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Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons | 
 enlarge | Authors: Adrian Levy, Catherine Scott-clark
Publisher: Walker & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $28.95
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You Save: $21.95 (76%)
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Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 394263
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 608
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 5.9 x 2
ISBN: 0802715540
Dewey Decimal Number: 623.45119092
EAN: 9780802715548
ASIN: 0802715540
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The shocking, three-decade story of A. Q. Khan and Pakistan’s nuclear program, and the complicity of the United States in the spread of nuclear weaponry.
On December 15, 1975, A. Q. Khan—a young Pakistani scientist working in Holland—stole top-secret blueprints for a revolutionary new process to arm a nuclear bomb. His original intention, and that of his government, was purely patriotic—to provide Pakistan a counter to India’s recently unveiled nuclear device. However, as Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark chillingly relate in their masterful investigation of Khan’s career over the past thirty years, over time that limited ambition mushroomed into the world’s largest clandestine network engaged in selling nuclear secrets—a mercenary and illicit program managed by the Pakistani military and made possible, in large part, by aid money from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Libya, and by indiscriminate assistance from China.
Most unnerving, the authors reveal that the sales of nuclear weapons technology to Iran, North Korea, and Libya, so much in the news today, were made with the clear knowledge of the American government, for whom Pakistan has been a crucial buffer state and ally—first against the Soviet Union, now in the “war against terror.” Every successive American presidency, from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush, has turned a blind eye to Pakistan’s nuclear activity—rewriting and destroying evidence provided by its intelligence agencies, lying to Congress and the American people about Pakistan’s intentions and capability, and facilitating, through shortsightedness and intent, the spread of the very weapons we vilify the “axis of evil” powers for having and fear terrorists will obtain. Deception puts our current standoffs with Iran and North Korea in a startling new perspective, and makes clear two things: that Pakistan, far from being an ally, is a rogue nation at the epicenter of world destabilization; and that the complicity of the United States has ushered in a new nuclear winter.
Based on hundreds of interviews in the United States, Pakistan, India, Israel, Europe, and Southeast Asia, Deception is a masterwork of reportage and dramatic storytelling by two of the world’s most resourceful investigative journalists. Urgently important, it should stimulate debate and command a reexamination of our national priorities.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 The history of nuclear proliferation October 28, 2007
Gavin Bradshaw (New York)
20 out of 25 found this review helpful
A fascinating account of AQ Khan - self-styled "father" of Pakistan's bomb - and his extraordinary relationship with Pakistan's military rulers, who encouraged him to supply nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran; then denied that they had any part in the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The authors' central thesis that, successive US administrations ignored the intelligence regarding Pakistan's nuclear programme and lied to Congress in order to obtain funding for Pakistan at the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and, more recently, during the 'war on terror' is supported by compelling evidence. A big book - but an easy read - I bought it at an airport and read it on two flights. If (when?) a major US city is destroyed by terrorists using a nuclear bomb, readers of this book will at least have the benefit of knowing whom to blame.
Did We Outsmart Ourselves, Again? October 30, 2007
Loyd E. Eskildson (Phoenix, AZ.)
20 out of 24 found this review helpful
"Deception" tells the story of American and English self-deception about Pakistan's nuclear intentions and accomplishments, the consequences of which might not become clear for decades to come. During a 30-year time period, Pakistan went from pleading for an American nuclear umbrella to creating and testing its own bomb, to running an international proliferation effort that aided Iran ('87), Iraq ('90), North Korea ('93), and Libya ('97). The authors also allege that this proliferation was not just a renegade activity by A. Q. Khan, but actually part of Pakistan's foreign policy, plotted and supervised by its military. Regardless, "Deception" contends that the "real scandal" was how successive U.S. (and U.K.) administrations covered everything up, at the expense of several who wanted to speak frankly.
Also of interest is the information on how Khan learned how to make fissile material in the first place. After earning a Ph.D. in metallurgy he went to work with a low-security rating for a Netherlands' consortium that was developing centrifuges for separating fissionable U-235 from yellow-cake - despite coming from a nation known to be seeking nuclear weapons. While there he sought and obtained a position translating German material on a new centrifuge to Dutch and English, thereby providing access to top secret material. The information was split into twelve pieces with the intent of limiting any single person's access to only a few portions; Khan, however, obtained the entire document through offering to get it retyped on site (management had been prepared to send the material back to England for typing; Khan had befriended the secretaries numerous times).
The new gas centrifuges required six foot tall aluminum tubes that were injected with a gas refined from yellow-cake. The heavier U-238 spun to the outside and slid down to a waste pipe; fissionable U-235 gathered at the center and was sucked out while the centrifuges spun at 70,000 rpm. Any sort of imperfection (including a fingerprint) likely led to the centrifuge shattering. (Many Pakistani centrifuges were lost during an earthquake around 2004.) Gaseous diffusion required all pipes and motors be made from nickel and aluminum allows, kept free of grease and oil, and a very large production facility.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's government had been humiliated by India's development of an atomic weapon, and was seeking to build its own. Khan's proposal to create the fissile material through much cheaper centrifuges instead of the much more expensive and complex gaseous diffusion method used by the U.S., China, Russia, and France, was well received, and he headed back to ('75) Pakistan with three suitcases full of stolen documents. He estimated that passing the uranium hexafluoride through centrifuges 65-70 times would provide 90% enriched uranium.
