Reading: Jeremy Bernstein on A.Q. Khan

Posted by Ethan Casey on May 1, 2009 · Leave a Comment 

The April 9 issue of The New York Review of Books includes a short article on A. Q. Khan by Jeremy Bernstein, a physicist who worked at Los Alamos and author of Plutonium: A History of the World’s Most Dangerous Element. Here’s some food for thought from that piece:

I think that it is fair to say that at first Khan’s motives were patriotic. He wanted desperately for Pakistan to have the bomb. But it was not long before his megalomania took over. He identified himself with the Pakistani bomb and he seemed to think he could sell any parts or technology associated with the program that he wanted. …

Some of Khan’s proliferation was surely done with the collusion of the Pakistani government. Pakistani military aircraft took centrifuge technology to North Korea and returned with missiles by way of payment. …

Bernstein also quotes Dr. Khan saying, this February when the government lifted his house arrest:

Let them talk. Are they happy with our God? Are they happy with our prophet? Are they happy with our leaders? Never, so why should we bother what they say about us?

I recognize and respect the delicacy of Musharraf’s position in the A.Q. Khan situation; I was in Pakistan at the time of his arrest, in December 2003. I know from encounters both past and very recent that many, if not most, Pakistani regard Dr. Khan as a national hero.
But his words quoted above seem remarkably childhish. Who is this “they” he’s referring to? For my part, I’m not unhappy with Pakistanis’ God or prophet, and I’m happy with some of their leaders but not others. So what? I think it’s worse than irresponsible for someone who has done the things A.Q. Khan has done to cloak them as he’s doing in “our God” and “our prophet”. It’s not a matter of religion – is it?

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