Left Flank

Hendrina Khan's account of A.Q. Khan's, her husband's, innocence is a patently opportunistic attempt to capitalize on General Pervez Musharraf's downfall, to exonerate her family's name.

In her dossier, Hendrina Khan denies that her husband made millions with his black market deals and used the money to buy expensive real estate in Islamabad, Dubai, London and Timbuktu, as the Pakistani government has claimed. She also denies that there was an Iranian connection, which Western experts believe is certain, and admits to only two North Korea trips, whereas insiders have counted no fewer than 12. As clearly and understandably partisan as the scientist's wife is, and as rosy the picture she seeks to paint of him and his endeavors is, this does not detract from the credibility of her central accusation that her husband only ever «executed the instructions he was given» by the government.

(...)

It cannot be ruled out that a dossier from Islamabad will be the political nail in his coffin, a document written by a woman who fears for the life of her husband, one of the fathers of the Pakistani bomb.

It's all very dramatic, and beside the point. Both Khan and Musharraf are guilty.

The love of a woman is a rotten thing.

In an account given to SPIEGEL, the wife of Pakistani nuclear scientist
Abdul Qadir Khan lodges serious accusations against President Pervez
Musharraf. She claims her husband, currently under house arrest, was
not a nuclear dealer, and that he only ever «executed the instructions
he was given» by the government. A trip to North Korea, she alleges,
was carried out «at the specific request» of Musharraf.

In his 2006 memoir, «In the Line of Fire,» Musharraf claimed «with
confidence» that neither he nor his government nor any member of
Pakistan's Army had any prior knowledge of A.Q. Khan's alleged nuclear
network. «On the basis of the thorough probe that we conducted in
2003-2004,» Musharraf wrote, «I can say with confidence that neither
the Pakistan Army nor any of the past governments of Pakistan was ever
involved or had any knowledge of A.Q.'s proliferation activities. The
show was completely A.Q.'s.»

Khan's perfidy predates Musharraf's stewardship, buts it's a toss-up which scumbag smells worse in this regard. But, throwing an accomplice under the bus never seemed so romantic.