Terry Gross had an interview with David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C on the topic of nuclear proliferation and AQ Khan in particular. In the interview (click on the listen button), he makes a statement that India was one of the beneficiaries of the Khan network.
Now pause for a second and understand that the seriousness of that statement. a) Khan worked on the nuclear program for Pakistan to defend itself against India and now the same Khan has sold technology to India and b) India bought things in the black market for its nuclear program. Albright says, it was a Khan associate in South Africa, who sold some items to India’s gas centrifuge program and probably Khan was not aware of this, but somehow Albright seems to be aware of it. The justification was, Khan’s associates were motivated by money and not ideology.
But then Khan too was not motivated much by ideology, for he was willing to sell to anyone willing to pay. The customers did not even have to be Islamic states (North Korea), but Islamic states and organizations got preferential treatment. Terry asked him if the Pakistani Govt was involved in all this and why Khan was given such a lenient punishment. Albright replies that Khan stuck a deal with Musharraf and said he would not implicate anyone above him, and in return he and his associates would not be harmed. The claim of Pakistani Govt. not knowing about Khan’s activities is a lie as the deal with North Korea was between the two Governments.
Albright also thinks that North Korea is a “logical” country.