Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=02/10/04

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

NAME=PAKISTAN'S NUCLEAR CONTROVERSY

NUMBER= 6-130251

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=203-4301

CONTENT=

INTRO: The American press is voicing a unified opinion of the nuclear weapons controversy surrounding Pakistan, after that nation admitted its top scientist sold nuclear secrets to other nations. We get a sampling now from V-O-A's _____________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf recently disclosed that the man called the father of his nation's nuclear bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has admitted selling secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran. Soon afterwards, Mr. Khan went on national television to apologize. President Musharraf then pardoned him. An infuriated U-S press feels this proliferation lapse could not have been carried out without the government's knowledge. Here's The Los Angeles Times.

VOICE: . [Mr.] Musharraf's pardon . may short-circuit complaints from hard-line Muslims . that he has torn down a man whose scientific exploits made Pakistan secure against India and gave an Islamic nation the bomb. . But if Washington is publicly silent, it should be privately thundering for answers . [on which]. companies . provided him with metals for centrifuges and other technology and the names of those to whom he gave nuclear blueprints . to make weapons.

TEXT: In Chicago, the Tribune is also furious at the crime, and suggests a course of action.

VOICE: [Mr.] Khan should be remembered by history as one of the most notorious nuclear criminals, handing the world's most dangerous technology to rogue regimes capable of passing nuclear weapons to terrorists. He should pay for those crimes; [Mr.] Musharraf's slap on the wrist [Editors: slang for "extremely light punishment"] is ludicrous. But what's more critical than . punishment for (Mr.) Khan is that he and the Pakistani government cooperate with the I-A-E-A [International Atomic Energy Agency] to investigate the recently uncovered underground supermarket for nuclear technology.

TEXT: Boston's Christian Science Monitor proclaims: "Selling nuclear-weapons technology on the black market should be a crime against humanity. But not in Pakistan, where first it can get you rich and then, after you're caught by foreigners, a slap on the wrist and a presidential pardon." On New York's Long Island, Newsday calls the incident ". one of the worst scandals in half a century of global efforts to halt nuclear proliferation." And in Tennessee, Chattanooga's Free Press adds:

VOICE: What an outrageously dangerous thing [Mr.] Khan has done! What good does an "apology" do now to safeguard the world from Communist North Korea and Iran?

TEXT: An incredulous Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania says:

VOICE: It's hard to believe that General Musharraf and the Pakistani army didn't know about (Mr.) Khan's dealings. The military helped him ship some of the nuclear wares he sold. But perhaps he can still provide information on others who were part of his nuclear "Sam's Club," [Editors: a snide, slang reference to a popular, large network of U-S discount stores"] as former U-S weapons hunter David Kay called it.

TEXT: Lastly, yet more criticism from The Washington [D-C] Times, which says in part: "The global audience . is horrified by his reckless endangerment of the international community."

And with that comment, we conclude this sampling of editorial reaction to the nuclear proliferation debacle.

NEB/ANG/MEM