Speaking of that kind of ally....

Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, has admitted that he gave nuclear weapons technology to Iran, North Korea, and Libya, says CNN for February 5. The motive, according to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, was "money."

His punishment? He was pardoned.

I'm sorry, but this doesn't pass the smell test. Supposedly over a period of roughly 12 years, from the late 1980s to 2000, Khan met with and briefed scientists from the other countries about nuclear technology. He arranged for hardware smuggled out of a nuclear facility outside Islamabad to be shipped to North Korea via Dubai. He oversaw a web of transfers of technology and hardware that involved a number of middlemen in Malaysia and Europe. He supplied designs for uranium enrichment centrifuges that were produced in Malaysia for inclusion in mixed shipments to other locations. And he did it all himself.

And then he got caught.

And then he met with Musharraf.

And then he confessed on national television, saying "There was never ever any kind of authorization for these activities by the government. I take full responsibility for my actions." The government, he said, didn't know one little tiny thing about what he was doing.

And then he was pardoned.

And I don't buy it.

But the US, of course, does.

The United States is standing by Pakistan, a key ally in the war on terrorism.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher praised Pakistan for "addressing the issue in a serious manner."

"We think that the process of investigation that's been undertaken by the Pakistani government does indeed demonstrate that President Musharraf and the government of Pakistan takes seriously their commitments, their assurances that they were not going to allow their technology to be used to help other nations that might be trying to develop weapons of mass destruction."

Yep, they're serious. It goes on for a dozen years and they have no clue. Then they catch the guy - the lone gunman, so to speak - and let him walk. And they're pure, they're innocent, they're clean, they're serious, they're down with it.

And The Bush did see that it was Good, and He smiled upon it.

Update: Edited for clarity with regard to the time frame.

Update: Turns out I'm not the only one with doubts. From the February 3 New York Times:

Opposition parties, political and military experts and relatives of detained officials on Monday questioned Pakistan's assertion that the founder of the country's nuclear program had shared technology with Iran, Libya and North Korea for more than a decade without the knowledge of his superiors.

"This is a cock-and-bull story," said Dr. Muhammad Shafiq, 39, the son of Brig. Sajawal Khan, a retired Pakistani army officer accused of taking part in the scheme. "If you want to believe it, believe it. The truth is nowhere near this story." ...

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a leading military analyst, said it would have been possible for Dr. Khan and his aides to covertly divulge nuclear designs and the names of nuclear component suppliers with other countries without the military knowing.

But he said it would have been impossible to move equipment or parts out of the country's tightly guarded top nuclear facility, the Khan Research Laboratories, without the army's tacit support. Dr. Khan served as director of the laboratory, which is named for him, until 2001. "If hardware is moved out of the country, then the army is directly involved," Mr. Rizvi said.

Nice to have such trustworthy allies, isn't it?