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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
In a long report, The Los Angels Times has quoted Rober Einhorn, Assistant Secretary of State for non-proliferation in the Clinton administration, as saying that " if the international community had a proliferation most-wanted list, A. Q. Khan would be the most wanted on the list." ``If one man sits at the nuclear fulcrum of the three countries President George W. Bush calls the `axis of evil', it may well be Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan'', the paper said. Dr. Khan was the only scientist known to be linked to the alleged efforts of North Korea, Iraq and Iran to develop nuclear weapons, the report said. It claimed that U.S. intelligence has long known of Dr. Khan's activities. But, the extent of his ties to all three `axis' nations became public only recently as North Korea admitted resuming its nuclear weapons effort. Satellite photographs showed that Iran might be conducting clandestine nuclear work and Dr. Khan's name appeared in a letter offering to "manufacture a nuclear weapon" for the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein. Pakistan denies giving nuclear assistance to other countries and insists that the scientist has done no wrong. But under intense U.S. pressure, the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, abruptly removed Dr. Khan as the head of nuclear weapons development two years ago. However, experts doubt that a maverick scientist on his own could have engineered such sensitive deals with so many governments. The report quoted an Indian nuclear expert, Gaurav Kampani, as telling the newspaper: " We know Khan has been to North Korea at least 13 times, perhaps more." Mr. Kampani is a nuclear expert at the Centre for Non-proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. "It's obviously been sanctioned by institutions within the Pakistani Government," he added. Dr. Khan has shrugged off the charges. ''I built a weapon of peace, which seems hard to understand until you realise Pakistan's nuclear capability is a deterrent to aggressors. There has not been a war in the last 30 years, and I don't expect one in the future. The stakes are too high," he said. The report said that when Dr. Khan ran Pakistan's bomb-building programme, he reported directly to the nation's leader and had funds at his disposal. U.S. officials say he owned several palatial residences. In 1986, Pakistan and Iran signed a nuclear cooperation agreement after Dr. Khan visited Bushehr, a nuclear power plant that Teheran is building with Russian help. U.S. officials say that Dr. Khan initiated talks with North Korea in 1992 to obtain 10 to 12 medium-range Nodong ballistic missiles to help Pakistan boost its military profile against India. In April 1998, Pakistan test-fired a knockoff Nodong missile renamed the Ghauri-I. A month later, North Koreans attended Pakistan's first nuclear tests, say European diplomats. In exchange for the missiles, U.S. and other officials say, Pakistan gave North Korea designs of Dr. Khan's gas centrifuges and other assistance needed to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
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