WASHINGTON: A payout of $ 3.5 million in US dollars stashed in a fruit carton along with some jewelry for high-ranking Pakistani generals lubricated Islamabad's nuclear proliferation to North Korea, Pakistani nuclear engineer AQ Khanhas disclosed in the latest embarrassment for the beleaguered country.
In documents and testimony that implicate thePakistani military in nuclear technology supplies to the isolated Chinese ally, Khan has revealed a communication from a senior North Korean official requesting transfer of nuclear technology in lieu of "three million dollars... paid to Army ChiefGen J Karamat and half a million dollars and 3 diamond and ruby sets which have been given toGen Zulfikar Khan."
"Please give the agreed documents, components, etc. to .?.?. [a North Korean Embassy official in Pakistan] to be flown back when our plane returns after delivery of missile components," the letter states, indicating a nuclear technology-for-ballistic missiles swap between Pakistan and North Koreathat the United States long suspected but did little to address.
In a separate written testimony that he gave as far back as 2007 to his confidante British journalist Simon Henderson (apparently to be released in case he alone was implicated), Khan says he transferred the North Korean funds to Pakistani military generals on two occasions in a small canvas bag and three cartons, in one case at the chief of army staff's official residence. One of the cartons had money underneath fruits, he says.
Islamabad has expectedly denied the report, with its foreign office spokesperson saying "such stories have a habit of recurring and my only comment is that this is totally baseless and preposterous." Karamat, who went on to become Pakistan's ambassador to the United States during Musharraf's presidency, and the other general mentioned in the exchanges have also rubbished the letter and the narrative, which Henderson gave to the Washington Post, because, he said, he could not authenticate it himself. The Post ran it by several experts who felt it was authentic and fit into US intelligence reports which chronicled Pakistan-N.Korea exchanges.
But why did Henderson take so long to give the documents to the Post which he purportedly obtained in 2007 and why has it become public only now although the contents have been reported in bits and pieces?
It is all about timing. Khan, who is now an outlier, appears to be dictating the leak of the documents aimed at embarrassing the Pakistan establishment every time the government gives him a hard time. The US administration too is quite happy to turn the heat on the Pakistan, a country it backed and seldom criticized for its excesses over the decades, because things have soured between Washington and the Pakistani military establishment.
The immediate provocation for the story appears to be a Pakistan's interior ministry petition filed on Tuesday in the Islamabad High Court saying Khan is not cooperating with the Pakistani government with regards to his security. According to the Pakistani media, security officials who appeared before the court raised serious objections against Khan's frequent travels and meetings, "fearing that it would put his life at risk." They also voiced concerns regarding his communication with the press.
From all accounts, Khan appears to be getting even with the military for the indignities the generals heaped on him, and continue to do so, even though the consensus in the analysts' community is that Pakistan's nuclear proliferation was a cooperative effort that involved Khan, the government and the military, who have fallen out with each other. Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf publicly humiliated and disgraced Khan before his countrymen, portraying him as a sole, rogue proliferator who sold nuclear secrets for millions of dollars in profit.
Khan's narrative, as relayed through intermediaries, shows that he passed on the money to Pakistani generals. Khan says he himself has little money to show for his efforts, and cites Musharraf giving him a lumpsum payment of $50,000 and a monthly pension of $2500 as proof that he did not steal millions he is accused of.
The surprise package in the latest disclosures is the naming of Jehangir Karamat, who is regarded as one of the more moderate Pakistani generals who bowed out of office after a face-off with the civilian leadership of Nawaz Sharief. Karamat was the Army Chief during Pakistan's nuclear tests in 1998. Widely regarded as pro-American (he is an alumnus of the military academy in Fort Leavenworth and did stints at Stanford University and the Brookings Institution), Karamat was sent to Washington as Pakistan's ambassador by Gen. Musharraf in November 2004, but he returned to Islamabad after serving only 18 months of his two-year term amid rumors that Washington had cottoned on to his role in the nuclear proliferation.
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