Deception - Hardcover

Adrian Levy; Cathy Scott-Clark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1843545330 ISBN 13: 9781843545330

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2007

Synopsis

"Deception" exposes the terrifying truth about the proliferation of nuclear weapons amongst the rogue states and terrorist organizations which now threaten to destabilize the entire world. This book is essential reading for fans of Seymour Hersh, Richard Preston, Mark Bowden, and Jason Burke. On 15 December 1975, A. Q. Khan - a young Pakistani nuclear scientist working in Holland - stole top secret blueprints for a revolutionary new process to arm a nuclear bomb. His original intention was to provide for Pakistan a counter to India's ongoing pursuit of an atomic bomb. But over time that ambition mushroomed into a vast nuclear black market sanctioned by Pakistan's military elite - financed by aid money from the United States, Saudi Arabia and Libya, as well as boundless assistance from China. They secretly sold weapons to Iran, North Korea, and many others - with the clear knowledge of the American government, for whom Pakistan was a crucial buffer against the Soviets and now an ally in the 'war on terror'. Successive US Administrations conducted a deliberate cover-up: destroying intelligence, lying to Congress and the West about Pakistan's capability, and facilitating the spread of the very weapons we vilify the 'axis of evil' powers for coveting and dread Islamic terrorists obtaining.

About this title

About the Author:

Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott Clark are internationally renowned and award winning investigative journalists who worked as staff writers and foreign correspondents for The Sunday Times before joining the Guardian. They are the authors The Amber Room (Atlantic Books, 2004) and Stone of Heaven. They live in London and in France. See more of their work at www.clarkandlevy.com.

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. Earlier this year, William Langewiesche's The Atomic Bazaar alerted readers to the blind eye the United States and other nations have turned toward Pakistan's efforts to build a nuclear bomb and to sell that technology to other nations, including the entire Axis of Evil. Levy and Scott-Clark (The Amber Room) work on a larger canvas, shaping their in-depth reporting into a compelling and more detailed narrative. They have not truly improved upon Langewiesche's portrait of A.Q. Khan, the metallurgist who became Pakistan's biggest and most valuable personality after smuggling atomic secrets out of the Netherlands. But they do substantially support the idea that the nuclear program influenced Pakistan's internal power struggles, and that American government officials led disinformation campaigns for 30 years in order to hang onto the nation as a dubious ally against first the Soviets and then al-Qaeda. The authors also hint at the possible involvement of Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby in an attempt to discredit an intelligence analyst who spoke frankly of the Pakistani threat during the first Bush administration. Building on a decade's worth of interviews, the husband-and-wife investigative term serve a stunning indictment of the nuclear crime of all our lifetimes, in which, the authors claim, the U.S. has been an active accessory. (Oct.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1843545330
• ISBN 13: 9781843545330
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416