US aware of Pak's nuke bomb plans, almost clueless about Khan's proliferation activities

The United States knew about some of Pakistan's efforts to acquire its own nuclear bomb, but probably much less about A. Q. Khan's cladestine proliferation sales to countries like Libya, Iran and North Korea, says a dossier prepared by UK-based think tank -- International Institute of Strategic Studies.

London, May 3 : The United States knew about some of Pakistan's efforts to acquire its own nuclear bomb, but probably much less about A. Q. Khan's cladestine proliferation sales to countries like Libya, Iran and North Korea, says a dossier prepared by UK-based think tank -- International Institute of Strategic Studies.

According to the account which President Musharraf has doggedly peddled, Khan, the country's most famous nuclear scientist, not only equipped his own country with its first nuclear weapons, but then - acting alone, Musharraf insists - sold to North Korea, Libya and possibly Iran the starter kits that helped them to win nuclear self-sufficiency.

A view is now doing the rounds, according to Times Online, that Khan has done more damage to the cause of peace than Osama bin Laden, and the US has chosen to accept the portrayal of him as a "rogue scientist", acting largely without government help for 20 years to keep alive its partnership with Pakistan in the Global War on Terror.

But even though successive Pakistani governments gave Khan great autonomy from the start, the IISS concludes that "it is logical to assume that the intelligence apparatus did know more than Pakistan has ever let on."

ANI