By: Hari Sud
harisud@hotmail.com
February 28, 2004

Dr. Nuke (A Q Khan) got away free even after trading in internationally banned technology and materials. His pardon is a sham. It was a set up to get the Pakistani Army and him free. Only American Administration and more specifically the US State Department fell for it.  Even the American press is critical of US treating the Pakistani Army strongman General Musharraf with a kid glove. Some Asian analysts have gone to the extent of stating that US has invaded the wrong country while looking for the Weapons for Mass Destruction (WMD). It should have been Pakistan instead of Iraq. Had the Americans invaded Pakistan, and then they would have found both WMDs proliferation and Osma Bin Laaden. Alas! The poor Iraqis are suffering the burnt of the American wrath, even though they had no WMD and no threat to anybody after Gulf War 1. 

A.      Dr Nuke was prosecuted in Holland and Sentenced. Was he a spy?

Dr Nuke left Holland in a rush in 1976. There he had joined a research contractor of URENCO in 1972. The job assigned to him was of a translator of documents. It was during these translation activities that opportunity to steal documents, which had come his way for translation, became tempting. Dutch employers and Dutch Secret Service gave Mr. Khan and Mrs. Khan a security clearance because she is South African Born Dutch with British Passport. Moreover Dutch are very hospitable people. For them Asian scientists and engineers in sixties and seventies was a curiosity. The author of this article spent 6 months in Holland in 1967 under a training program on behalf of DCM India to learn strat-up of a Urea production facility in India. Dutch were very curious of our engineering and technical skills and tested it often to make sure that they are training the right people. Once satisfied, they would permit us to play with their technical data, drawings and simulator. The latter was all propriety information. The point is that Dutch could never suspect any foul play unless told otherwise. In case of Dr. Nuke (A Q Khan) the Dutch Security Agencies never connected the dots that a Pakistani metallurgist, married to South African Dutch born lady with British Passport should be a suspect. Hence Dr. Khan systematically stole whatever he wished. If the Dutch Security Forces had looked at him from an angle that his country of origin has a declared intent of making the Atom Bomb by hook or crook, it would have been easy for them to put him under surveillance.  

An important issue to consider is that when this stealing was going on, was Dr. Nuke a master Pakistani spy for Pakistan. Was he sent to study in Holland precisely for the purpose of getting hired into URENCO and learning all about Uranium – 235-enrichment technology?  

Well there are no public records to confirm it. But analysis points to a possible Pakistani Secret Service linkage with Dr. Nuke. In 1983 the Dutch Courts in absentia found him guilty of theft of secret and proprietary information and sentenced him to four years in jail. Till then no connection of spying had been made. That was one reason why the sentence was so light. Nuclear spies, when caught, usually end up in the gas chambers (Rosenberg’s) or are sent to at least 20 years in jail. His sentence was further overturned on a technicality by a superior court, that the summons to Dr. Nuke, was not served in person (by then Dr. Nuke had escaped to Pakistan). 

B.      Can these Charges be reinstated and Dr. Nuke Prosecuted 

Original charge and the sentence in Holland in 1983, although too light, was never a serous charge. The superior court erred in letting Dr. Nuke of the hook.  Later the Dutch authorities realized their mistake but did not wish to pursue the matter further as the terrorist threat to Europe and US did not exist. The point is that – Can the Appeal Court’s decision be further appealed so that this doctor of Weapons of Mass Destruction is made to pay for his deeds. He should not only be charged for stealing information but also for spying. Today, the West is threatened by bomb making information passed on by Dr. Nuke to Iran, North Korea and possibly Al Qaeda. All of them have the West in their gun sights. Libya did receive the same information but did not know how to proceed further, hence decided to relent.  

Hence in my opinion, Dutch Courts or any other legal jurisdiction not only re-instate the original charges but also charge him for spying and selling the spoils of spying to the highest bidder. His extradition from his comfortable lodging in Pakistan be immediately demanded.  Should Pakistan refuse, and then sanctions of the scale of Libya, be imposed on it?  

C.      Is he that Smart to figure out everything about Bomb Making himself? 

Now back to Dr. Nuke. He had an interesting career. A metallurgist by training, he pretends to be a nuclear engineer. His stay at URENCO was completely insufficient to educate him fully on U-235 centrifuge technology. I can tell you this because I am an engineer. A few years of work as a translator do not prepare you to design and build the most complex hardware on the planet. As a starter, he had in his possession the complete blue print of the equipment, prepared by a multitude of experts in Holland, Germany and Great Briton. It would have taken all the Pakistani Engineers put together 20 years to reach that level, had they started without this input. The famous Pakistani scientist Nobel Prize winner Dr. Abdus Salam did not believe that Pakistan had enough physicists to build a centrifuge. That is What Dr. Sethna in India believed too. Unknown to them was the fact that Dr. Nuke had stolen the blue print of the centrifuge.  He even stole the procurement list of the vendors hence had a head start when finally equipment assembly began. Vendors were offered exorbitant sums of money up-front to deliver equipment to a Dubai address, with only one condition that a complete secrecy of the transaction be maintained. Middlemen were used for any reluctant suppliers. 

