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)

by Douglas Frantz (Author), Catherine Collins (Author)
Key Phrases: vacuum valley, nuclear jihadist, centrifuge components, United States, North Korea, State Department (more...)

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)
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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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Twelve (December 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446199575
• ISBN-13: 978-0446199575
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #416,240 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 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 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)

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.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating true spy story, has some problems, February 25, 2008

By	Richard Gibson "Rick Gibson" (Woodland Hills, CA) - See all my reviews

This book tells the story of how the Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan managed to steal enough secrets to give Pakistan atomic weapons and then to go into business selling atomic secrets to Libya, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and who knows who else. It is, on the whole, an excellent book, although it has some flaws.

First, I have no expertise in this subject, so I do not know if these two know what they are talking about. The book has been well-received by people who should know the truth, but I can not say from my own knowledge that it is accurate. It seems to be, but I do not know that.

Second, the book is well-written. It reads like a spy novel.

The great strength of the book is that it gives so many details that the reader can see just how extremely complex this whole issue is. The bias of the authors is that it is bad for nuclear weapons to exist at all, and their spread should be stopped. The authors are continually shocked and upset that many governments, the American included, often do not share their view. For much of the story, while the Pakistanis were pursuing nuclear weapons, the U.S. knew about it, but covered up this knowledge, because the Pakistanis were considered key allies, first, in the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan and, second, in the war against terror, after 9/11. The authors moralizing usually is not heavy handed. I particularly like the way they try hard to describe the ambiguity of the motivation and positions of the various actors. For example, they are clear in describing how the civilian government of Pakistan had only limited ability to control its own military, which was behind the nuclear program. This is a complex situation, and the authors try hard to do it justice.

I have a few criticisms. First, the title of the book is inaccurate. A "jihadist" is a Muslim holy warrior. A.Q. Khan is not a jihadist, by any reasonable definition. As the authors make clear, his motivations were a mixture of Pakistani nationalism (he feared and despised India), and a desire for personal glory, wealth and power. Indeed, one of the really disturbing things about the book is that it shows how many people -- Europeans included -- were willing to join in Khan's network of sellng nuclear weapons to incredibly dangerous people, not out of ideology, but purely out of a desire for money.

Second, the authors have a strong anti-George W. Bush and anti-Iraq War bias which distorts the second half of the book. They describe how Khan sold nuclear technology to Iraq, Iran and Libya, all of them very dangerous nations. In their description, the Iraqi nuclear effort was destroyed by the Israeli air attack. The Iranian effort is, of course, ongoing. The Libyan nuclear program, as they describe, was very far along, at the time of 9/11. Khan was in the process of selling the Libyans a turn-key nuclear weapons program, including instructions on how to make warheads that could have targeted Europe.

The authors' great heroes are the international agenices, the IEAA. The IEAA did not know squat about the Libyan program. Not only did they not stop it; they did not not even know about it.

What stopped the Libyans? The Iraq War. When 9/11 occurred, and the US invaded first, Afghanistan, and, second, Iraq, Libya became terrified that it was next on our hit list. It thus voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons program. Our authors are forced to admit that what motivated Libya was sheer terror, arising from the force of Bush's policy against Iraq, that the US would attack it. Their facts make it clear that, had Bush not attacked Iraq, Libya would have nuclear weapons today. The connection between the Iraq War and Libya may seem indirect, but it is not. By attacking Iraq, the United States made itself feared. This fear is what motivated Libya to give up its weapons. Our authors, however, just can not bring themselves to acknowledge what their own facts prove. To them, the Iraq War was based on lies, and it is thus evil. Also, the idea that America sometimes has to achieve its objectives in the world, by making other nations afraid of us, is not an idea our authors are willing to entertain; they live in the world where security comes from the UN, disarmament treaties and diplomacy.

In the end, however, the biases of the authors are not important. They provide so many facts on the subject that readers can draw their own conclusions.