Fallout: The True Story of the CIA's Secret War on Nuclear Trafficking

by Catherine Collins, Douglas Frantz

More than a high-stakes espionage thriller, Fallout painstakingly examines the huge costs of the CIA’s errors and the lost opportunities to halt the spread of nuclear weapons technology long before it was made available to some of the most dangerous and reckless adversaries of the United States and its allies.

For more than a quarter of a century, while the Central Intelligence Agency turned a dismissive eye, a globe-straddling network run by Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan sold the equipment and expertise to make nuclear weapons to a rogues’ gallery of nations. Among its known customers were Iran, Libya, and North Korea. When the United States finally took action to stop the network in late 2003, President George W. Bush declared the end of the global enterprise to be a major intelligence victory that had made the world safer.

But, as investigative journalists Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz document masterfully, the claim that Khan’s operation had been dismantled was a classic case of too little, too late. Khan’s ring had, by then, sold Iran the technology to bring Tehran to the brink of building a nuclear weapon. It had also set loose on the world the most dangerous nuclear secrets imaginable—sophisticated weapons designs, blueprints for uranium enrichment plants, plans for warheads—all for sale to the highest bidder.

Relying on explosive new information gathered in exclusive interviews with key participants and previously undisclosed, highly confidential documents, the authors expose the truth behind the elaborate efforts by the CIA to conceal the full extent of the damage done by Khan’s network and to cover up how the profound failure to stop the atomic bazaar much earlier jeopardizes our national security today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Espionage, War

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 4, 2011

Reviews

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting account of the CIA's break-up of the A.Q. Khan network.

The story deals with the CIA's use of one specific family inside the A.Q. Khan network to bring down the nuclear design and manufacturing equipment purveyor, and their ensuing legal conflict with the Swiss homeland of that family. The overall theme is that the CIA in actuality enabled the proliferation of the technology, falling victim to a systemic attitude problem inherent in the intelligence community.

Whatever your views on this topic or how much of the information we must take on face value, there is some interesting information here about the geopolitics of the time. For those with some knowledge of nuclear technology, there isn't much new or detail technical information contained in this book but that isn't really the intent of the authors. What little technical discussions they do engage in detracts from the experience, due to oblique and incomplete references.

I gave this book 4 stars because of the format and editorial style. EVERY single chapter is simply the name of the country where that particular discussion centers. The chapters then really loose any usable structure, I simply didn't care. The names all run together and repeat. Then the overall narrative gets lost, I had a hard time understanding what the time stamp was for some sections. The incidents go back and forth, not very readable. And finally the writing was just like a history textbook, here's what happened on this day, then this happened on this day, then this on the next day. I really glossed over the middle 1/3 of the book and didn't loose anything for it.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was reasonably well written. My primary criticism comes from the authors' obvious "blame America first" bias. Although the Swiss were at least as much at fault as the Americans for not capturing these nuclear black marketeers, the authors chose to lay the blame squarely on the CIA. How they could arrive at this conclusion, despite all of the evidence that they reveal about the Swiss' failure to capture the suspects for decades, defies intellectual honesty.

[Peter]

A deeply researched and well-sourced book on how the A.Q. Khan network illegally stole nuclear technology in order to jumpstart the Pakistani weapons program, then sold that technology to Iran, Libya and potentially other unknown buyers. Most frustrating is that the CIA was well aware of the network from the 1980s onwards, and decided not to shut the network down until much of the damage was done.

The book moves somewhat slowly, but gives detailed insight into the network and counter-proliferation work done by the CIA, International Atomic Energy Agency and Swiss national police, and how the rivalries between the different organizations got in the way of their end goal of trying to make the world a little safer.

[Frank Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A taunt, thrilling report on how Pakistan's father of nuclear weapontry, AQ Khan, roamed around Europe and the rest of the world acquiring the the materials necessary to further build his countries stockpiles and those of other rogue nations including Libya. Fallout is an important addition to the ongoing historical narrative of nuclear proliferation amongst third world nations and why the West has to do more to stop these efforts.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read. Filled in some details I wasn't aware of. But, the authors come off as very judgemental, while admitting they don't have critical insights

[Jim Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is shocking. When you realize just how much deadly information is out there. This isn't just the Anarchist Cookbook sitting around. There are literally plans for atomic weapons just floating around. It's scary to think that right now there may be a number of terrible people with access to this information and there are a number of business people that will deal with these terrible people to supply them the equipment they need to make the weapons.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting material, not well written. Many parts feel repetitive and hard to keep track of when events happen.

[max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely gripping!

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

If The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets...And How We Could Have Stopped Him was the story of how A.Q. Khan stole nuclear secrets and then built a nuclear bomb for Pakistan, this book is the story of how the CIA, the Swiss, German, South African, Malayasian and the American governments failed to bring his network to justice on nuclear proliferation charges.

Why I started this book: It was on the Navy's Professional Reading list of 2014.

Why I finished it: Fascinating story, but the format of this book was a little weird... each chapter was organized by geographically and not chronologically, which meant that there was a fair bit of repetition as the authors had to orient the reader as to what else was happening at the time. Some orientation was more successful than others. This title is just more proof that the Neoconservatives reputation for national security is more hype than fact.

[Wik Galarion · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The omnipotent CIA of spy novels and movies does not exist. But the outcome of the last thirty years could have been very different if the agency had seen the world as it was, not as its case officers and spymasters wanted it to be."

tsk tsk tsk 'MURICA

[Darin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty intense I must say, but I really feel like nuclear war is not very close as this book makes it out to be.