Former CIA intelligence officer Richard Barlow has uncovered the deliberate ignorance of the US, ignoring repeated warnings about Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear weapons development in the 1980s for Pakistani cooperation in funneling covert military aid to the Afghan mujahideen fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

 

In an interview with a news agency, Barlow, a non-proliferation expert who worked for the CIA, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the Department of Defence, said that despite having extensive evidence that Pakistan was building atomic weapons through networks led by AQ Khan, the senior US officials were deliberately lying to and misleading Congress. According to Barlow, the then US President Ronald Reagan administration prioritised its Afghan strategy over non-proliferation efforts. 

 

Barlow further detailed a 1987 undercover operation against Pakistani agent Arshad Pervez, who attempted to buy 25 tons of maraging steel, critical for uranium enrichment, from a US company. The operation, run jointly by the CIA and US Customs, exposed links to retired Brigadier General Inam-ul-Haq, a known procurement agent for both Khan Research Laboratories and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

 

However, Barlow said the operation was compromised when senior US State Department officials allegedly tipped off Pakistan about Haq’s pending arrest. Despite clear violations, Barlow stated that the White House and the State Department found legal loopholes to continue providing aid to Pakistan.