Word: pakistani
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...Khan appeared on Pakistani national television and confessed to operating a clandestine network that sold nuclear secrets. Then President Pervez Musharraf pardoned him the next day and Khan was placed under de facto house arrest. While the Pakistani government claimed he was being held for his own protection, Khan was not allowed to move freely...
Emerging from his Islamabad mansion on Feb. 6, A. Q. Khan looked victorious; after five years of de facto house arrest, the Pakistani government declared that the nuclear scientist was being set free. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, Khan's life's work - which included a clandestine network that sold nuclear secrets to nations such as North Korea, Iran and Libya - is still holding the rest of the world hostage. And while Khan is viewed by many in Pakistan as a national hero for developing the country's nuclear weapons program, his rogue dealings have simultaneously helped advance...
Joseph Cirincione, who advised President Obama on nuclear issues during the presidential campaign, disagrees. "Claims by the Bush adminstration that they had 'shut down' the network were never true," he tells TIME by e-mail. "The network still operates, in part to keep equipment coming into the Pakistani program. European intelligence agencies say companies and individuals in the network are still involved in black market sales. Khan's release means it is likely that these operations will increase." (See a map of A. Q. Khan's dangerous game...
...experts all agree that Khan's release is a terrible signal. "There are others in the Pakistani establishment who have access to sensitive materials, and we would have liked them to know that there would be consequences to any misuse," says Levi. "But Khan's release undermines any deterrent effect." (See pictures of A. Q. Khan's nuclear bazaar...
Levi hopes that the Pakistani government will now persuade Khan to cooperate in investigations into his network. "The impact of what he did is still alive, we don't fully understand it," says Levi. The British government has already asked Pakistan to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency access to Khan. Previous such requests went nowhere. Pakistan's foreign ministry has said it now considers the Khan affair a closed chapter...