Munich — "Nobody could touch him," says Mian Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, Pakistan's foreign minister. The regret in his voice is palpable. "Imagine an American government doing this to Charles Lindbergh, or Albert Einstein, at the height of his popularity. Dr. A.Q. Khan is that kind of national hero in Pakistan."
Abdul Qadeer Khan, an accomplished scientist, is also by his own account a thief of Ali Baba proportions. He became a national hero by stealing the designs of a European nuclear centrifuge system that enabled Pakistan to explode several nuclear devices in 1998. Khan's original nuclear larceny, as Kasuri says, "gave us strategic balance."
Now Khan stands accused by President Pervez Musharraf of single-handedly running a smuggling operation that traded nuclear wherewithal to Iran, Libya and North Korea for huge payoffs. In an hourlong conversation at the Munich Conference on Security Policy, Kasuri provided a detailed description of the scientist's operations, Musharraf's tracking of and final confrontation with Khan, and the scientist's confession of wrongdoing.
The foreign minister's passionately delivered account was clearly designed to dispel the view that Khan is in fact performing one more service for Pakistan by taking the rap for a far-flung national operation. If that is the case, Khan would be more scapegoat than goat.
But Kasuri, a lawyer and human rights advocate before becoming Musharraf's foreign minister 15 months ago, was eager to drive home a message that even we skeptics have to welcome:
"We are a responsible nuclear nation," he said, adding that Pakistan is ready to observe recognized international restrictions on the proliferation of nuclear weapons. "We had to demonstrate to the Pakistani people and to the world that not even A.Q. Khan is above the law. The United States should take this into account and engage Pakistan more fully on nuclear and defense matters."
Musharraf immediately pardoned Khan after the scientist went on television Feb. 4, took "full responsibility" for the cascading disclosures of Pakistan's determined proliferation, and tearfully asked for mercy. Kasuri asserted that Pakistani public opinion made it impossible for Musharraf to impose legal penalties on Khan and survive.
"Look, we knew we would be accused of knuckling under to the Americans," he said. "We are not doing that. The Pakistani people must understand that there will be no nuclear rollback. We have scheduled new missile tests to make that point. We are a declared nuclear power and the world must accept it. We are, however, taking steps to control our nuclear assets" more carefully and halt proliferation, Kasuri added.
Musharraf became suspicious of Khan in 2001 and eased him out of control of the country's nuclear laboratories, according to Kasuri. Up to that point, the government and the public seemed to accept Khan's lavish lifestyle and grandiose philanthropy as Pakistani corruption as usual, since he had access to unaudited public funds.
"But five months ago international leaders came to President Musharraf with new information that made us understand we had to take measures. We were devastated," said Kasuri, who declined to be more precise. Others pinpoint a voluminous CIA file on Pakistani proliferation as the source of the damning intelligence passed to Musharraf by U.S. officials.
Our talk then went like this: Why then did you wait so long to act? "This is very difficult for us." Does the timing have to do with the nearly successful assassination attempts on Musharraf by extremists with whom Khan and Pakistan's intelligence service are suspected of sympathizing? "No. That is utter nonsense."
But Kasuri acknowledged that the Pakistani Cabinet recently asked Musharraf to move to the capital, Islamabad, rather than continue a daily 30-minute commute from Rawalpindi. Pakistani sources say three serious attacks on Musharraf's convoy have been mounted in recent weeks, only two of which have been announced.
Moreover, a European intelligence service has detected signs that some commanders in Pakistan's intelligence service are increasing their cooperation with Islamic extremists groups rather than following Musharraf. He is engaged in a self-protective showdown with his enemies, this information suggests.
Kasuri's message was more diffuse but no less urgent: "There is a one-year window of opportunity" in an embryonic peace effort with India. "While Musharraf is both president and chief of staff" of the armed forces, "we will be able to speak with one voice and breakthroughs can be made."
Musharraf's recent actions give new credibility to such appeals for U.S. support. But conditions should still be attached: An urgent one is to be sure that Pakistan has in fact learned everything about the networks of proliferation that have been centered there -- and is fully disclosing that information to the United States.
Jim Hoagland is a columnist for Washington Post Writers Group.
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