Pardoning A National Hero

By Tim McGirk; Syed Talat Hussain; Ghulam Hasnain

Usually, when scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan appeared on Pakistan's state TV, it was to receive another gold medal for building the country's nuclear bomb. But last week Khan, a hero to Pakistanis and many others in the Islamic world, came on the air, ashen and visibly shaken, to confess that he had sold Pakistan's nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. He begged for President Pervez Musharraf's pardon--and, to the chagrin of many Western intelligence agencies that regard Khan as the world's most dangerous nuclear proliferator, it was granted the next day. "He has made mistakes, but he is our hero," said Musharraf.

The evidence against Khan was undeniable. A U.S. undercover agent had penetrated the hub of Khan's operations in Dubai and begun to map out an intricate smuggling web that stretched into Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia as well as Istanbul, Turkey; Casablanca, Morocco; and several cities in Germany and Central Asia, a Pakistani official familiar with the investigation told TIME. So why was Khan pardoned? Government officials say Khan won clemency in return for full cooperation in the investigation of his network. But diplomats and Khan's friends claim he had threatened to name several top military officers close to Musharraf who also allegedly profited from the clandestine sales of nuclear technology. Khan's relatives leaked word to local newspapers that at least two former army generals were aware that Pakistan's secrets were being passed to other nations. But Musharraf cleared both generals of any culpability for Khan's smuggling ring. And he made it clear the case is closed; there will be no further investigation of links between the military and Khan's nuclear profiteers.

--By Tim McGirk, Syed Talat Hussain and Ghulam Hasnain