Former CIA officer drops bombshell claim amid Pak nuclear row
Former CIA officer Richard Barlow has revealed that the joint covert operation proposed by India and Israel to bomb Pakistan’s Kahuta nuclear facility in the early 1980s to stop Islamabad’s atomic bid “could solve a lot of problems”.
Former CIA officer Richard Barlow has revealed that the joint covert operation proposed by India and Israel to bomb Pakistan’s Kahuta nuclear facility in the early 1980s to stop Islamabad’s atomic bid “could solve a lot of problems”.
He also called it “shameful” that the operation was not approved by the then Indian government. During an interview with ANI, Barlow, a former CIA member who was part of the American intelligence agency as a counter-proliferation officer during Pakistan’s covert nuclear activities in the 1980s, confirmed that he heard about the reported plan from intelligence circles but was not directly involved as he was out of government service at the time.
“I was out of government from 1982 to 1985. And I think it may have happened while I was out of government. I heard about it at some point. But I didn’t put my teeth into it because it never happened,” Barlow said. “It’s a shame that Indira did this [Gandhi] disapproved; “It could solve a lot of problems,” he added.
According to reports and declassified accounts, Israel and India are allegedly planning a pre-emptive airstrike on Pakistan’s Kahuta uranium enrichment facility (the core of its nuclear program) to prevent Islamabad from developing and proliferating nuclear weapons, especially against Iran, which is seen by Israel as a serious adversary. Barlow suggested that the US administration under then-President Ronald Reagan would strongly oppose any attack, especially from Israel, because it could disrupt America’s covert war efforts against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
According to Barlow, Pakistan used this dependence as leverage; Officials such as Munir Ahmad Khan, former chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), have warned US lawmakers such as Stephen Solarz that interrupting aid flows would jeopardize cooperation in Afghanistan.
“I think Reagan would have cut the shit out of Menachem Begin if he had done something like that. Because that would have interfered with the Afghan problem,” Barlow said, referring to the former Israeli Prime Minister’s potential intervention.
“What Munir Khan was saying, as you alluded to, was that they were using the secret aid flow to the Mujahideen as blackmail. I think that’s what Munir was saying. [US Congressman Stephen] Solarz, if you withdraw aid we will no longer support the Mujahideen,” Barlow added.
Established under the direction of AQ Khan, Pakistan’s nuclear program architect and a prolific nuclear weapons manufacturer, the Kahuta enrichment facility later became the center of Pakistan’s successful pursuit of nuclear weapons, culminating in the ‘first’ atomic tests in 1998.
Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from ANI.
