Update: In a separate telephone interview with McClatchy, Khan has now explicitly said his involvement in nuclear proliferation was overstated, and that, “he’d only introduced those two “rogue” regimes to Western businessmen who provided the technology and the know-how for their fledgling nuclear-weapons programs.” As much as I hate to agree with David Albright, in this case he is correct:

Told of Khan’s defense, David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector who now heads the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said simply: “He’s just lying; the facts are established.”

The “facts” refer to what we know of how Khan’s proliferation network operated – information obtained independently before his 2004 confession, including data in 2000 and from Libya and Iran in 2003.

Unless Khan can provide some very convincing evidence to the contrary, there is really is no debate about his guilt in this case; he proliferated nuclear technology and enrichment equipment (PDF), including to North Korea.

Original post: Adding to comments made by Pakistani scientists and nuclear proliferator AQ Khan earlier this year, the New York Times is claiming Khan has “withdrawn” his 2004 confession, while the Telegraph claims he has “retracted” it. Neither are contextually correct or accurate. This is what those two sources report Khan has said on the subject:

“It was not of my own free will. It was handed into my hand. . . If one person takes responsibility, you save the country.”

Those comments do in fact not amount to either a retraction or recanting. Additional comments made by Khan – and not in either the NYT or the Telegraph – help complete the picture:

When asked if he had been involved in leaking nuclear secrets to any other country, Dr Khan said he was not a part of any illegal or unauthorised deal in any way.

“This one sentence covers the whole thing,” he asserted.

On being asked if he was willing to speak to officials of US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency, he said: “Why should we. We are an independent country, we have not violated any international law, we are not signatory to the NPT, I am a free man, we have no obligation, then why should I agree to that?” (emphasis added)

Rather than recanting his confession, as suggested by the NYT and the Telegraph, AQ Khan is clearly implying that he proliferated nuclear technology and materials with the knowledge and approval of the Pakistani government, but not that such transfers did not occur.