ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – In a televised address Wednesday, nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan admitted providing nuclear weapons expertise and equipment to Iran, Libya and North Korea, saying he had done so without authorization from the Pakistani government.
“My dear brothers and sisters, I have chosen to appear before you to offer my deepest regrets and unqualified apologies to a traumatized nation,” Khan said in a taped four-minute address that aired on state-run Pakistan Television after a meeting between Khan and Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
“There was never ever any kind of authorization for these activities by the government,” he added, speaking softly in English. “I take full responsibility for my actions and seek your pardon.”
Khan agreed to speak on television in return for assurances that he would not be prosecuted for transactions that Pakistani investigators say provided him millions of dollars over a period of almost two decades, according to a Cabinet minister and an individual outside of government who was involved in brokering the agreement.
It appears to mean that Khan will essentially go unpunished for presiding over what Pakistani officials now acknowledge, after years of denials, was a far-reaching scheme to peddle hardware, blueprints and design assistance by means of a thriving nuclear black market stretching from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia.
Over the past two months, Pakistani investigators have uncovered evidence that Khan made millions of dollars from his transactions, spreading his wealth among foreign bank accounts, palatial homes in Pakistan and properties abroad, including a hotel named for his wife, Hendrina, in the West African state of Mali.
Musharraf has been under heavy public pressure to go easy on Khan, 67, a European-trained metallurgist who is considered a national hero for his pivotal role in developing nuclear weapons that helped redress a strategic imbalance with archrival India. India tested its first nuclear device in 1974; Pakistan’s first test was in 1998.
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