Exposing a one-man force for nuclear proliferation

Clayton Moore, Special to the Rocky

Published January 4, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Abdul Qadeer Khan

The Nuclear Jihadist

* Nonfiction. By Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins. Twelve, $25. Grade: B

Book in a nutshell: Husband-and- wife journalists retrace the secretive dealings and ultimate downfall of arms dealer Abdul Qadeer Khan, whose stock in trade was offering up the makings for nuclear weapons to the world's most tyrannical regimes.

The strange odyssey of Khan has been widely reported, including a 2005 Time magazine cover story that branded the Pakistani scientist "The Merchant of Menace." Frantz and Collins dig up new details about Khan's nuclear proliferation, following the obsessive scientist from his education in Western Europe through his meteoric attainment of wealth and influence over Pakistan's government. His nuclear ambitions reached a pinnacle with Pakistan's detonation of five nuclear weapons in 1998. Khan became a national hero to his countrymen and earned a longer leash.

The authors revisit Khan's efforts to distribute the worst weapons of mass destruction. His clients included countries like North Korea, to whom Khan supplied both machinery and materials that may have led to the country's first detonation in 2006; Iran, which established its own uranium enrichment program based on stolen designs eerily similar to those designed by Khan; and Libya, which implicated Khan when it revealed its own weapons program in 2003, leading Khan to make a televised confession of his sins.

More disturbing is the book's take on our own White House, which consistently and consciously overlooked widespread nuclear proliferation either in the name of lining up allies against the imagined Soviet threat (Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush) or, more recently, because policymakers inside the administration have been focused on other troubled endeavors in the Middle East.

Best tidbit: The book offers a revealing look at real-life intelligence operations, including one story that finds the CIA sending an officer code-named "Mad Dog" to recruit a Swiss technician privy to the most hush-hush details of Khan's nuclear program.

Pros: The authors wield old-school journalistic skills in weaving together facts with verve.

Cons: The book's fast- paced prose is written with a certain inevitability, making troubling analytical leaps. Also, its terse reporting style will be off-putting to readers interested in the consequences of Khan's criminal enterprises, rather than the details of his schemes.

Final word: This is a disquieting expose that arrives at an interesting time in America's relationships with Pakistan and Iran.

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