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The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets...And How We Could Have Stopped Him
 
 
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The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets...And How We Could Have Stopped Him [Hardcover]

Douglas Frantz (Author), Catherine Collins (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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From Publishers Weekly

In tackling the story of Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, Frantz and Collins (Death on the Black Sea) are entering a crowded field. As Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark did in Deception (reviewed July 30), this husband-and-wife team divides attention between Khan's influence over Pakistan's nuclear program and how the American government ignored evidence of his progress because Pakistan served as a convenient ally. While much of this story is familiar, Frantz and Collins do provide more detail on Khan's background and draw on several different U.S. sources. (They reveal, for example, that the State Department discussed assassinating Khan as far back as 1978.) They also give the Pakistani government more benefit of the doubt than most other commentators: an internal corruption investigation ordered by Pervez Musharraf shortly after he became Pakistan's president is interpreted as suggesting that Khan's dealing with nations like Libya and Iran might not have been sanctioned by his government. Deception has more about Pakistan's internal politics and an edge in readability and zing, but this is an equally serviceable overview. (Dec. 3)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description

The world has entered a second nuclear age. For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation is on the rise. Should such an assault occur, there is a strong likelihood that the trail of devastation will lead back to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani father of the Islamic bomb and the mastermind behind a vast clandestine enterprise that has sold nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. Khan's loose-knit organization was and still may be a nuclear Wal-Mart, selling weapons blueprints, parts, and the expertise to assemble the works into a do-it-yourself bomb kit. Amazingly, American authorities could have halted his operation, but they chose instead to watch and wait. Khan proved that the international safeguards the world relied on no longer worked.

Journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins tell this alarming tale of international intrigue through the eyes of the European and American officials who suspected Khan, tracked him, and ultimately shut him down, but only after the nuclear genie was long out of the bottle.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, Aug 26 2011
This review is from: The Man from Pakistan: The True Story of the World's Most Dangerous Nuclear Smuggler (Paperback)
The book details the rise of A.Q. Khan who was instramental in developing the Islamic bomb in Pakistan (Pakistani nuclear weapons) and who also smuggled nuclear equipment to other countries.
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Amazon.com: 3.8 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A disturbing and fascinating read, Dec 29 2007
By Rick Winrod - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets...And How We Could Have Stopped Him (Hardcover)
This frightening book traces the development of the "Islamic Bomb," from the partitioning of Pakistan and India thru its present day implications. The authors do a superb job of running parallel story lines including an exploration of the motives of A.Q. Khan, who rose from a marginal clerk to the world's first nuclear black marketeer, and the missed opportunities the US had thru multiple administrations to retard Pakistani nuclear ambitions and prevent proliferation.

It's hard to put this book down once you pick it up. I was hooked in the prologue. An easy-to-read style backed up with copious research.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary Reporting, Jan 15 2008
By William C. Rempel - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets...And How We Could Have Stopped Him (Hardcover)
No one has penetrated the shadows surrounding A.Q. Khan as thoroughly and incisively as Frantz and Collins. Their extraordinary access to key players, witnesses and other original sources especially elevates Nuclear Jihadist. It is a remarkable work of journalism by masterful reporters. More than that, the book's rich detail -- filled with intriguing politics, colorful characters and clashing motives -- contributes to a fascinating tale, a great read, even for those who thought they knew the story.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Alerting us to danger we face, April 13 2008
By Armchair Interviews - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets...And How We Could Have Stopped Him (Hardcover)
Subtitled: The true story of the man who sold the world's most dangerous secrets and how we could have stopped him.

The events begin in 1972 when Khan started working for a Dutch technology firm that designed and manufactured centrifuges used for enriching uranium. Authors Frantz and Collins describe how he contacted Pakistani diplomats and offered his services to his country. He also displayed such an insatiable curiosity about nuclear related products that some of his coworkers eventually became concerned enough to report him.

In 1975, Khan moved to Pakistan where he set about making his country a nuclear power. As Pakistan realized its nuclear ambitions, Khan accumulated wealth and power and become a national hero in 1998 when Pakistan detonated five nuclear devices underground. By then, Khan had established foreign markets for his expertise and his ability to deliver tightly controlled materials. The "Pakistani Pipeline" (an operation to procure restricted materials and provide technical expertise) had expanded its operations to newer markets.

The U.S. administration ignored the nuclear threat because it needed an ally in the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan and later in the war against terror, after 9/11. The Pakistani authorities arrested Khan in 2003. Parvez Musharraf pardoned him after a written confession and placed him under house arrest. By this time, no one knew who has nuclear capability.

The book is well-written; it reads like a spy novel and its great strength is that it gives so many details that readers can see the complexity of the issue. The authors' bias that it is bad for nuclear weapons to exist at all does come through, as does their liberal slant on American politics. The authors do not acknowledge that the Iraqi invasion (blunders aside) does curtail nuclear proliferation in the Middle East (something that the authors' work on Iraq and Libya shows).

The book's title is misleading. Khan was motivated by wealth and power, not by religious conviction (as one would expect of a "jihadist"). This is made clear as reader read the book.

Overall, it's a great read, but leaves little room for optimism. It enumerates the dangers we all now face partially due to the cast of characters they profile. What is less clear is what we do now.

Armchair Interviews says: A book that details the dangers that exist worldwide.
› Go to Amazon.com to see all 13 reviews  3.8 out of 5 stars 
 
 
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