Author: Matthew Pennington, Associated
Press
Publication: The Sacramento Bee
Date: January 28, 2004
The father of Pakistan's nuclear
weapons program and a top aide had black market contacts that supplied
sensitive technology to Iran and Libya, and both have failed to account
for funds in their bank accounts, intelligence officials told The Associated
Press on Wednesday.
Also, a former army chief told AP
the country's nuclear program relied on clandestine suppliers and scientists
may have shared those contacts.
Under suspicion are Dr. Abdul Qadeer
Khan, long revered as a national hero, and Dr. Mohammed Farooq, former
director-general of a key nuclear facility, said the officials, who spoke
on condition of anonymity.
"These are the two people who had
links and contacts with those who have been supplying many things to those
countries who wanted to become nuclear powers," one official said.
Another intelligence official said
Khan had acknowledged his contacts with black market dealers. Both Khan
and his former aide deny they profited or played any role in supplying
technology to either Iran or Libya.
Khan "says he is the victim of an
international conspiracy," the official said.
Critics accuse President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, of bowing to international
pressure by detaining and interrogating scientists who gave the Islamic
world its first nuclear weapon.
The United States said it has assurance
from Musharraf that Pakistan wasn't involved in the nuclear trade.
"President Musharraf has assured
us that, one, that was part of the past, and the past is the past. We've
made that very clear," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said
Wednesday.
Yet there is growing international
concern about a black market in nuclear technology.
Pakistan began its investigation
into its nuclear program and possible proliferation to Iran in late November
after admissions made by Tehran to the International Atomic Energy Agency,
the U.N. nuclear watchdog. Allegations since surfaced that Pakistani technology
also spread to Libya and North Korea.
The government acknowledges that
"one or two people" acted for personal profit but denies there was any
official authorization for sharing of information throughout Pakistan's
nuclear program, launched by Khan in the early 1970s.
Three scientists, including Farooq,
and four security officials from the Khan Research Laboratories - named
after Khan - are being detained. Khan is restricted to the capital Islamabad
and has made no public comment.
Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah
Khan Jamali will decide the fate of Khan and Farooq after the investigation
is completed "within days," one official said.
Separately, Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg,
Pakistan's army chief of staff from 1988-91, told AP that Pakistan's program
to develop a nuclear bomb relied on black market suppliers - and that Pakistani
scientists may have shared their contacts with Iran and Libya.
He complained, however, that the
inquiry unfairly treats top scientists like Khan as criminals.
"These scientists who are being
questioned today, the only crime you can say they committed was to tell
the Iranian friends or the Libyan friends 'Go to such and such a place
and the item is on sale. Buy it from them,'" Beg told AP on Wednesday.
Asked what should happen to scientists
who were found to have shared contacts, Beg said: "Nothing. They have committed
no crime."
He also acknowledged that some Pakistani
scientists may have accrued personal wealth but insisted they did not misuse
state funds.
"I'm sure that whatever money was
given to Dr. Khan and (other) people, no money was misused, because I was
a member of the Nuclear Command Authority and for three years the balance
sheet was presented and everything was accounted for," he said.
Beg denied allegations that he authorized
transfers of nuclear know- how between Pakistan and Iran during the late
1980s. He said Iran never made such a request, though the two countries
cooperated in the transfer of conventional weapons.
"There's no truth in it. It's an
absolute lie," said Beg, a strong advocate of a strategic alliance with
Iran during his tenure.
Beg said Pakistan was justified
in using clandestine means to create an atomic bomb after neighbor India
tested a nuclear device in 1974. "When you want to get this kind of technology
and know-how, you have to go to the market where these items are under
sale," which he said spread "all the way from the United States, Europe,
Russia."
"That's how we acquired our capability.
It was a known fact throughout the world. The Americans knew it," Beg said.
He added that other countries, including
Israel and India, had done the same. "It's a vicious circle and Pakistan
is being singled out," Beg said.
Associated Press writer Munir Ahmad
contributed to this report.
