Pakistan's Musharraf not involved leak nuclear secrets leak: Rumsfeld

WASHINGTON (AFP) Mar 28, 2004
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday he had seen no evidence that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was involved in leaking nuclear secrets, but he could not say if Pakistan's military was involved.

"I do not believe that there's any evidence or any suggestion that President Musharraf was involved," Rumsfeld told ABC television.

He added that Musharraf is a "person with a lot of courage" who has been "tremendously cooperative" in the US "war on terror."

Musharraf has been roiled in a controversy over top Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's involvement in leaking nuclear secrets.

Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, last month publicly confessed that he had shared nuclear secrets with Iran, Libya and North Korea. Musharraf later pardoned Khan.

Asked whether high-level Pakistani military officials could have been involved, Rumsfeld said: "I'm not going to say that."

"That's where -- listen, you can't prove a negative. You can't say that I know that every person connected with the Pakistani military over some sustained period of time had no knowledge or participation whatsoever. That's silly. I couldn't do that."

WAR.WIRE