- By Shivangi Sharma
- Sun, 23 Nov 2025 11:59 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
A former CIA operations officer has offered one of the most dramatic inside accounts yet of Pakistan’s nuclear proliferation saga, describing how President Pervez Musharraf reacted when confronted with evidence that Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, was secretly selling nuclear technology abroad.
James Lawler, who helped lead the CIA’s covert mission to dismantle AQ Khan’s global trafficking network, shared the revelations in a recent interview, shedding new light on internal tensions, intelligence operations, and Pakistan’s response to the scandal.
CIA Confronts Musharraf With 'Irrefutable' Evidence
According to Lawler, the turning point came when US intelligence briefed Pakistan’s top leadership with what he called “absolutely incontrovertible evidence” of Khan’s proliferation activities. CIA Director George Tenet personally informed Musharraf that Khan had been leaking Pakistan’s nuclear secrets to “at least the Libyans and maybe others.”
Lawler recalled Musharraf’s furious response, an outburst that captured the scale of shock inside Pakistan’s military establishment. “I’m going to kill that son of a b**ch,” Musharraf reportedly said before ultimately choosing a more controlled punishment.
Shortly afterward, Khan was placed under a years-long house arrest, effectively ending his ability to operate his clandestine network.
AQ Khan’s Global Network and CIA’s Sabotage Strategy
Lawler revealed that the CIA had already gathered substantial proof showing that Khan’s network was supplying nuclear technology and components to multiple foreign programmes. He said Khan had “certain Pakistani generals and leaders on his payroll,” though he stressed this did not amount to an officially sanctioned state operation.
Lawler said intelligence officials were initially slow to grasp the full extent of AQ Khan’s operations, explaining that Khan had become an “outward proliferator” exporting nuclear technology overseas. “I started calling Khan the ‘Merchant of Death,’” he noted, highlighting Khan’s vast network and the decades-long shift from sourcing technology for Pakistan to distributing it to other countries.
The CIA officer also detailed the agency’s sabotage campaign, explaining how US intelligence ensured that sensitive equipment destined for illicit nuclear programmes would never work properly. “Centrifuge facilities were particularly vulnerable,” he noted. “We made sure things would constantly break and not work.”
This covert disruption played a critical role in slowing the spread of nuclear technology to states like Libya, Iran, and North Korea.
Post-9/11 Fears
Lawler emphasised that after the 9/11 attacks, the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center and Director George Tenet were determined to ensure that AQ Khan was not funnelling nuclear materials to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups. This led to intensified monitoring of Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure.