] The general and his government have been lying for years ] about the illegal traffic. Now that their cover has been ] blown by evidence supplied to the United Nations by Libya ] and Iran, they are attempting to pin all the blame on a ] single scientist while stonewalling any international ] investigation. On Wednesday Abdul Qadeer Khan, the chief ] designer of Pakistan's atomic weapons, confessed on ] television to selling his work through an international ] black market and claimed he acted alone -- contradicting ] his previous implication of Mr. Musharraf and other top ] generals. ] What's hard to believe is the Bush ] administration's reaction to it. Rather than moving to ] impose sanctions on Pakistan -- action that might be ] expected for a government that has been caught providing ] the technology for nuclear weapons to such countries as ] Iran, Libya and North Korea -- it has swallowed his ] coverup and even congratulated him on it. "We value the ] commitments Mr. Musharraf has made to prevent the ] expertise in Pakistan from reaching other places," State ] Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday. "We ] think that Pakistan is taking serious efforts to end the ] activities of a dangerous network." As for the pardon of ] Mr. Khan -- who by Pakistan's account is probably the ] worst criminal in the history of nuclear weapons ] proliferation -- "I don't think it's a matter for the ] United States to sit in judgment on," Mr. Boucher said. Anyone still want to argue that Iraq was/is our biggest threat? Giving Pakistan a Pass (washingtonpost.com) |