America and the Islamic Bomb: The Deadly Compromise » (Bargain)

David Armstrong is the bureau chief of the National Security News Service in Washington, D.C. He is an award-winning investigative reporter and has written extensively on national security and intelligence matters as well as national politics, foreign policy, terrorism, media, finance, and the environment. He was formerly the editor of the Texas Observer and his work has appeared in a wide range of publications including Harper’s, The New Republic, and several journalism anthologies.

Joseph Trento is the author or co-author of seven nonfiction books, including Unsafe at Any Altitude and The Secret History of the CIA, and an internationally known investigative reporter for over thirty-five years. He now serves as the president of the Public Education Center, a nonpartisan and nonprofit foundation that conducts investigative reporting on environmental and national security matters.

The turbulent nation of Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden is far more popular than George W. Bush, possesses a nuclear arsenal built with technology from the United States and Europe, and financed with the help of America’s allies in the Muslim world. Its dictatorial president, Pervez Musharraf, faces widespread civil opposition, and militant extremists threaten his life every day. The nuclear weapons programs in North Korea and Iran, as well as Libya’s now-defunct atomic effort, relied heavily on expertise and materials provided by the nuclear smuggling network headed by Pakistan’s national hero, A.Q. Khan. The United States – from Carter and Reagan, through Bush I, Clinton, and the current president – and other Western governments knew all along that Pakistan was first developing and then exporting nuclear technology, yet consistently turned a blind eye in order to gain Pakistan’s cooperation during the Cold War and, more recently, in the war on terror. As a result of this Faustian bargain, nuclear technology has been allowed to spread far and wide, dramatically increasing the chances that terrorists or unfriendly regimes will someday get their hands on an atomic device.

David Armstrong and Joseph Trento provide a new and unrivalled perspective on the so-called A.Q. Khan nuclear black market scandal, including exclusive accounts from customs agents, intelligence analysts, and other ground-level front-line operatives. Documented in these pages are maddening experiences of official interference and breathtaking instances of indifference and incompetence. Trento and Armstrong name names and reveal stunning new information about proliferators in an exposé that is sure to generate headlines. This secret history of how the Islamic bomb was developed and how nuclear arms have proliferated is as fascinating as it is disturbing.

The Washington Post - Douglas Farah

America and the Islamic Bomb is a ground-level look at the operational failures of U.S., British and other intelligence services in assessing the Khan network. Relying on government documents and interviews, David Armstrong and Joseph Trento reveal multiple scuttled investigations and chronicle the infighting within several U.S. administrations, beginning under Reagan in the 1980s, over what to do about Khan and, more broadly, Pakistan, whose cooperation was deemed vital in fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.

Introduction     1
Nuclear Politics     5
Nuclear Relations     20
The Age of Proliferation     39
Gearing Up     56
The Compromise     74
Help from the West     98
Aiding and Abetting     116
A Turn of the Screw     138
Bombs 'R' Us     155
End Game     196
Epilogue     218
Notes     231
Acknowledgments     269
Credits     271
Index     273