Pakistan Scientist Recants Nuke Confession

In First Public Statement Since 2004, Khan Denies He Shared Bomb Technology With Iran, Libya, N. Korea

(CBS)  This story was written and reported by CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.

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Four years ago Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed to sharing nuclear secrets with some of the world's most notorious dictatorships.

Today he did a complete about-face.

“I was not involved in any nuclear proliferation,” he told CBS News by telephone from his home in Islamabad.

Dr Kahn has been under house arrest for the four years since his televised confession in 2004.

On February 4, that year, he appeared on Pakistani national television after a government investigation into his role in transferring nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

“I was confronted with the evidence," Khan said, "and I have voluntarily admitted that much of it is true and accurate.”

A metallurgical engineer, he had been awarded a gold medal by the Pakistani government after the country's successful nuclear tests in 1998.

However, he was disgraced after international evidence showed that he had stolen classified nuclear plans from the Dutch laboratory he had worked in, and shared them with other governments.

"It pains me to realize this in retrospect, that my entire lifetime achievement … could have been placed in serious jeopardy on account of my activities,” he said in his TV confession, "which were based in good faith, but on errors of judgment related to unauthorized proliferation activities.”

Today, though, Khan told CBS News that he had not written that confession, but merely read a document put in front of him “because of the promises that were made.”

Back in 2004, Khan was never charged with any crime, and was given a full pardon by the Pakistani government a day after his television appearance.

Asked today whether he had had anything to do with the Libyan or Iranian nuclear programs, Khan said no.

“I have never put my foot on Iranian soil, I never met any Iranians..” he said. "And I never put my foot on the Libyan soil.”

“When they asked my assistance, I told them, ‘Go to the people in Dubai who supplied us.’”

Khan is now claiming that the parts necessary for a nuclear program are available for the asking from open suppliers in Dubai - a claim that, he feels, absolves him from any responsibility.

It’s also a claim that is contradicted by solid evidence collected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the Pakistani, U.S. and Dutch governments.

In fact, the IAEA has been anxious to talk to Khan in order to understand better how nuclear technology proliferated during the early 1990s, and who was involved.

However, Khan - although he’s made a decision to talk to the media - says he won’t talk to the IAEA.

“I haven’t violated any international laws. Why should I talk to them?”

Khan has re-emerged in public defiantly glib and with an apparently tenuous grip on reality.

According to the man known as the Father of the Islamic Bomb, we shouldn’t worry that Iran has an active nuclear program, that there may be an arms race shaping up in the Arab world, or that India now has a large nuclear arsenal. Deterrence will keep us all safe.

“They have got very old civilizations. They are not fanatics as people try to project them," he said. "India knows it can be turned into charcoal - and Iran knows very well if they do any mischief … they could be turned into charcoal, too."

Asked by CBS News whether he had any regrets that his grandchildren would now grow up in a world facing a serious risk of nuclear weapons proliferation, Khan said, “Not at all.”

[wolf563]

REMOVE IRAN FROM ALL INTERNATIONAL TREATIES . MAKE THEM PAY THE PRICE FOR THIER DEFIANCE TO THE WORLD BODY . THEY MUST BE PUT IN THIER PLACE FOR THIER DEFIANCE OR THEY WILL FEEL THAT KNOW ONE CAN STOP THEM . THE NUCLEAR MATERIAL THEY HAVE NOW IS NOT ENOUGH TO START A WAR AND BACK IT UP. THEY ONLY NEED A FEW MORE MONTHS TO FINNISH AND TEST ALL THAT THEY HAVE DONE WITH ENOUGH BOMBS LEFT TO DEFEND WITH . THE FIRST TEST WILL BE SMALL ENOUGH TO MIMIC AN EARTHQUAKE IN THE MOUNTAIN REGIONS AND WITHIN DAYS OF THAT TEST IRAN WILL DESTROY COASTAL MEDITERAINIAN CITIES .

