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

xvi, 288 pages. Map. Illustrations. Boxes. Notes. Index. Ink notation on fep. Gordon Corera (born 1974), is a British author and journalist. He is the BBC's Security Correspondent and specializes in computer technology. He joined the BBC in 1997 as a researcher and later became a reporter. He has worked on Radio 4's The World Tonight, BBC2's Newsnight, and worked in the US as the BBC's State Department correspondent and as an analyst for the BBC's coverage of the 2000 US presidential election. In 2001 he became the foreign reporter for Radio 4's Today programme. He was appointed BBC News' security correspondent in 2004. Corera presented the 2009 Radio 4 programme MI6: A Century in the Shadows, a three-part history of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. Corera wrote The Art of Betrayal: Life and Death in the British Secret Service about MI6, and Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the Rise and Fall of the A. Q. Khan Network. Khan built a global clandestine network that sold the most closely guarded nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. Here is the riveting inside story of the rise and fall of A. Q. Khan and his role in the spread of nuclear technology. Drawing on interviews with key players in Islamabad, London, and Washington, as well as with members of Khan's own network, Corera reveals how Khan operated among rogue states and how his position in Pakistan provided him with the protection to build his deadly business empire. The book contains startling new information on how the CIA and MI6 penetrated Khan's network, how the U.S. and UK ultimately broke Khan's ring, and how they persuaded Pakistan's President Musharraf to arrest a national hero. The book also provides the first detailed account of the high-wire dealings with Muammar Gadaffi, which led to Libya's renunciation of nuclear weapons. Shopping for Bombs presents a unique window into the challenges of stopping a new nuclear arms race.