on an implosion design that uses a solid core of highly enriched uranium and requires an estimated 15-20 kg of material per warhead. According to Carnegie, Pakistan has also produced a small but unknown quantity of weapons grade plutonium, which is sufficient for an estimated 3-5 nuclear weapons.
Advice: Please do not write or say things that can only make a person exposed as ignorant as at present there are enough materials on the net for those who would like to know the truth. To start, here is a site that would give a lot of information on Pakistan nuclear capabilities and its background. Please read it carefully, try to understand and then only make comments.
Pakistan nuclear programs:
//fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/nuke/chron.htm
Pakistan nuclear test:
//fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/nuke/
Pakistan missiles:
//nuclearweaponarchive.org/Pakistan/PakArsenal.html
One should also read the above site on missiles and think (use some head). One would notice that most of our missiles technology is coming from KRL. KRL (Kahuta research laboratory) is the research laboratory that was doing work entirely under A Q Khan.
Other thing to note is that, Pakistan estimated capability of having nuclear device using spent plutonium was around 3 to 5. Now according to ‘an idiot guide to mathematics’ a country that has little spent plutonium, that is enough to make 3 to 5 nuclear device would not be able to do 7 nuclear test and regardless, wont be stupid to use them all in testing.