[toolmangler-2009]

Black market nukes sold openly in Dubai? Doesn''t Bushy_baby and Dickless Cheney own property in Dubia

[downsteamjim]

Hey Incognito & alphaaa10: You may have lost Saddam and the Taliban no longer run Afghanistan, but cheer up you still have heroes in North Korea, Burma, and Iran to look up to.

[ajaxtheleast]

Even after BC''s BJ and GB''s WMD''s
and Blair and Olmert and the Italian
crook and others, some still find it hard
to believe that an accuser could be telling
us the truth in saying that a leader of a
country has told. .OMIGOSH! . .LIES!?

[incog-nito]

Let''s see: Pakistan is full of radical Islamists, harbors Bin Laden in its territories, and sells its nuclear weapon technology to rogue nations, and somehow is our ally in the War on Terror. Iraq did not threaten the U.S., did not sell its nuclear technology to anyone (because it didnt'' have any), and was not the culprit for 9/11, but somehow was an "imminent" danger to the U.S and thus attacked and occupied. Go figure.

[alphaa10-2009]

When asked by CBS News whether he had any regrets that his grandchildren would now grow up in a world facing a serious risk of nuclear weapons proliferation, Khan said, %u201CNot at all.%u201D
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Now that it is fashionable to regret the way Bush handled Pakistan, consider the parallels between Musharraf and Saddam...

Both maintained secret police agencies that matched the Gestapo for cruelty. Both aspired to be "populists" in the sense of broad popular support, yet routinely pitted one social class or religious group against another.

While claiming to represent the wishes of their people, both scourged every effort at democratic reforms.

Both defied the rule of law, establishing themselves as the ultimate authority.

One or both dictators were hailed by a president named Bush as staunch allies in the region.

Both dictators considering becoming a nuclear power, but Musharraf managed to do it-- all the while, under the fiercely uncomprehending scrutiny of George Bush.

After 911, congress told Bush to find bin Laden in Afghanistan. Demanding the aid of Pakistan, Bush pointedly did not demand Pakistan surrender its bombs. Nor did he seriously question Pakistan''''s nuclear transfers to other Islamic states of Iran, Libya, and Malasia. Or even those to North Korea.

Instead, he praised Musharraf, whose regime had winked at nuclear proliferation for some 30 years, and attacked... Iraq.

[harp1963]

You know, all this fear mongering about nukes. Who gives a d a m n? It''s like riding the free fall ride at the amusement park. It is a free fall ride that is several hundred feet high and just drops you. My child asked me when we were at the top, "what if the brakes don''t work?". I told him not to even worry about it just enjoy the view and the moment, you''d never know anyway if the brakes didn''t work.

Your going to instantly vaporize me with a nuke. Oh no, I''m terrified.

If you really want to hurt me, pray I live to be a hundred and the last 30 years of my life a beautiful nurse with lovely b r e a sts is changing my diaper five times a day.

[harp1963]

These people are all a pack of liars. Lovers of power and money are ruining the entire world. If they only realized that 40 or 50 years is a "*** in the wind" compared to eternity and that Hell does exist; they would realize how unbeleviably stupid they truely are. The homeless guy living under a bridge is smarter and more blessed then they will ever think about being.

[trishab4]

%u201CI have never put my foot on Iranian soil. I never met any Iranians,%u201D he said. "And I never put my foot on the Libyan soil %u2026 When they asked my assistance, I told them, %u2018Go to the people in Dubai who supplied us.%u2019%u201D

-Could that be a branch of the Israeli Agency for Nuclear Energy? What if that were true?

[ozonmojo]

Khan is a great liar and a greedy conman.One need not believe anything said against him.Just look at the huge wealth he had amassed by selling the nuke stuff in the international bazaar .

[wardoglrs]

This is code for:
Get ready America were in for a big one.

[wogerwabbit]

I get all my nookular supplies from the Halliburton supermarket. U should 2.

[veteran72]

%u201CI have never put my foot on Iranian soil. I never met any Iranians,%u201D he said. "And I never put my foot on the Libyan soil %u2026 When they asked my assistance, I told them, %u2018Go to the people in Dubai who supplied us.%u2019%u201D

Yea, you know,....Cheney and his people......LMMFAO