Why did CIA protect Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan

In an interview to a Dutch radio, VPRO Argos Radio on August 9, 2005, Dr Lubbers, the former Dutch Prime Minister revealed that the Pakistani metallurgist Dr A.Q. Khan was arrested in 1975 for espionage and in 1988 for illegal entry into Holland. On both occasions he was allowed to go scot-free because of the CIA’s intervention.

In 1992, according to Dr Lubbers, Dr A.Q.Khan wanted to visit Holland to see his ailing father-in-law (his wife is a Dutch). While he was for refusing visa to Dr A.Q.Khan, the case for visa was sponsored by no less a person than the head of the Dutch secret service, BVD, Arthur Dokters Van Leeuwen. A BVD person received Dr A.Q.Khan on his arrival at Schipol airport. The BVD was presumably acting under instructions from American intelligence agencies.

Dr Lubbers said: "If you were to study the archives, you would find that the American intelligence agencies -- I am absolutely certain of it -- kept a record of how closely they watched the man and what he was upto, etc. They thought as such they were doing a terrific job."

When it was pointed out by the presenter of the programme that still Dr A Q Khan continued, Dr Lubbers replied, “Yes, but that is the shortcoming of the management. And yes, that’s when we saw it was the leader of the free world. And we do take quite seriously the fact that they did a lot of good things. But they were not able to subdue the monster of proliferation, to put it that way.”

Complimenting the Dutch secret service, on doing a good job, Dr Lubbers concluded, “The BVD reported it to its counterpart in Washington. The counterpart in Washington then follows a course that amounts to let him go and we will gain more information. And that is where things start to go wrong.”

He added as a final thought: “It also indicates the peculiar situation that important problems are handled by the intelligence agencies. There is something unhealthy about it.”

Contrary to what Mr Bush, Mr Blair and Mr Tenet said, A.Q.Khan was not only under close watch of the CIA during the period he was proliferating to Iran but was also helped by the CIA and the Dutch secret service to get entry visa to Holland in 1992. That would indicate that there has been considerable economising of truth with regard to the CIA’s relationship with A.Q.Khan by both US and British leaderships going back to 1975.

It seems that the CIA wanted to keep track of A.Q.Khan’s activities so that they could get more information on Pakistan’s nuclear program.