A former CIA counterproliferation officer has confirmed long-circulated reports that Israel and India allegedly planned a preemptive strike on Pakistan’s Kahuta uranium enrichment facility in the early 1980s; a mission that never materialized but could have dramatically altered South Asia’s nuclear history.
Speaking to ANI, Richard Barlow, who served with the CIA during Pakistan’s covert nuclear buildup, said he had heard of the proposed joint operation while in intelligence circles, though he was not directly involved.
“I was out of government from 1982 until 1985,” Barlow recalled. “I heard about it at some point, but I didn’t get my teeth into it because it never happened.”
He lamented India’s decision not to approve the plan, calling it “a shame” that then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had refused. “It would have solved a lot of problems,” he said.
According to declassified accounts, Israel and India had considered bombing Kahuta; the core of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program to prevent Islamabad from developing and potentially sharing nuclear technology, especially with Iran.
Barlow noted that the Reagan administration would have strongly opposed any such move, as it might have jeopardized Washington’s covert support for Afghan rebels fighting Soviet forces. “I think Reagan would have cut [Israeli Prime Minister] Menachem Begin’s legs out from under him if he tried that,” Barlow said.
He added that Pakistan had leveraged its role in the Afghan conflict to discourage U.S. interference. The Kahuta facility, established under A.Q. Khan, went on to anchor Pakistan’s nuclear program, culminating in its first atomic tests in 1998.
