Nuclear Twist
June 4th, 2008Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan, who has in the past confessed to spreading nuclear technology to rogue nations, is recanting his confession.
He explained in an interview with ABC News that the Pakistani government and President Pervez Musharraf forced him to be a “scapegoat” for the “national interest.” He also denies ever traveling to Iran or Libya and said that North Korea’s nuclear program was well advanced before his visit. When asked whether Musharraf would admit this, Khan told CNN: “It is his business. Whatever he has been telling people in the country. Whatever he says is up to them. But I can tell you that the man on the street is more knowledgeable than the man on the street in the United States.”
In a further twist, the normally placid Switzerland announced on May 23 that it had secretly destroyed highly technical blueprints for producing nuclear weapons.
The information was seized from the home of Urs Tinner, a 43-year-old Swiss engineer who has been in custody for almost four years as a key suspect in the nuclear smuggling ring allegedly run by Khan. At a news conference, Swiss President Pascal Couchepin said the documents had been shredded to prevent them from falling into terrorists’ hands. “The information contained in these papers presented a considerable risk to the security of Switzerland and the international community as a whole,” he said.
What a strange series of events these are.