PAKISTAN Official: Founder admits sharing nuclear details

An official said the deals with other nations were not government-authorized.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The founder of Pakistan's nuclear program has acknowledged in a written statement that he sent sensitive technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea to aid their atomic programs, a Pakistani government official said.
Abdul Qadeer Khan -- long regarded as a national hero in Pakistan -- made the confession in a statement submitted "a couple of days ago" to investigators probing allegations of nuclear proliferation by Pakistan, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity today.
The transfers were made during the late 1980s and early and mid-1990s, and were motivated by "personal greed and ambition," the official said.
The official said the transfers were not authorized by the government.
A meeting of the National Command Authority that controls Pakistan's nuclear program was briefed on the statement at a meeting Saturday, when Khan was sacked from his position as a scientific adviser to the prime minister.
Two senior military officials briefed a number of Pakistani journalists late Sunday about Khan's confession. Khan had previously been reported as denying any wrongdoing.
They told journalists that Khan admitted to selling outdated "drawings and machinery" to the three countries to earn money for Pakistan. However, Khan said the transfers to Libya and Iran were also motivated by a desire to help other Muslim countries become nuclear powers, two journalists who attended the briefing said.
The government official said the two-month probe into the proliferation allegations had reached its conclusion but said it was up to the authority to decide whether to prosecute Khan and other suspects in the case.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who heads the authority, is due to make an address to the nation about the progress of the investigation after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, which ends Thursday in Pakistan, officials said.
Pakistan began its investigation in November after revelations by Tehran to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog. Allegations of nuclear transfers to Libya and North Korea have also surfaced.
The government official said "questions have been put" to two former army chiefs, Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg and Gen. Jehangir Karamat, to check information provided by Khan and other suspects during the "debriefings."
The official stressed that the two generals were not the focus of the investigation. He said they told investigators they never authorized nuclear transfers.
However, the official said the probe had concluded there had been a lapse in security that allowed the transfers to take place, although no blame had been apportioned.
Secret program
Analysts say many unanswered questions remain over how powerful generals who oversaw Pakistan's nuclear program that began in the 1970s -- with the aim of creating a military deterrent against rival India -- could have been so in the dark about any nuclear transfers by its scientists.
The mission to create the bomb was conducted in secret, using black market suppliers to circumvent international restrictions on trade in nuclear-related technology. Pakistan conducted its first nuclear test in 1998.
In all, 11 employees of the Khan Research Laboratories, a top nuclear facility named after Khan, have been questioned since November, and some subsequently released. Officials say three scientists and four security officials -- military officers among them -- are still being investigated.
Six are held in custody in an undisclosed location. Khan has been told to stay at his Islamabad home, where he is guarded with tight security.