Thread by @takhalus, So, a little over 10 years ago a man was released from [...]

So, a little over 10 years ago a man was released from 5 years of detention without charge by the Islamabad HC.
The court noted the petitioner is “a free citizen and writ petition is disposed of in accordance with ‘Annexure-A’, contents of which shall not be issued to the press.”

Despite ruling his detention without charge as illegal, the IHC laid out specific conditions as to the freed mans freedom.
One of those conditions was that he could not disclose the circumstances of his detention.

That man was A. Q Khan.
The Pakistani

So begins my read of @Watandost latest book.

You can’t really read this book without referencing http://Z.A.Bs eating grass speech.

Cartoon by @SSEHBAI1 old newspaper after the A.Q. Khan scandal broke.

Thirty years ago a Pakistani civilian PM went to attend a briefing on its nuclear programme. The meeting was after months of stonewalling by the COAS and President and while the the COAS had started secret sales to Iran.
Only problem?
The briefing was by US intelligence.

Aslam Beg allegedly told Ch. Nisar “Iran is willing to give whatever it takes...we can sell the bomb to Iran at any price.”

The biggest stumbling block?
Future COAS General Asif Nawaz was firmly against nuclear proliferation.

One deal A.Q. Khan struck involved a down payment of 6-7 million dollars.

Asif Nawaz’s stance against nuclear proliferation would have likely disrupted millions, if not billions, of clandestine deals.Unfortunately he would die suddenly not long after being made COAS.
Exchange of nuclear technology moved away from just cash and toward missile technology

Enter

North Korea.
Movies like Team America spoofed North Korea’s nuclear programme and leadership mercilessly.
Nowadays US and N Korea are BFFs

Saying that, Pakistan’s missile programme owes them a debt and ZAB one for opening diplomatic relations in 1976 with them.

Enter North Korea. Movies like Team America spoofed North Korea’s nuclear programme and leadership mercilessly. Nowadays US and N Korea are BFFs Saying that, Pakistan’s missile programme owes them a debt and ZAB one for opening diplomatic relations in 1976 with them.

After all.
What are nukes without a delivery system?

That ZAB connection would prove useful when the Military wanted to formalise a deal with North Korea.
Enter Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

This whole house of cards was so secretive there was little likelihood of it all unravelling.
#AQKhan was a national hero, Iran and North Korea would not risk detection lest they paid a price too.
One piece was left in the puzzle.

Enter Libya.

Short interlude.
“This is how the world sees us...scruffy interlopers who have sold their present and mortgaged their future..to seek a place on the high table.”
@Shafqat_Mahmood writing not long after the #AQKhan scandal broke.

The late Saleem Shehzad writes his own version of the inside story of what happened with the #AQKhan deal.
Here he repeats the question many asked:
how could only one person be responsible for such a mega scandal?
He quotes the bete noire of a few Pakistanis too @husainhaqqani

@dawn_com mercilessly unforgiving columnist, Ardeshir Cowasjee, had this to say of #AQKhan in the case of IBS
“some 10,000 mentally sick citizens of Pakistan have been deprived of free treatment. The good national hero is responsible. Should he be granted pardon for this also?”

Coming to to the end of the thread, the only bit that needs to be added here is the Libya

connection. This is interesting because a lot of people look back at how close Libya was involved with Pakistan’s initial research and development. One might assume it was Pak gratitude.

That’d be wrong.
The Pak Libyan nuclear technology sales were post 1997 and by all accounts directly led by #AQKhan . When @iaeaorg investigators went to Libya, they found that Dr. Khan's network had also provided blueprints for a nuclear weapon for lots of

It was a money grab
By late 2003, as sanctions continued to bite and with the post 9/11 neocons on the warpath, Gadhafi was desperate to open up. He no longer saw

as a guarantor of security. He opened his doors to US intel and with that the whole #AQKhan network unraveled.

The moment the penny dropped is described here..
US intel “..old, crude, but workable design that Khan had provided, as a "sweetener," with their Chinese scribbling still in the margins, had been kept in their original wrappings--a plastic bag from a Pakistani tailor's shop.”

And so began the beginning of the end..appropriately or inappropriately with a Chinese knock off and a Pakistani tailor.

/Finis

Latest Threads Unrolled: