Former CIA officer Richard Barlow has claimed that a proposed joint covert operation by India and Israel to bomb Pakistan’s Kahuta nuclear facility in the early 1980s could have prevented several future problems.
In an interview with ANI, Barlow described the Indian government’s decision at the time to disapprove the operation as “a shame.”
Barlow, who served as a counterproliferation officer with the US intelligence agency during Pakistan’s secret nuclear weapons development in the 1980s, said he had heard about the plan within intelligence circles but was not directly involved.
“I was out of government from 1982 until 1985. And I think that may have occurred while I was out of government. I heard about it at some point. But I didn’t get my teeth into it because it never happened,” Barlow said.
Referring to the Indian Prime Minister at the time, he added, “It’s a shame that Indira [Gandhi] didn’t approve it; it would have solved a lot of problems.”
According to reports and declassified accounts, India and Israel were allegedly preparing a preemptive airstrike on Pakistan’s Kahuta uranium enrichment plant, which was at the centre of Islamabad’s nuclear programme. The operation aimed to prevent Pakistan from developing and proliferating nuclear weapons, particularly to countries such as Iran, viewed as a major adversary by Israel.
Barlow suggested that the US administration under President Ronald Reagan would likely have opposed any such attack, especially from Israel, as it could have derailed Washington’s covert war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during that period.
“I think Reagan would have cut Menachem Begin’s ba**s off if he did anything like that. Because it would have interfered with the Afghan problem,” Barlow remarked, referring to the former Israeli Prime Minister’s potential role in the proposed plan.
Barlow also said that Pakistan used its cooperation with the United States on Afghanistan as leverage to protect its nuclear programme. He noted that senior Pakistani officials, including Munir Ahmad Khan, the former head of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), had cautioned US lawmakers such as Congressman Stephen Solarz that any disruption in US aid would impact Islamabad’s support for the Mujahideen fighting Soviet forces.
“As you alluded to, what Munir Khan said was that they were basically using the flow of covert aid to the Mujahideen as blackmail. I think that’s what Munir was saying to [US Congressman Stephen] Solarz — if you pull aid, we’re not going to support the Mujahideen anymore,” Barlow added.
The Kahuta enrichment facility, developed under the leadership of Dr. AQ Khan, became central to Pakistan’s successful pursuit of nuclear weapons. The programme culminated in Pakistan’s first nuclear tests in 1998, confirming the country’s status as a nuclear-armed state.
(Source: NDTV)
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