A former CIA counterproliferation officer named Richard Barlow has disclosed that a secret joint operation proposed by India and Israel to bomb Pakistan's clandestine Kahuta nuclear facility in the early 1980s was ultimately spiked by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Barlow described the rejection by Gandhi to approve the strike as a "shame" that prevented a solution to long-term regional instability.

Barlow said during an interview that, during the height of A.Q. Khan's nuclear ambition, a plan discussed at the high level of intelligence circles never materialized. He worked in American intelligence.

The Proposed Covert Operation

Declassified accounts indicate that the pre-emptive air strike was allegedly planned on the heels of Israel's successful 1981 strike against Iraq's Osirak r

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