Foreign Policy: AQ Khan stuff in WaPo

SEN. KERRY: There's one particular -- I'm not going to ask you to comment on anything classified, but I am going to ask you to comment on this. "A former high-level intelligence official told me, quote, 'They don't want to make any WMD intelligence mistakes as in Iraq. The Republicans can't have two of those. There's no education in the second kick of a mule.' The official added that the government of Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan president, has won a high price for its cooperation: American assurance that Pakistan will not have to hand over A.Q. Khan, known as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, to the IAEA or to any other international authorities for questioning."

Do you know whether or not that's accurate?

MS. RICE: I will just reiterate what was said about that article by the Defense Department. It is filled with inaccuracies, and it's credibility is sorely lacking.

The --

SEN. KERRY: But on that specific point.

MS. RICE: Let me -- let me just speak to the handling of A.Q. Khan. What we have been concerned about is that we are able to get the information that we need to break up the network. We have not made any deals about what happens with him.

SEN. KERRY: I'm sorry.

MS. RICE: We have not made any deals about what happens with him, but we have been concerned with the Pakistani government to get access to as much information as we possibly can. This is a matter that's being handled by the Pakistanis. It is not our place to talk about what should or should not happen with the IAEA, and we have not.

SEN. KERRY: So what about our own interests and our own efforts with respect to A.Q. Khan?

MS. RICE: Our own interests are being very well served by the fact that A.Q. Khan is now off the market, that we are working with the Pakistanis to get information about what he knows; very well served by cooperation on several -- with several other governments about members of his network. Several of them are in custody, some will be prosecuted. And so our interests are very well being served in this regard.

SEN. KERRY: Are they being served if we don't have direct access to them?

MS. RICE: We believe that we have a working relationship with Pakistan on dealing with the A.Q. Khan matter. At this point, we are getting cooperation from Pakistan on what we need with A.Q. Khan.

SEN. KERRY: But are they being served if we don't have direct access to them?

MS. RICE: They're being served at this point.

SEN. KERRY: Adequately?

MS. RICE: We are getting the information that we need to deal with the A.Q. Khan network.

Senator, I don't know what we will need to ask in the future, but at this point, we have a good working relationship with Pakistan on this matter.

Matters For Further Investigation

There have been a number of matters which the Subcommittee has received some information on, but has not been able to investigate adequately, due such factors as lack of resources, lack of time, documents being withheld by foreign governments, and limited evidentiary sources or witnesses. Some of the main areas which deserve further investigation include:



1. The extent of BCCI's involvement in Pakistan's nuclear program. As set forth in the chapter on BCCI in foreign countries, there is good reason to conclude that BCCI did finance Pakistan's nuclear program through the BCCI Foundation in Pakistan, as well as through BCCI-Canada in the Parvez case. However, details on BCCI's involvement remain unavailable. Further investigation is needed to understand the extent to which BCCI and Pakistan were able to evade U.S. and international nuclear non-proliferation regimes to acquire nuclear technologies.