I have previously mentioned the recent publication of the book DECEPTION: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark.
But since the October 7, 2007 Sunday Times (London) chose to review it. Let's look at this one excerpt.
There are various ways to measure the worth of a man. One of them is to count the number of books written about him. In that regard I note the newest book, formally published later this month, to examine Dr Khan's entrepeneurial network. It is America and the Islamic Bomb: The Deadly Compromise by David Armstrong and Joseph Trento. Here is the blurb from the Amazon listing:
Speaking of wider proliferation concerns, I'd be remiss if I did not mention the recent report Project Butter Factory: Henk Slebos and the AQ Khan nuclear network by Frank Slijper (September 2007 ). From the press release:
I think events of this year alone show that the answer to the question, explicit in the title of this 2006 congressional hearing, is no. I recommend taking a glance so you can see how little we have advanced since then.
May 25, 2006:
Hearing: The A.Q. Khan Network: Case Closed?
HEARING TRANSCRIPT (.HTM)
HEARING TRANSCRIPT (.PDF = 517 KB)
The lifetime costs – £5bn, or 40% of the defense equipment budget – is unjustifiable at a time of tightening public budgets
Now I'm sure you agree that when asked to name the first person who comes to mind when it comes to combating illegal nuclear black market traffickers Alberto Gonzalez is not on the tip of your tongue. In fact, now that he is no longer US Attorney General, you probably don't think of him at all.
But actually when he spoke at the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement Summit on June 11 in Miami, Florida (and where better than Miami to talk about criminal behavior?) he actually a few some interesting things to say.
Did you know we have a NSOI? Neither did I. But thanks to this September 30 US State Department press release, I do now.
Evidently Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ednan Karabayev signed the Program of Cooperation between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on Combating the Smuggling of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials.
Another noteworthy comment by David Albright in the course of his testimony was on the challenges governments and international organizations face in addressing illicit trade. For example, he wrote: