The Muslim News

WASHINGTON, Dawn: US lawmakers have called for reopening of the probe into a network of nuclear smugglers and demanded direct access to Dr A. Q. Khan who they said was the leader of this gang.

At a special hearing of the Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Non-proliferation in Washington on Thursday, the lawmakers also took the Bush administration to task for not bringing enough pressure on Pakistan to unravel the depths of the damage caused by this network.

Pakistan said earlier this month that the probe into the Khan network was closed and that Dr Khan would remain off limits to foreign investigations despite requests by the US and the global nuclear watchdog agency IAEA to interview him.

The Bush administration, which backs Pakistan on this issue, has also said that Islamabad has taken all actions necessary to unravel the network and to uncover all of its secrets.

The lawmakers, however, appeared unconvinced. The panel’s Republican chairman, Ed Royce of California, set the tone for the deliberations saying that the Khan network has done “incalculable and potentially catastrophic damage” to international security.

He claimed that the network has opened an era in which many states, including among the unstable and most hostile to the United States, can now expect to develop nuclear weapons. “This is Khan’s grim legacy,” he added. The hearing, held to probe the dealings of the so-called Khan network, turned into a Pakistan bashing match with at least three lawmakers suggesting that the government of Pakistan was also involved with the network.

There was no one to defend Pakistan as lawmakers and witnesses launched a tirade of accusations, often unsubstantiated, against Islamabad. Some even named senior Pakistani officials who they said helped smuggle nuclear components to Iran, Libya, North Korea and Sudan.

The lawmakers, and witnesses, also claimed that the Khan network may have helped Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups to obtain nuclear secrets.

And as it has happened before in similar hearings, some lawmakers suggested that since there’s a possibility of radical Islamists seizing control of Pakistan’s government and its nuclear arsenal, Islamabad cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons.

Describing the A. Q. Khan network as the ‘Wal-Mart of private sector proliferation’, Congressman Royce said its handiwork has helped deliver two of the most threatening security challenges that the US faces today — North Korea and Iran. “US policy rightly attempts to work with and pressure the Pakistan government on counter-terrorism, proliferation and other concerns, but not to a destabilising degree,” he said.

Mr Royce, Congressman Brad Sherman, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, and Gary Ackerman from New York said the Khan network was far from closed.

They said the Bush administration has soft-pedalled the issue for too long while Pakistan has provided little information on the network which has caused enormous damage to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, to US national security and to international peace and stability.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/05/27/top8.htm

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