Even if the U-235 Centrifuge was ready in 1983-84, the U-235 had still to be assembled into a bomb. Pakistani engineers ran into a roadblock there too.  They did not know, how to compress fissile material and electronics into 1000 Kg device. Again China came to the rescue. They gave them the old American design, which they had stolen and which they had abandoned after 1960s & 1970s tests. Still the Pakistani Engineers could not build the bomb. Then China obliged Pakistani friends with additional technical help. And, when all this was going on, the US State Department and CIA was watching it happen and applying pressure on India to abandon its nuclear energy program (Thanks to the very active Nuclear Proliferation Lobby in the US State Department). 

D.      His Fundamentalist Tendencies 

DR. Nuke is a fundamentalist, anti Indian hero of Pakistan. His family immigrated to Pakistan and carried with it the savage desire to nuke India for ejecting the 800 years of Muslim rule from India. Dr. Nuke personally traces his ancestry to the infamous Shahab-ud-Deen Ghauri, who invaded India in 1192. He is reported to have spent vast sums of money repairing the tomb of this Ghauri, who is buried in Jhelem, Pakistan (Ghauri was assassinated by his opponents in Jhelem during his many trips in and out of India). Reader may be intrigued to know that one of the Pakistani, North Korean missiles is named after Ghauri and Dr. Nuke personally gave it that name. He is known to have participated in military discussions on how to Nuke India, possibly Delhi, during, several India-Pakistan confrontations dating back to 1986.  

E.      Use the Same Laws as Used to Prosecute Noriega or Serbian Leaders 

United States, only 10 years back, prosecuted Manuel Noriega, the Panamian dictator and sent him to jail for 40 years on charges much less than what Dr. Nuke could face. Noriega was not prosecuted in Panama, but in US. Can US not find some laws to grab and send Dr. Nuke to jail?  If the West or US does not prosecute him now, then the door is open for other aspiring scientists and engineers in Pakistan and elsewhere to trade nuclear technologies and other WMD technologies for personal enrichment, as well as for religious convictions.  

Another recent example of prosecution outside of their home country is the arrest and trial of the Bosnian & Serbian leaders in Hague.  Dr. Nuke deserves similar treatment.  What makes his prosecution more important is that Pakistan has pardoned Dr. Nuke with full honors. This pardon has potential of grave consequences.  

As a starter, grab all his assets and then prosecute him to the fullest extent of the international law. Then turn him over to the Dutch authorities for prosecution on theft and nuclear spying charges. He should be at Guantanamo Bay not in Pakistan. 

F.      Pakistani Government’s Involvement in this Whole Episode. 

It is being speculated that Dr. Nuke very cleverly managed to smuggle incriminating documents out of Pakistan, which could shed light on official complicity of the Pakistani Government. These documents are said to have prevented his prosecution in Pakistan itself (if you trust them). Availability of all this evidence is essential to the West’s future prosecution case. Once Dr. Nuke winds up in the American or Dutch hands, he may not wish to go down alone to jail. He may like to take all the previous military and civilian rulers of Pakistan with him.  

Unless the truth comes out and exemplary punishment meted out to the guilty, future safety of the West is not guaranteed. The scare of nuclear bomb in a suitcase may after all become a reality. Hence it is important to grab Dr. Nuke first, even if Pakistan does not like it, and then go about exposing and prosecuting him and all those involved in this nefarious trade. 

G.     Conclusion 

The West and the US in particular has taken a very lighthearted view of the WMD proliferation by Dr. Nuke, ostensibly with Pakistani government’s clearance. The pardon business erected between General Musharraf and Dr. Nuke has been intended to hide the truth. This man and the official Pakistani establishment is getting away with a crime, whose dimension will only be known when an unfriendly state or Al Qaeda shows up on the European or North American shores with a Nuclear Bomb in their baggage. It will be too late then.

Hari Sud

The author is a retired Vice President from C-I-L Inc. and has lived in Canada for the past 34 years. A graduate of Punjab University and University of Missouri; Rolla, USA, the author is a former investment strategies analyst and international relations manager. The Views expressed are his own. email- harisud@hotmail.com