Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan bares all

A copy of ‘rogue’ Pakistani scientist A Q Khan’s four-page letter reached his long-time journalistic contact Simon Henderson in 2007. In fact, in the letter, Khan tells his wife, “Get in touch with Simon Henderson and give him all the details.’’ Henderson says when he acquired the copy of the letter, he was shocked. His acquaintance with Khan goes back to the late 1970s, but it was never intimate, and consisted of occasional interviews and conversations. Describing the letter as “extraordinary’’, Henderson says it outlines in numbered paragraphs Pakistan’s nuclear co-operation with China, Iran and North Korea, and also mentions Libya. In one para that is bound to embarrass Beijing, Khan writes about how Pakistan helped China in enrichment technology in return for bomb blueprints. “We put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250 km southwest of Xian), Khan writes. The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50 kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tonnes of UF6 (natural) and 5 tonnes of UF6 (3%).’’ UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plan. On Iran, the letter says: “Probably with the blessings of BB [Benazir Bhutto] General Imtiaz [Benazir’s defence adviser, now dead] asked me to give a set of drawings and some components to the Iranians. The names and addresses of suppliers were given to the Iranians.’’ On North Korea: “[A nowretired general] took $3 million through me from the North Koreans and asked me to give drawings and machines.’’ Henderson does not explain why he waited nearly two years to make the letter public, but writes sympathetically about Khan, who is held largely incommunicado under house arrest.Henderson’s Sunday Times expose also implicates the US and other Western powers, who he says, shoved Islamabad’s proliferation (while blaming it solely on Khan) under the rug to get their cooperation in the war on terror. The move also saved the US from embarrassment since it was asleep on the watch when Pakistan began its nuclear proliferation and then winked at it when it was discovered, all the while lavishing billions in military supplies on its unstable client state.