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)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 3, 2007

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.

Editorial Reviews

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.

Review

"A pair of determined journalists trace the dark career of Abdul Qadeer Khan, who led Pakistan's successful quest for a nuclear weapon, then sold supplies and plans for similar devices to eager clients like Libya and Iran.

How could proscribed nuclear technology and material circulate under the noses of Western intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency? To answer this question, frequent co-authors Frantz and Collins (Death on the Black Sea: The Untold Story of the Struma and World War II's Holocaust at Sea, 2003, etc.) begin in Amsterdam, where the amiable Khan arrived in 1972 to take a position in a Dutch technology firm. He displayed such an insatiable curiosity about products with nuclear relevance that some of his Dutch coworkers eventually became concerned enough to report him. Khan moved back to Pakistan, where he wrestled with bureaucrats as he sought to make his country a nuclear power. He eventually rose to a position of enormous wealth and power, becoming a national hero in 1998 when Pakistan detonated five nuclear devices underground. By then, Khan had found foreign markets both for his expertise and for his uncanny ability to deliver crucial materials that were supposed to be tightly monitored and controlled. The authors show how various U.S. administrations ignored Pakistan's behavior, at first because they needed an anti-Soviet ally, then because it was a crucial ally in the war against al-Qaeda. But the buck stopped with Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. Confronted by British and American intelligence agents with proof that Libya was pursuing nuclear weapons, the dictator cut a deal and implicated Khan as his supplier. Apprehended and detained by Pakistan authorities in 2003, Khan was pardoned by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in return for a written confession. He remained a hero to many Pakistanis and, in the authors' view, "played a central role in ushering in the second nuclear age...threatened by a new type of proliferation."

Thorough research and brisk prose propel a terrifying tale of greed, weaponry and geopolitics. (Agent: Kathy Robbins/Robbins Office Inc.)" -- Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Twelve; 1st Edition Edition edition (December 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446199575
• ISBN-13: 978-0446199575
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #824,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A disturbing and fascinating read, December 29, 2007

By 

Rick Winrod (Cleveland OH) - See all my reviews

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, January 15, 2008

By 

William C. Rempel (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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 (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

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.