Former CIA official John Kiriakou has made a shocking claim: that the US opted not to kill Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist who is widely considered to be the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, after Saudi Arabia stepped in directly.
Khan, who is commonly called the “father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb,” was very important in establishing Pakistan the first Islamic nuclear power in the world. He was also accused of conducting a secret nuclear proliferation network that gave countries like North Korea, Iran, and Libya access to technology and knowledge.
Saudi Arabia Stopped CIA Operation
Kiriakou, who worked for the CIA for 15 years, first as an analyst and then in counterterrorism operations, told ANI that the agency had very good information about Khan’s whereabouts and movements, making him an easy target. The Saudi authorities, on the other hand, put pressure on the mission to stop.
“A coworker of mine was working with AQ Khan. We would have just killed him if we had done what the Israelis did. It was easy to find him. We knew where he was. Kiriakou added, “We knew how he spent his day.”
He also said that Saudi authorities got involved and told the US not to go ahead.
“The Saudis came to us and said, “Please leave him alone.” We like AQ Khan. We are working with AQ Khan. We are close to the people of Pakistan… Faisalabad got its name from King Faisal. “Just leave him alone,” he said.
“White House Told CIA to Back Off”
Kiriakou said that while working with the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee later, he found out that officials from both the CIA and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had confirmed that the White House had ordered the operation to stop, supposedly because Saudi Arabia insisted.
“It had to be because the Saudis were demanding it, insisting on it,” he claimed, hinting that Saudi Arabia’s protection of Khan may have been tied to its own nuclear ambitions.
“We often wondered if it was because the Saudis were also working on their own nuclear weapons. He said, “I think that’s something we should probably think about.”
What did Abdul Qadeer Khan do?
Khan was born in Bhopal, India, in 1936. After the Partition, he moved to Pakistan in 1952. He became a national hero after running Pakistan’s uranium enrichment program, which led to the country’s first successful nuclear test in 1998.
However, Khan’s legacy was hurt by accusations that he managed a global nuclear smuggling network and gave critical technology to renegade regimes. In 2004, he was put under house arrest after admitting to spreading weapons, although he was let go later.
Khan died in Islamabad in October 2021 at the age of 85.
The meaning and background
Kiriakou’s allegations have brought back up conversations regarding Saudi Arabia’s past connections to Pakistan’s nuclear program and Washington’s political calculations in South Asia and the Middle East. Experts say the assertion shows how complicated diplomacy, intelligence, and nuclear politics were in the early 2000s.