Post by wheelspinner on Feb 7, 2009 18:07:24 GMT -5
Now here is someone who really did deal with the USA's enemies, and in a big way. And what did he get? Five years home detention with barely a murmur of an objection from the Bush Administration. Where was all the hairy-chested Guantanomo-based testosterone when it came to somebody who was proven to have sought to do the US real harm?
When they can look the other way while this goes on, it only makes supporters of the Guantanomo travesty look even more idiotic.
Pakistan frees nuclear smuggler and disgraced scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan
Zahid Hussain | February 07, 2009
Article from: Times Online
DISGRACED Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has been freed after spending five years under house arrest for selling atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in the world's biggest nuclear proliferation scandal.
A court declared Khan, 72, a free man in a move that has worried the US and its allies, who have long sought to question him and believe that his international nuclear black market is still active.
President Barack Obama wants assurances from Pakistan that Khan will not be involved in any proliferation activities, the White House said.
And US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meanwhile said she was ``very much concerned''.
Sardar Mohammad Aslam, Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court, ruled that Khan's detention was unlawful after a closed-door hearing on a petition filed by the scientist, which was not challenged by the Government.
"It's a matter of joy. The judgment, by the grace of Allah, is good," Khan said outside his villa in Islamabad, soon after news of the ruling broke. "I am finally vindicated."
The man hailed as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb said that he owed his freedom to the support of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
He declined to comment on the charges that as head of Pakistan's main nuclear facility he had masteminded a vast clandestine nuclear black-market network with tentacles spread over three continents. "I don't want to discuss the past," he said.
When Pakistan's successful nuclear test in May 1998 created the world's seventh nuclear power, he was hailed as a national hero. But he was dismissed in 2002 - reportedly under pressure from the US - as Western intelligence agencies began to expose his network.
Their suspicions were aroused in 1995 after UN weapons inspectors discovered documents describing an offer made to Baghdad before the 1990-91 Gulf war. According to their reports Khan had offered Saddam Hussein help to establish a uranium enrichment plant and had visited Iraq many times.
In 2004 Khan admitted to having traded in bomb designs and nuclear technology, although he later backtracked on his confession. General Musharraf, the President at the time, pardoned him but placed him under detention in his house where he has lived in virtual isolation since.
During the past year his detention had been relaxed gradually and he had been allowed to meet friends.
He gave a series of interviews after a new Government came to power last March but was barred from speaking to reporters by a July court ruling.
It was unclear whether his movements or activities would remain restricted. Barriers had been removed from the front of his house but security officials were still barring entry.
"As far as I have been told, I will go anywhere in Pakistan without any restrictions and I will get whatever security that I had with me previously," he said. "If I want to travel abroad, I will have to seek permission from the Government."
Pakistani officials say that they consider the case closed, and have passed all relevant information about Khan's nuclear proliferation to concerned countries. US and international nuclear experts still want to question him.
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25020080-601,00.html
When they can look the other way while this goes on, it only makes supporters of the Guantanomo travesty look even more idiotic.
Pakistan frees nuclear smuggler and disgraced scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan
Zahid Hussain | February 07, 2009
Article from: Times Online
DISGRACED Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has been freed after spending five years under house arrest for selling atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in the world's biggest nuclear proliferation scandal.
A court declared Khan, 72, a free man in a move that has worried the US and its allies, who have long sought to question him and believe that his international nuclear black market is still active.
President Barack Obama wants assurances from Pakistan that Khan will not be involved in any proliferation activities, the White House said.
And US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meanwhile said she was ``very much concerned''.
Sardar Mohammad Aslam, Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court, ruled that Khan's detention was unlawful after a closed-door hearing on a petition filed by the scientist, which was not challenged by the Government.
"It's a matter of joy. The judgment, by the grace of Allah, is good," Khan said outside his villa in Islamabad, soon after news of the ruling broke. "I am finally vindicated."
The man hailed as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb said that he owed his freedom to the support of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
He declined to comment on the charges that as head of Pakistan's main nuclear facility he had masteminded a vast clandestine nuclear black-market network with tentacles spread over three continents. "I don't want to discuss the past," he said.
When Pakistan's successful nuclear test in May 1998 created the world's seventh nuclear power, he was hailed as a national hero. But he was dismissed in 2002 - reportedly under pressure from the US - as Western intelligence agencies began to expose his network.
Their suspicions were aroused in 1995 after UN weapons inspectors discovered documents describing an offer made to Baghdad before the 1990-91 Gulf war. According to their reports Khan had offered Saddam Hussein help to establish a uranium enrichment plant and had visited Iraq many times.
In 2004 Khan admitted to having traded in bomb designs and nuclear technology, although he later backtracked on his confession. General Musharraf, the President at the time, pardoned him but placed him under detention in his house where he has lived in virtual isolation since.
During the past year his detention had been relaxed gradually and he had been allowed to meet friends.
He gave a series of interviews after a new Government came to power last March but was barred from speaking to reporters by a July court ruling.
It was unclear whether his movements or activities would remain restricted. Barriers had been removed from the front of his house but security officials were still barring entry.
"As far as I have been told, I will go anywhere in Pakistan without any restrictions and I will get whatever security that I had with me previously," he said. "If I want to travel abroad, I will have to seek permission from the Government."
Pakistani officials say that they consider the case closed, and have passed all relevant information about Khan's nuclear proliferation to concerned countries. US and international nuclear experts still want to question him.
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25020080-601,00.html
