Preface

Many books have been written on the subject of nuclear energy since Bertrand Goldschmidt published his book in 1982 on The Atomic Complex, a worldwide political history of nuclear energy. Bertrand Goldschmidt’s highly informative book covered nonproliferation issues, alliances, the nuclear fuel cycle and thenuclear debate of the 70s—however it reasonable to state that the nuclear world has changed considerably since the 80s along with the politics of nuclear proliferation.

Over the last 47 years I have worked for the government of Iran, the IAEA and the US nuclear industry and have traveled to 38 countries most of them with nuclear programs. I noticed one common denominator in the countries I visited or in which I worked. The governments, in general, lie, deceive, cheat and demonstrate hypocritical behavior. My observations are limited to nuclear technology—in particular the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

About three years ago, I finally made a decision to write this book. Since I could not cover every country with a nuclear program, I selected seven countries that I thought ranked high when it comes to nuclear lies, deceptions and hypocrisies. The countries I chose are Iraq, Syria, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India and the US. Each chapter highlights the major lies, deceptions and hypocrisies of a country over the past 60 years. It is certain that, not all these seven countries have lied and deceived to the same extent.

Countries such as North Korea, South Africa, China, Russia, France and the UK were not selected. These countries have their own share of lies and deceptions but including them would have become a massive task.

For the first time in past decades, this book attempts to document the lies, deceptions and hypocrisies in the aforementioned countries. It will be shown that the lies and deceptions perpetrated by these countries have changed the world we live in today. The unacceptable consequences of some of these lies and deceptions have resulted in a more unsafe world in 2015. There is plenty of public information on nuclear issues in these countries except for Israel, where the nuclear program has been kept secret from the beginning in the 1950s. The collaboration of South Africa and Israel is discussed in Chapter 3.

The information provided in this book is based on many credible books, documents and some declassified National Security Archive reports. Also, at times, I have expressed my own views on the lies and deceptions of these seven countries related to their nuclear programs and their consequences.

A brief summary of the chapters covered in this book is as follows:

1. Iraq

The Israeli air force attacked Iraq’s nuclear facility on June 7, 1981. This nuclear facility did not have any nuclear fuel. Iraq had signed