Former CIA Officer Reveals India-Israel Secret Plan to Strike Pakistan's Nuclear Facility Could Have "Solved Problems"

Former CIA counterproliferation officer Richard Barlow has disclosed that a proposed joint covert operation between India and Israel to target Pakistan's Kahuta nuclear facility in the early 1980s could have "solved a lot of problems."

Barlow expressed regret over the Indian government's decision to reject the operation, calling it a "shame."

In his interview with ANI, Barlow confirmed hearing about the reported plan within intelligence circles. However, he clarified that he wasn't directly involved as he was not in government service during that particular period.

"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 explained.

He further added, "It's a shame that Indira [Gandhi] didn't approve it; it would have solved a lot of problems."

According to declassified accounts, Israel and India allegedly developed plans for a preemptive airstrike targeting Pakistan's Kahuta uranium enrichment facility, which formed the core of its nuclear program. The objective was to prevent Pakistan from developing nuclear weapons and potentially proliferating them to countries like Iran, considered a grave adversary by Israel.

Barlow suggested that the Reagan administration would have strongly opposed any such strike, particularly from Israel, as it could have disrupted America's covert war efforts against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

In Barlow's assessment, Pakistan leveraged this dependency strategically. He noted that Pakistani officials, including Munir Ahmad Khan, former head of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), warned US lawmakers that disrupting aid flows would jeopardize cooperation on Afghanistan.

"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 stated, referring to the former Israeli Prime Minister's potential involvement.

Barlow elaborated, "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."

The Kahuta enrichment facility, established under the direction of A.Q. Khan, Pakistan's nuclear program architect and known proliferator, later became central to Pakistan's successful development of nuclear weapons, culminating in its first atomic tests conducted in 1998.