United States Secretary of State Colin Powell continues to assure a sceptical Congress that the disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan's nuclear proliferation network is 'completely broken up and will never go back to business'.
On the eve of his visit to South Asia, Powell is also seeking from the Congress $700 million in American economic and military largesse for Pakistan.
Appearing before the House Subcommittee on Foreign Operations of the Appropriations Committee -- the panel that authorises foreign aid -- Powell first made a strong pitch for the massive aid to Pakistan.
"Pakistan has apprehended more than 500 al Qaeda terrorists and members of the Taliban through the leadership of President Musharraf, stronger border security measures and law enforcement cooperation throughout the country," he said.
"One of the aspects of the war on terrorism that gives us a particular sense of urgency is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These terrible weapons are becoming easier to hide, to acquire and to transport," he said.
But he declared that as far as the 'nefarious network, that of A Q Khan', that network 'has now been uncovered.
"We are learning more and more about it. It is out of business and it will not go back into business," he assured the committee.
"I know there are questions about what should happen to Mr A Q Khan at this point, and this is a matter that the Pakistani authorities will have to deal with. Dr Khan is considered something of a national hero in Pakistan for helping to create a nuclear deterrent for Pakistan," he said.
"But at the same time, he was doing things which were totally inconsistent with his obligations, totally inconsistent with proliferation activities. We pointed it out to the Pakistanis. We provided them the intelligence information. New revelations that became known to us as a result of our efforts in Libya were presented to the Pakistani authorities, and as you know, Dr A Q Khan acknowledged what he had done, went on television, and we are now learning more and more," he said.
"He (Khan) is fully cooperating with Pakistani authorities, who are providing us information," he said.
"President Musharraf determined that, at this point, the best outcome for Pakistan, and to make sure this network truly was dug up and removed root and branch, was to provide a conditional amnesty to Dr Khan, a conditional amnesty that can be reversed if President Musharraf believes that cooperation is inadequate or he believes another set of actions are appropriate," Powell said
Powell claimed that 'men and women of our own and other intelligence services have done superb and often dangerous work to disclose these operations to the light of day'.
"Now, we and our friends and allies are working around the clock to get all the details of this network and other networks to shut them down permanently," he said. "We know that this network, the Khan network, fed nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea."
"The nexus of terrorists and weapons of mass destruction is a unique threat. It comes not with ships and fighters and tank divisions, but clandestinely in the dark of night. And the consequences are devastating. No president can afford to ignore such a threat, and President Bush is not and will not ignore it," he said.
Pakistan's nuclear bazaar
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