The next year Pakistan began shopping for the needed equipment - a fact noted by U.S. and U.K. intelligence analysts. Carter (anti-proliferation) was lobbied by Brzezinski to turn a blind eye because of Soviet efforts in Afghanistan and possibly Iran. Reagan did likewise. Worse yet, Reagan officials buried awareness of Beijing's gift of bomb blueprints and technical assistance. By Reagan's departure, Pakistan had a tested device ('84), partly also thanks to hundreds of millions of American military assistance to Pakistan's military that was diverted to their nuclear program.
Bush I then cut off aid after the Russians left Afghanistan, spurring Pakistan to make up the shortage with black-market deals in technology.
The final chapter deals with Musharraf's increasingly tenuous position in Pakistan - caught between the increasingly militant internal Taliban and al Qaeda, vs. the U.S. Meanwhile, large amounts of parts and centrifuges from Pakistan have disappeared, and responsible people in the U.S. are worried that Pakistani bombs (or at least working centrifuges) will be obtained by terrorists.
The biggest question of all remains unanswered - "Why didn't the U.S. pursue obtaining information from Khan on the status of Iran's nuclear program, or at least reveal what it did obtain?"
 Serious Questions November 8, 2007
C. Neu
10 out of 16 found this review helpful
The fact that the authors of Deception thank Peter Griffen in the acknowledgments of their book raises questions of credibility. In Deception, the authors quote him as saying he was duped and taken advantage of by the Khan network. Another recently released book on the subject, America and the Islamic Bomb, contradicts this portrayal and reveals that a secret British Customs paper says that Griffen was aware and involved in the network's shipments to Libya. How much did the authors of Deception rely on alleged nuclear proliferators for information?
Furthermore, the authors attribute allegations about Pakistani officials to journalist and academic Husain Haqqani, including the story that former ISI Chief Hamid Gul was in league with Osama bin Laden and Nawaz Sharif to overthrow Benazir Bhutto in 1990. Haqqani has since denied and contradicted many of these allegations in the media.
These are only a few of the most egregious examples that I found in this book.
Geo-Political Realthink December 7, 2007
Retired Reader (Maryland)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
In 1998 Pakistan succeeded in denoting its first nuclear bomb some 24 years after India had conducted its first nuclear event in 1974. In the view of Pakistan, developing nuclear weapons and their delivery systems was absolutely necessary as a credible deterrent to a nuclear armed India. This altogether fascinating book chronicles how Pakistan managed to acquire the technology and knowledge to build its own nuclear weapons.
At the center of this story is a remarkable scientist, A.Q. Khan, revered today in Pakistan as the "father of the bomb." It was Khan who used his considerable knowledge and expertise to establish a world wide `network' of friends, associates, and businesses that allowed Pakistan to create a nuclear weapons program. China (PRC) greatly assisted this program having `tilted' towards Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistan confrontation. Khan worked tirelessly from 1975 to his forced retirement in 2001 to provide Pakistan with a nuclear deterrent capability.
The successive governments of Pakistan over the last 30 years have differed in many things, but all supported Khan and his weapons program. And, as this book makes clear, successive U.S. Governments over the same period did not directly support Khan's work, but they did nothing to hamper it either. Indeed geo-political considerations caused the U.S. not only to ignore Pakistan's acquisition of nuclear weapon technology, but to even ignore its export of that technology to countries such as Iran and North Korea, which according to this book's. authors, continues to this day. The title of the book, "Deception" refers not to Pakistan, but to the fact that every administration from 1976 on purposely misinformed the U.S. public on Pakistan's nuclear ambitions and activities.
Rather ironically, the U.S. Intelligence Community actually produced excellent intelligence on both Khan's program and the international trade in nuclear technology. His `network' was pretty well identified by 1985 and its activities were well documented. Unfortunately, as has been often observed, intelligence is only as good as the system it serves and in this case U.S. policy makers over an almost thirty year period were just not interested in this information.
A caveat is in order, the authors of this book are journalists and very good ones at that, but as such they are heavily dependent on interviews with individuals who may have their own agendas to pursue. Therefore, many of the specific details of this book are questionable. Yet it appears that overall this book presents an pretty accurate picture of how Pakistan created a nuclear weapons program under the noses of the U.S. and Western Europe.
 Deception: Reveals the Secret Trade of Nuclear Weapons in a gripping thriller format December 2, 2007
Diana Rohini LaVigne (San Francisco, CA USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Deception; Pakistan, the United States and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons is one of the most compelling current events accounts of recent times. Authors Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark use their years as leading investigative journalists and their vast knowledge of the topic to create a book that reads like a page-turning gripping thriller instead of a landmark book that questions the history and accounts of the Pakistani nuclear program.
Deception reveals the inner working of United States politics, foreign policy making and the secrets around the trade of nuclear weapons in Pakistan. It's clear to see how complex this issue is and how, without this book, the common American couldn't comprehend its complexities. This is a call to awareness and invites the public to pay attention to the back room meetings of those elected officials that we put in office.
Readers only need to notice the nearly one hundred pages of notes in the back of the book to recognize the level of the in-depth investigation and fact-checking which went into this fiery account of how the West continues to deceive everyone standing on the world's stage. Although it's hard to recognize how balanced the views of the journalists are, they are at the top of their field by every account. They've put their reputations on the line to produce this mind-boggling controversial and revealing chronicle. And it appears they've stayed true to the global reporting code of ethics.
Deception; Pakistan, the United States and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons is a landmark book from a well-respected journalism team. I'd love to see this book incorporated into foreign policy course curriculums globally. We have seen the evidence; it is a book that entertains readers and commands a call to action.
Title: Deception; Pakistan, the United States and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons
Authors: Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark
ISBN: 978-0-8027-1554-8
Publisher: Walker Publishing Company
Review By: Diana Rohini LaVigne, Indian Life & Style Magazine
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