Report: Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan aided Iran
Evidence released this week shows his nuclear-secrets network may still be active.
from the May 4, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
But in a statement Wednesday in London, Mr. Chipman of IISS, said that "there are still too many unanswered questions about the role Pakistani technology played in aiding nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea for other countries to conclude that Pakistan has done all it can to account for Khan's activities."
Pakistan maintains that the results of its investigation were shared with the relevant American and international authorities. And some observers argue that, because Pakistan is not a signatory to the Nonproliferation Treaty, it has no obligation to produce Khan or his confession.
"Neither Khan nor Pakistan has broken any international laws," says Shireen Mazari, the director-general of the Institute for Strategic Studies, a government-funded think tank in Islamabad. "All the cooperation we've given has been voluntary."
A.Q. Khan timeline
1936 – Khan is born in Bhopal, India.
1952 – Immigrates to newly founded Pakistan.
1975 – Khan suddenly leaves his job at a European nuclear-research consortium and travels to Pakistan with copies of blueprints for centrifuges and other nuclear components.
Early 1990s – Begins meetings with regimes such as Syria, North Korea, and Libya.
1994 – Khan establishes contact with the Iranians, who buy centrifuges and blueprints.
1998 – Pakistan detonates five underground nuclear bombs.
Oct. 4, 2003 – Italian coast guard seizure of bomb equipment implicates Khan.
Feb. 4, 2004 – In his last public appearance, Khan confesses to running a smuggling ring.
Source: The Carnegie Endowment
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