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:
Not to beat a dead horse, but I think this [Pakistan] Daily Times editorial nicely encapsulates the furore over Ms Bhutto's remarks about Dr Khan:
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.
On May 6 2007, The Washington Times published an article by editor at large Arnaud de Borchgrave, talking about the common link between North Korea, Iran, and Libya. That would be Dr Khan's network, of course. Or as JRR Tolkien memorably put it in the Lord of the Rings, One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
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.
Hmm, your former employer has made you a patsy, fired you from your job, hung you out to dry, and ruined your reputation. What do you? Well, if you are former CBS anchor man Dan Rather, you do what any red blooded American would do. You hire a lawyer and sue the bastards.
On June 13 the Washington Times ran an article asserting that Iran is using newly created front companies in a bid to frustrate US and United Nations sanctions on its suspect nuclear programs. The charges were made by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which supports the overthrow of the regime in Tehran.