During the first presidential debate a few weeks ago, Bush was anxious to convince voters how successful he’s been in executing the war on terror. In particular, Bush boasted about bringing a notorious Pakistani scientist to justice who was selling nuclear secrets — design plans and components — to North Korea.
“We continue to pursue our policy of disrupting those who proliferate weapons of mass destruction…. The A.Q. Khan network has been brought to justice,” Bush said. He added, “We busted the A.Q. Khan network. This was a proliferator out of Pakistan that was selling secrets to places like North Korea and Libya.”
On its face, this was an odd thing for Bush to brag about. Far from bring Khan “to justice,” Bush signed off on a deal in which Khan was slapped on the wrist by Pakistani officials and is now a free man, living a very luxurious life. As for “busting” Khan’s network, none of Khan’s cohorts has been charged with a crime.
But as it turns out, the back story on Bush’s approach to Abdul Qadeer Khan is far more troubling.
The White House was told about Khan’s nuclear-selling network almost immediately after Bush took office — but they were slow to act on it. Indeed, British officials encouraged the administration to take Khan’s network more seriously, but the administration pursued awkward and fruitless negotiations with Pakistan, which only gave Khan more time to expand his growing business.
[In July 2002,] Blair’s government argued with increasing vigor, officials of both countries said, that it was time to confront Pakistan about Khan and stop the operation of his network.
“We disagreed,” said a senior U.S. policymaker, who would not permit quotation by name on the dispute between allies. Moving immediately, he said, would have closed opportunities for covert surveillance.
It was yet another costly Bush administration mistake.
Bush eventually struck a sweetheart deal for Khan — a year and a half after learning of the problem in the first place and after Khan had already helped worsen the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.
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