Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
May 31, 2008 By Alan Cowell
PARIS — Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, was reported on Friday to have withdrawn an admission that he sold nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, saying that he had made it under pressure from President Pervez Musharraf.
He made the comment in a telephone interview with a correspondent in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, from The Guardian, a British newspaper, which called the conversation his first with the Western media since an emotional television appearance in 2004 in which Dr. Khan admitted selling nuclear technology to other countries.
“It was not of my own free will,” he told The Guardian, saying he had been forced to make the admission by Mr. Musharraf. “It was handed into my hand,” he was quoted as saying.
Western intelligence agencies fear that any technology passed on by Dr. Khan could be used by terrorists. But in the interview he maintained his longstanding resistance to being questioned by investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency or the United States.
“Why should I talk to them?” Dr. Khan was quoted as saying. “I am under no obligation.” Pakistan, he said, was not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. “I have not violated international laws,” he added, calling his nuclear secrets “my internal affair and my country’s affair.”
Since 2004, Mr. Khan has been confined under house arrest to a villa in Islamabad. Initially, he lived under tight controls, with soldiers at his gate, Internet access denied and his telephone monitored. But he hinted on Friday that he was hoping that the restrictions would be eased.
“As long as you are living, there is always hope,” he said in the interview.
He was dismissive of what he depicted as Western attempts to demonize him.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” he said. “They don’t like our God, they don’t like our prophet, they don’t like our holy book, the Koran. So how could they like me?”
May 31, 2008 By Alan Cowell
PARIS — Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, was reported on Friday to have withdrawn an admission that he sold nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, saying that he had made it under pressure from President Pervez Musharraf.
He made the comment in a telephone interview with a correspondent in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, from The Guardian, a British newspaper, which called the conversation his first with the Western media since an emotional television appearance in 2004 in which Dr. Khan admitted selling nuclear technology to other countries.
“It was not of my own free will,” he told The Guardian, saying he had been forced to make the admission by Mr. Musharraf. “It was handed into my hand,” he was quoted as saying.
Western intelligence agencies fear that any technology passed on by Dr. Khan could be used by terrorists. But in the interview he maintained his longstanding resistance to being questioned by investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency or the United States.
“Why should I talk to them?” Dr. Khan was quoted as saying. “I am under no obligation.” Pakistan, he said, was not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. “I have not violated international laws,” he added, calling his nuclear secrets “my internal affair and my country’s affair.”
Since 2004, Mr. Khan has been confined under house arrest to a villa in Islamabad. Initially, he lived under tight controls, with soldiers at his gate, Internet access denied and his telephone monitored. But he hinted on Friday that he was hoping that the restrictions would be eased.
“As long as you are living, there is always hope,” he said in the interview.
He was dismissive of what he depicted as Western attempts to demonize him.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” he said. “They don’t like our God, they don’t like our prophet, they don’t like our holy book, the Koran. So how could they like me?”