Ex-CIA officer claims US ignored warnings on Pak's nuclear program: ‘Had intelligence about it’

Barlow said that the US had downplayed the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Pakistan in the 1980s.

Former United States intelligence officer Richard Barlow has claimed that America had knowledge of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, adding that it was deliberately ignored despite repeated warnings.

“We had quite a bit of intelligence about Pakistan's nuclear program," Richard Barlow said.(X/ @ANI)

In an interview with news agency ANI, Barlow said that the US had downplayed the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Pakistan in the 1980s, on account of Pakistan's cooperation on supplying covert military aid to the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

“We had quite a bit of intelligence about Pakistan's nuclear program. Then the Directorate of Intelligence, which is primarily analytical. And we had huge quantities of intelligence about cons networks and the PAC networks," Barlow said.

He added that despite the knowledge, “nobody was taking action in our government.” Barlow said that his entire chain of command in the directorate of intelligence was “very concerned that a country like Pakistan obtaining nuclear weapons could pose a very serious threat to US and Western international security.”

However, Barlow said that the US directorate of operations was then in the middle of the first Afghan war, and was fighting the Soviets alongside the Mujahideen.

“They wouldn't take action against the Pakistani networks. They just weren't interested,” Barlow alleged in the ANI interview.

‘Can't let proliferation policy dictate foreign policy’: Barlow cites 1980 memo by former NSA

Barlow said that a memo by former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski had prioritised the Afghan war over the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Pakistan.

Brzezinski served as the NS in the administration of former US president Jimmy Carter, who was the head of state from 1977 to 1981.

"Zbigniew Brzezinski is the one who really started this mess, you know, in my opinion. He wrote a very famous memo back around 1980," ANI quoted Barlow as saying.

According to Barlow, the memo stated that the US “cannot let our proliferation policy dictate our foreign policy.”

“The Cold Warriors were in charge. Fighting the Soviets was the number one priority. They were completely clueless as to the threat of Islamism that a country like Pakistan obtaining nuclear weapons could pose,” Barlow said, adding that everything was looked upon through the “Cold War Soviet lens”.

Barlow asserted that there had been no intelligence failure, adding that this was a “policy issue.” The former CIA officer further alleged that between 1986-87, “most of” the intelligence officials believed that Pakistan had manufactured all the parts of a nuclear weapon.

He added that despite these clear violations, the White House and State Department had found legal loopholes to continue aid to Pakistan, according to ANI. “The lawyers were looking for every way around this,” he added.

Barlow recounts 1987 undercover operation against Pak agent

In the context of its nuclear proliferation program, Barlow recalled an undercover operation against Pakistani agent Arshad Pervez in 1987. He claimed that Pervez had attempted to buy 25 tons of maraging steel, critical for uranium enrichment, from a company in America.

Barlow said this operation, run jointly by the CIA and US Customs, was compromised after senior US State Department officials had allegedly tipped off Pakistan.

“He (Pervez) was being run by a retired Pakistani general named Inam ul Haq and he was supposed to show up in Pennsylvania at the steel company. But some people in the State Department had tipped off the Pakistani government to this arrest warrant,” Barlow alleged.