Ever since the Khan Nuke scandal broke in Pakistan, I have suspected there may be a LOT more to it (see below).

But first...Seymour Hersh has exposed the latest twist in this festering scandal.

The American task force, aided by the information from Pakistan, has been penetrating eastern Iran from Afghanistan in a hunt for underground installations. The task-force members, or their locally recruited agents, secreted remote detection devices - known as sniffers - capable of sampling the atmosphere for radioactive emissions and other evidence of nuclear-enrichment programs.

Getting such evidence is a pressing concern for the Bush Administration. The former high-level intelligence official told me, "They don't want to make any W.M.D. 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 Pakistani 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 I.A.E.A. or to any other international authorities for questioning. For two decades, Khan has been linked to a vast consortium of nuclear-black-market activities. Last year, Musharraf professed to be shocked when Khan, in the face of overwhelming evidence, "confessed" to his activities. A few days later, Musharraf pardoned him, and so far he has refused to allow the I.A.E.A. or American intelligence to interview him. Khan is now said to be living under house arrest in a villa in Islamabad. "It's a deal-a trade-off," the former high-level intelligence official explained. "'Tell us what you know about Iran and we will let your A. Q. Khan guys go.' It's the neoconservatives' version of short-term gain at long-term cost. They want to prove that Bush is the anti-terrorism guy who can handle Iran and the nuclear threat, against the long-term goal of eliminating the black market for nuclear proliferation."

The agreement comes at a time when Musharraf, according to a former high-level Pakistani diplomat, has authorized the expansion of Pakistan's nuclear-weapons arsenal. "Pakistan still needs parts and supplies, and needs to buy them in the clandestine market," the former diplomat said. "The U.S. has done nothing to stop it."

 Whenever I hear about US-Pakistan intrigue, it sparks my interest, especially stories about Pakistan's rogue nuke scientist A.Q. Khan. Back when this scandal first broke a year ago, it reminded me of Iran-Contra type shenanigans... especially when Greg Palast reported this at the time:

On November 7, 2001, BBC TV and the Guardian of London reported that the Bush administration thwarted investigations of Dr. A.Q. Khan who this week confessed selling atomic secrets to Libya, North Korea, and Iran. The Bush Administration has expressed shock at the disclosures that Pakistan, our ally in the war on terror, has been running a nuclear secrets bazaar. In fact, according to the British News Team's sources', Bush did not know of these facts because, shortly after his inauguration, his National Security Agency (NSA) defectively stymied the probe of Khan Research Laboratories. CIA and other agents could not investigate the spread of 'Islamic Bombs' through Pakistan because funding appeared to originate in Saudi Arabia... According to both sources and documents obtained by the BBC, the Bush Administration 'Spike' of the investigation of Dr. Khan's Lab followed from a wider policy of protecting key Saudi Arabians including the bin Laden Family"...

The point is that intelligence agencies under Clinton, based on many other leads as well, were following up on the Saudi connection until the Bush team interfered.

This made me wonder if the Saudis used BCCI in the '80's to finance this "spread of Islamic bombs", back when Khan started his career in the blackmarket? Then, after the BCCI scandal and dissolution, were money laundering networks patterned after BCCI used -- such as those that financed Al Qaeda?

Or, as I wrote at the end of this quoted excerpt to a Chicago Sun-Times article (link since expired)...

Pakistani Who Sold Nuke Tech Can Keep Wealth; Bush Gives Musharraf the High Five
09-Feb-04
Pakistan

"President Pervez Musharraf has pledged that the disgraced founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program can keep the vast wealth he accumulated selling bomb-making technology to rogue states around the world. Just days after Musharraf provoked worldwide consternation by pardoning Abdul Qadeer Khan for supplying nuclear expertise to Libya, Iran and North Korea, he told the Sunday Telegraph he would also spare the scientist's property or assets. 'He can keep his money,' Musharraf said, adding there had been good reason not to investigate the origin of Khan's suspicious wealth before 1998, when Pakistan successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. '...you have to ask yourself whether you act against the person who enabled you to get the bomb.' Khan is thought to have earned millions of dollars from his sale of nuclear know-how, beginning in the late 1980s. Much of the money was funneled through bank accounts in the Middle East." Which bank? The Saudi-CIA laundromat, BCCI?

Further fueling my suspicions was this Sy Hersh article I posted in March...

THE DEAL: Bush, Musharraf and Nuclear Blackmarkets

03-Mar-04

Pakistan

Seymour Hersh writes: "A Bush Administration intelligence officer with years of experience in nonproliferation issues told me last month, 'One thing we do know is that this was not a rogue operation. Suppose Edward Teller had suddenly decided to spread nuclear technology and equipment around the world. Do you really think he could do that without the government knowing? How do you get missiles from North Korea to Pakistan? Do you think A.Q. shipped all the centrifuges by Federal Express? The military has to be involved, at high levels... We had every opportunity to put a stop to the A. Q. Khan network fifteen years ago. Some of those involved today in the smuggling are the children of those we knew about in the eighties. It's the second generation now.' In public, the Bush Administration accepted the pardon at face value. Within hours of Musharraf's television appearance, Richard Armitage, the Deputy Secretary of State, praised him as 'the right man at the right time.'"

It also made me wonder if any of the usual suspects were involved -- the guys we know from Iran-Contra (such as Armitage!), Iraqgate and the Reagan-Bush-CIA funding of the Mujahideen. (Of course, apart from the Saudi financing, this is just pure speculation, unless some investigator finds out more).

As for Bush's current Iran-for-Khan deal, keep in mind what whistleblower Karen Kwiatkowski said:

"What these people are doing now makes Iran-Contra [a Reagan administration national security scandal] look like amateur hour. . . it's worse than Iran-Contra, worse than what happened in Vietnam," said Karen Kwiatkowski, a former air force lieutenant-colonel.

Or as Jim Lobe called current Bush policy, "Iran-Contra, Amplified"