The Most Dangerous Man You've Never Heard Of...

(WUSA) -- He is the man who helped Iran, North Korea and Libya get their hands on nuclear blueprints.

His name is Abdul Qadeer Khan and belive it or not, he is regarded by most in his home country of Pakistan as a national hero.

In fact, Khan is considered the father of Pakistan's nuclear program.

"He brought back from the Netherlands apparently, some materials that he had stolen," says former State Department analyst Marvin Weinbaum. According to Weinbaum, Khan did more than assemble the team that developed the bomb.

"There's probably no greater proliferator than A. Q Khan," Weinbaum says.

In the 70's, 80's and 90's, Khan went on to share nuclear secrets with many of the world's so called rogue nations.

Says Weinbaum, "He had particularly good ties in Saudi Arabia."

Eventually, pressure from the West lead to Khan being placed under house arrest for five years but Pakistan's version of house arrest amounts to quite a lavish lifestyle.

"We joke about the fact that he had a hotel in Timbuk Tu... on the other hand (he had), no freedom of movement to go around the country or certainly to leave the country," says Weinbaum.

And house arrest did not include Pakistan offering the United States a chance to interrogate Khan.

"They never have given us access to him and that's a real sore spot and we accepted it because that was the price of keeping, we thought, Pakistan cooperative in the war against Al Queda and the Taliban," says Weinbaum. "So we paid that price."