In February, Britain and the United States announced that they had uncovered
a worldwide nuclear-weapons sales organisation. Pakistani atom-bomb engineer
Abdul Qadeer Khan was alleged to be the mastermind of this network, to his
own vast financial benefit. The network had sourced machine tools for making
nuclear materials from as far afield as Dubai, Europe, South Africa and
Malaysia, and supplied foreign governments with bomb blueprints, parts and
complete centrifuges for making uranium. 'Axis of evil' members Iran, Libya
and North Korea were the known beneficiaries.
George Bush spoke of the need to prevent the worst WMD getting into the
hands of the worst leaders. But Khan is not to be found among the
orange-clad inmates of Guantanamo. Instead, after a brief confession on
Pakistani television, he was granted a pardon. He now enjoys all the perks
of a grandee and has a huge military escort wherever he goes.
The reason for Khan's immunity from Bush's 'war on terror' lies in his
position in Pakistani society, and Pakistan's position in the 'war'.
Originally an engineer at a Dutch uranium-enrichment plant, by the mid-1970s
Khan was back home trying to help his government catch up with India. By
1981 Pakistan's nuclear weapons factories bore Khan's name. His moment of
glory came in 1998 when India's nuclear weapons test explosions were rapidly
followed by Pakistan's. In Pakistan, Khan is a national hero, a saviour of
the nation from Indian aggression. The closest equivalent in Britain might
be Colin Mitchell, designer of the Spitfire.
Western intelligence has long suspected Iran and North Korea of trading in
nuclear supplies with Pakistan. Then, last summer, a ship was intercepted on
its way to Libya with parts for an atom-bomb factory. Many believe it was a
sting set up by the US and an 'in from the cold' Libya. Khan was caught
red-handed.
Both President Musharraf and Khan have maintained that the export drive was
entirely Khan's own doing and was neither known of nor approved by any of
Pakistan's leaders. This is 'verging on the preposterous' according to the
Monterrey Institute. Another version of events is that the US used the
public outing of Khan to make up for its intelligence failures in Iraq.
Whatever the truth, Musharraf is a key ally of the US in the war on terror,
and is not subject to the same intensity of criticism as Iran, or Saddam.
Meanwhile, analysts are concerned that other nations, beyond the infamous
trio of Libya, Iran and North Korea, may still be engaged in nuclear
smuggling.
