doweshowbellyad0 washington pakistans military ruler pervez musharraf may consider a q khan his hero but us president george bush thinks the internationally disgraced nuclear engineer is a thief and a criminal nuclear proliferator a q khan supporters burn poster of musharraf in lahore ap photo in a lengthy and tough exposition on khan and his activities in course of a landmark address on nuclear issues bush alternately indicted and absolved pakistan of proliferation while scoffing at the countrys veneration of its nuclear godfather a q khan is known throughout the world as the father of pakistans nuclear weapons programme bush began in a direct attack on pakistans nuclear nationalist what was not publicly known until recently is that he also led an extensive international network for proliferation of nuclear technology and knowhow for decades bush said in an oblique indictment of successive regimes in islamabad khan remained on the pakistani government payroll earning a modest salary yet he and his associates financed lavish lifestyles through the sale of nuclear technologies and equipment to outlaw regimes stretching from north africa to the korean peninsulabush said khan and his associates sold the blueprints for centrifuges and nuclear bomb designs in some cases they also sold centrifuges itself and uranium hexafluoride the gas that the centrifuge process can transform into enriched uranium for nuclear bombs despite listing such egregious proliferation the us president partially absolved islamabad of the khans criminal activities saying at least in the case of a nuclear bomb design sold to libya it was stolen from the pakistani government but in other cases he left open the issue of pakistani complicity while suggesting khan made the actual transfers bush disclosed that musharraf has now promised to share all the information he learns about the khan network and has assured us that his country will never again be a source of proliferationbush also publicly named for the first time khans accomplice sri lankaborn b s a tahir who ran a computer business in dubai and fronted for khans proliferation activities acting as his chief financial officer and money launderer in his speech at the national defense university bush also proposed changes in the nuclear nonproliferation treaty that allows countries to develop peaceful atomic energy in return for a verifiable pledge not to build nuclear weaponspointing that the agreement was exploited by countries such as north korea and iran bush instead suggested countries which needed nuclear energy could be