As you may have noted from previous posts I am, among other things, mightily impressed by the accomplishments of Dr Khan. In fact, to some degree I might even qualify as a fan, if not a groupie. There are times when it is hard waiting for the next Google news alert about him.
Still, I recognize that not everyone is as enamored by his history as I am. In fact, hard as it may be to believe, some people out there don't even know who he is. Gasp, the horror!
If Benazir Bhutto was floating a trial balloon when she talked about allowing IAEA inspectors to question Dr Khan I think it safe to say the results are in. And it appears, to paraphrase Franklin D Roosevelt, the only thing Dr Khan has to fear is not Benazir Bhutto. Consider some of the subsequent reaction, courtesy of BBC Monitoring International Reports, September 27, 2007:
To follow up to the earlier posting today about Benazir Bhutto’s remarks yesterday, in which she said allow IAEA inspectors to question Abdul Qadeer Khan, I think it appropriate to cite some of what Mark Hibbs previously wrote, in this November 23 2007 Nucleonics Week article:
On September 18, I posted that that four former executives of Japanese company, Mitutoyo Corp, were found guilty of illegally exporting devices that could be used in producing nuclear weapons. That is true, but from the perspective of actually trying to prevent such things from happening there is more to the story. And, as is usually the case, the redoubtable reporter Mark Hibbs had the story first; back in January, to be precise. Here is some of what he wrote in the January 15 issue of Nuclear Fuel:
We wonder how Dr Khan feels about this. Even though it was Pakistani President Musharraf who relieved Dr Khan of his job and put him in house arrest in February 2004, Musharraff has always been protective of him. In the past, he said, He is my hero. He always was and still is, because he made Pakistan a nuclear power
(Shopping For Bombs, p 214). That helps explain why Musharraf has steadfastly refused to allow Dr Khan to be interrogated by outsiders.
Dr Khan is a man of many talents; not all of them appreciated. But it should be noted that he has done his part for the Pakistani educational system. In that regard we take our hats off to Ms Noreen Mushtaq D/O Mushtaq Ahmed. She is one of the three women who swept all top three positions in the Bachelor of Education (BEd) annual examination 2006, the result of which was announced by the University of Balochistan (UoB) Quetta this past Saturday. Ms Mushtaq is a student at the Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan College of Education in Quetta.
The Jerusalem Post ran an article September 20, which may very well be the first article, linking whatever it was in Syria that was attacked by Israel in early September, to wider nuclear proliferation concerns. The article by Yaakov Katz stated:
This week, Khan's name again made headlines – this time over suspicions that his black-market ring was behind the supply of nuclear technology and material to the facility that Israel – according to foreign news reports – bombed two weeks ago in northern Syria.
In two previous posts, I’ve mentioned press reports about Dr Khan and Syria, one saying there may have been a connection, the other saying no way.