Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the Rise and Fall of the A.Q. Khan Network

by Gordon Corera (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2009

  $34.84

  A.Q. Khan was the world's leading black market dealer in nuclear technology, described by a former CIA Director as at least as dangerous as Osama Bin Laden. Here for the first time is the riveting, inside story of the rise and fall of A.Q. Khan and his role in the devastating spread of nuclear technology over the last thirty years. Drawing on exclusive interviews with key players in Islamabad, London, and Washington, as well as with members of Khan's own network, BBC journalist Gordon Corera paints a truly unsettling picture of the nuclear arms bazaar. Corera reveals how Khan operated within a world of shadowy deals amongst rogue states and how his privileged position in Pakistan protected his unique and deadly business empire. Brimming with revelations, the book provides new insight into Iran's nuclear ambitions, how the CIA and MI6 penetrated and ultimately broke Khan's network, and how they persuaded Pakistan's President to arrest a national hero. The book also illuminates the high-wire dealings with Muammar Gadaffi which led to Libya's renunciation of nuclear weapons.