AQ Khan and Pakistani military

Submitted by Romesh Chander (United States), Jun 12, 2007 at 19:22

Maria:

AQ Khan of Pakistan is being blamed unnecessarily for nuclear proliferation. The real culprit is the Pakistani military. Pakistani nuclear facilities / laboratories are not under the control of civilian / elected government; rather they are under the direct control of Pakistani miltary. And military has been in power for over 30 years of pakistani government; morever, even during civilian rule, military had total control on nuclear facilities. They are supervised by generals who report directly to Chief of Armed Forces. Every contact, whether to Iran or N Korea or Libya was sanctioned by the military. Yes, AQ Khan, with the permission of military established network and made lot of money; but so did generals incharge of nuclear facilities.

Why do you think Musharraff will not allow AQ Khan to be interviewed by US scientists and FBI? Because he will spill all the beans regarding the complicity of pakistani military at the highest level. Believe me, AQ Khan is not no saint; but the real blame lies squarely at the doorstep of Pakistani military establishment. Similarly, military will not allow the killer of Daniel Pearl to be interviewed by FBI (or transfered to US); because pakistani military (i.e. ISI) was responsible for the killing.

Why does not US Government blame the Pakistani government / military? Very simple, US government needs the cooperation of Pakistani military to operate in Afghanistan and frontier parts of pakistan.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".