Every time you take an introspective look at the Western world’s favourite nuclear story — Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s X-files — you can’t but escape the explanation rendered by the 19th century French polymath above.
While being no apologist for the much acclaimed and much lampooned ‘father of the Islamic bomb’, you can’t but help feel sorry for him. He may have been boastful about his achievements and a publicity-seeking maniac to some but his services in pioneering Pakistan’s nuclear programme are way too significant and critical to ignore.
Few can deny or condone nuclear proliferation from Pakistan to the end recipient(s) whether they be so-called rogue countries, groups or individuals. But to have chosen Dr A Q Khan for solitary punishment is palpably unfair, especially since his alleged singular involvement was never established beyond doubt.
In short, it was just Musharraf regime’s word against Dr Khan.
Far from being given a fair hearing — and one does not imply a trial here since that is anathema to the powers-that-be in Pakistan —  the disgraced nuclear scientist was forced to go public on state-run television and confess to all the nuclear wrongdoing this side of the Indus.
The 2004 TV confession was so farcical (reading from a script, Dr Khan absolved the army to entirely own up to nuclear proliferation) that no-one, including the cynical West bought the scripted mea culpa.
Excerpt from that February 5, 2004 televised speech:
“However, it pains me to realise this in retrospect that my entire lifetime achievement of providing foolproof national security to my nation could have been placed in serious jeopardy on account of my activities, which were based in good faith, but on errors of judgment related to unauthorised proliferation activities.
“I wish to place on record that those of my subordinates who accepted their role in the affair were acting in good faith, like me, on my instructions. I also wish to clarify that there was never ever any kind of authorisation for these activities by the government.
“I take full responsibility for my actions and seek your pardon. I give an assurance, my dear brothers and sisters, that such activities will never take place in the future and I also appeal to all citizens of Pakistan in the supreme national interest to refrain from any further speculations and not to politicise this extremely sensitive issue of national security.”
To the astonishment of many, United States, which had championed the Western tirade against Dr Khan for two decades and harrassed each succeding regime in Islamabad to keep a tab on the nuclear scientist and even hand him over following sustained leaks of nuclear proliferation simply looked the other way when some “evidence” finally, emerged.
The reason was simple: Washington wanted Pakistan’s unstinted support in the war-on-terror and that could possibly be done only by ignoring/overlooking the X-files. Indicting the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agencies would have rendered any prospective role by them in the terror war ineffective.
Making Dr Khan a scapegoat therefore, appeared to be the best compromise for under-fire Musharraf and the Americans.
The so-called pardon must rank as a treasured piece of brinkmanship for sheer audacity. The day after Musharraf conveniently “pardoned” the decorated nuke scientist following his forced confession and apology, Washington’s reaction was quite revealing.
The Bush Administration said in the war on terrorism, it was not their goal to denounce or imprison people but “to get results.”
“It’s just another case where you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” an administration official explained.
The US also refrained from applying further direct pressure on Pakistan to disclose more about Dr Khan’s activities due to a strategic calculation that such pressure might topple Musharraf.
Lt-General Khalid Ahmad Kidwai, Director General Strategic Plans Division, said last week that Dr Khan had breached his promise not to give any statement on the sensitive issue.
Of course, no mention was made of the numerous promises made to the detained scientist four years ago and as late as last month when some confidantes of retired General Musharraf met him to request him to hold his fire against the beleaguered president.
They were referring to a spate of statements from Dr Khan following a relaxation in his terms of detention by the PPP government.
As a quid pro quo, Dr Khan was promised a revisit on his terms of detention, which was interpreted as an eventual release for the revered Pakistani hero.
However, when it became obvious that Musharraf had only used it as a ploy to escape the political heat focused on his impeachment, Dr Khan threatened to do a full Monty on the protagonists in the nuclear bazaar.
His statement last week that the nuclear centrifuges were shipped to North Korea in the millennium year under the direct supervision of the army with the probable consent of Musharraf was sensational for its timing but not necessarily, content.
No-one with even a remote idea of how the nuclear store has been and is minded in Pakistan — the command-and-control is reckoned to be one of the best in the world with layers and layers of security — will ever buy the flippant idea that Dr Khan was simply selling nuclear designs like cookies without the real McCoy (the army) even having a whiff.
In the days to come, Dr Khan and the combo of Pakistani officialdom, army and intelligence agencies may face the heat, especially if freedom for Dr Khan is not forthcoming.
The combo is understandably, in a state of permanent denial about the alleged involvement given the dangerous implications of even such a suggestion.