Pakistan ordered AQ Khan to give out nuke secrets

With allies like these, who needs enemies. Times of India via Jihad Watch

WASHINGTON: An angry, humiliated, and wounded A.Q.Khan has finally made public and official what has long been suspected: his nuclear proliferation activities that included exchanging and passing blue-prints and equipment to China, Iran, North Korea, and Libya was done at the behest of the Pakistani government and military, and he was forced to take the rap for it.

''The bastards first used us and are now playing dirty games with us,'' Khan writes about the Pakistani leadership in a December 2003 letter to his wife Henny that has finally been made public by an interlocutor. ''Darling, if the government plays any mischief with me take a tough stand,'' he tells his wife, adding, ''They might try to get rid of me to cover up all the things they got done by me.''

But Henny was unable to play hardball because Khan had also sent copies of that letter to his daughter Dina in London, and to his niece Kausar Khan in Amsterdam through his brother, a Pakistan Airlines executive. Pakistani intelligence agencies got wind of it and threatened the well-being of the family, forcing him to recant and publicly take the blame for the proliferation activities in a humiliating television spectacle engineered by then military ruler Pervez Musharraf

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Pakistani court lifts restrictions on nuclear proliferation ring leader AQ Khan

Pakistani courts have lifted the police restrictions on AQ Khan, the leader of a nuclear proliferation ring that stretched from Libya to North Korea. The ring was exposed in 2004 and Pakistani authorities quickly arrested AQ Khan and placed him under house arrest. Pakistan did not allow any Western intelligence agents to interview Khan since he was place under house arrest.

Who needs enemies when you friends like Pakistan? Telegraph

His lawyer said a court had ordered the government to lift police restrictions on the scientist who is alleged to have spread nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

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Pakistan Silences Nuke Scientists about Proliferation

What does AQ Khan know about the nuclear proliferation ring that the Pakistan governemtn is so afraid of?Voice of America

A Pakistani court has upheld the detention of nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and barred him from ever speaking about nuclear proliferation. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Islamabad that government lawyers say the ruling silencing the confessed nuclear proliferator is in the best interests of Pakistan.

After admitting in 2004 that he alone was responsible for transmitting nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, A.Q. Khan disappeared from public view and was confined to his home in Islamabad.

Beginning in May, the founder of the country's nuclear program granted a string of media interviews in which he rejected his confession and claimed top army officials knew about illegal nuclear technology sales to North Korea.

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But Deputy Attorney General Raja Abdul Rehman said the Islamabad High Court has ruled that maintaining a tight ring of security around Khan and barring him from ever discussing nuclear proliferation is in the best interest of the country.

"Consider the national importance of this issue: the services rendered by Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the pardon granted to him by the president and his assurance that the proliferation issue will be a closed chapter for all time to come," he said.

The ruling explicitly forbids Khan from discussing proliferation with the news media or even his own family.

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Pakistan Provided Centrifuges to N. Korea

Another reason why Pakistan was/is not our ally. Fox News

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — North Korea received centrifuges from Pakistan in a 2000 shipment supervised by the army during the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said Friday.

Khan told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the uranium enrichment equipment was sent from Pakistan in a North Korean plane which was loaded under the supervision of Pakistani security officials.

His claims contradict his 2004 confession that he was solely responsible for spreading nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya — and Pakistan's repeated denials its army or government knew about Khan's nuclear proliferation activities.

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Khan said the army had "complete knowledge" of the shipment of used P-1 centrifuges to North Korea and that it must have been sent with the consent of Musharraf, the then-army chief who took power in a 1999 coup.

"It was a North Korean plane, and the army had complete knowledge about it and the equipment," Khan said. "It must have gone with his (Musharraf's) consent."

Khan's allegations, reported earlier Friday by the Japanese news agency, Kyodo, are his most controversial yet and could prove deeply embarrassing for both the army and Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror.

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House Arrest Lifted For AQ Khan?

Thats the question du jour. AQ Khan was allowed to go to a friends funeral, and is apparently allowed to see 8 friends of his and his daughter regularly. For those of you who don't know who AQ Khan is, he is the Father of Pakistan's nuclear power and was also responsible for proliferating nuclear tech to just about anyone who would listen (ie Iran, Libya, North Korea and who knows who else).

After the revealation of AQ Khan's proliferation ring, the Pakistani government (Musharraf) put him under house arrest and did not allow any foreign agencies to interview him. But apparently this guy is out and about now.

Good timing too with the creation of Talistan. I bet those guys are interested in talking to AQ Khan if they haven't already. BBC

The family of disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan say it is not clear whether his de facto house arrest has been permanently relaxed.

On Wednesday Dr Khan was allowed to make a rare trip from his Islamabad home to Pakistan's Academy of Sciences.

His wife, Henny, told the BBC her husband went to pay his respects after the death of a colleague.

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Henny Khan told the BBC her husband was very happy to be out and about.

"But we don't know whether this was just a one-time relaxation or a change in the government's policy. Though he was very careful that nobody knows about the visit."

Dr Khan himself headed the academy for six years.

Officials there said they were surprised to find him amongst them.

"He just came and had a cup of tea with me," the academy's treasury secretary, Dr Misbahuddin Shami, told the BBC.

Mrs Khan said her husband was now allowed to see seven or eight friends and his daughter on a regular basis.

Pakistan's military was unable to clarify whether the relaxation of the terms of the scientist's detention was permanent.

A spokesman said the interior or foreign ministries should be contacted.

However, Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah said his ministry neither imposed the restrictions nor lifted any.

Many believe the relaxation could be the result of the change in government in Pakistan, where a civilian administration took power following elections earlier this year.

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