Allah's Bomb: The Islamic Quest for Nuclear Weapons - Hardcover

In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad jubilantly announced that Iran had acquired nuclear power. In the same breath he predicted that Britain, Israel, and the United States will eventually disappear from the world like the Egyptian pharaohs. Iran leads another half dozen Islamic countries known to be seeking nuclear parity. The implications are enormous and profound. Allah's Bomb is a chilling investigative look by a leading expert at the race involving Islamic countries to acquire nuclear weapons. Here are some of the things you will learn: The breakup of the Soviet Union led to huge stocks of uranium and plutonium being left in facilities that were insecure and often unguarded. Iran's agents immediately moved in and a massive nuclear smuggling cartel evolved, often with the collusion of Russia's mafiya. Al-Qaeda has been vigorous in fostering nuclear links, to the extent that two Pakistani nuclear scientists visited Osama bin Laden at his Afghan mountain hideout. A series of Internet lectures on "Building the Bomb" has been one of the consequences. Rogue Pakistani scientist Dr. A. Q. Khan's nuclear smuggling empire straddled the globe, with factories and distribution facilities producing nuclear weapons in several countries. South Africa built an almost-complete uranium enrichment plant intended for the Libyan nuclear bomb program. It was about to be shipped to the Middle East through Mozambique when the eleven containers were seized. In October 2006, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, disclosed that apart from thirty countries interested in acquiring nuclear parity, half a dozen of them were Islamic and included Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Algeria. 

Al Venter is Africa and Middle East correspondent for Jane's International Defense Review and special correspondent for Jane's Intelligence Review, Jane's Terrorism & Security Monitor and Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst.