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Khan’s nuclear network used military aircraft
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

Abdul Qadeer Khan’s nuclear proliferation network, while using Pakistan military aircraft to ferry supplies, worked without the “approval” of the government in Islamabad, a senior State Department official told members of a U.S. congressional committee on Tuesday.

“Based on the information we have now, we believe that the proliferation activities that Mr. Khan confessed to recently, his activities in Libya, in Iran and North Korea, and perhaps elsewhere, were activities that he was carrying on without the approval of the top levels of the government of Pakistan,” James Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control, said in testimony before the House International Relations Committee.

“That is the position that President (Pervez) Musharraf has taken, and we have no evidence to the contrary.”

Asked by former Democratic co-chairman of Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, Congressman Gary L. Ackerman, about reports that Pakistani military aircraft were used to carry nuclear goods from Pakistan to North Korea, Mr. Bolton said the aircraft may have been used outside official military control.

He added, however, that Pakistani officials at the Khan Research Laboratories and in the military might have participated in the network’s proliferation activities. These officials “probably enriched themselves just as Khan himself did,” Mr. Bolton said.

“The understanding we have is that Khan Research Laboratories had extraordinary autonomy and quite likely could use military aircraft for purposes that others in the military would not necessarily know the purpose of because of compartmentation of the information,” the senior official said.

Mr Bolton said if information was revealed linking the Pakistani government to the covert sales, “we will act on it” and impose sanctions.

Washington lifted sanctions on Pakistan soon after the September 11 attacks. Mr. Bolton said “a more cooperative approach to achieve our mutual nonproliferation goals” had since been implemented.

He told the committee, however, that while Pakistan had not conducted nuclear explosive tests since 1998, it “continues to develop nuclear weapon and missile programmes.”

“Our recent nonproliferation focus with Pakistan is to work with the government to eliminate once and for all the network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the so-called ‘father’ of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme,” he said.

Recent revelations have implicated Dr. Khan in leading an international black market spread through Europe, Asia, and Africa that sold uranium enrichment technology and equipment to Iran, North Korea, Libya and other states.

Mr Bolton said Washington had been concerned about the scope and breadth of Dr Khan’s activities for quite some time.

“What we have learned about the international black market in weapons of mass destruction shows how sophisticated WMD proliferators are, and how skilled they are at deception and camouflage,” he said. “The complexity of the Khan network illustrates the need for a multi-faceted approach to ultimately defeat the WMD black market.”