Allahs Bomb: The Islamic Quest for Nuclear Weapons
by By Venter, Al J.
Category: Political Science , Security (National & International)

Venter is a long-time military correspondent for Janes publications, and here he offers material seemingly intended to sound an alarm (or cause fear?) about nuclear weapons proliferation activities in the Islamic world and their connections to South African and other nuclear energy and weapons programs around the world.  But it's difficult to pin down his explicit arguments, which are obscured under a mountain of detail--a mixture of established facts, outdated information (such as the assertion that Kazakhstan has nuclear weapons when in fact they were all transferred to Russia by 1995), thinly-sourced assertions, and pure conjecture.   Examined closely, Venter's "facts" are questionable; and even if taken at face value, they often fail, logically, to support his broader assertions, such as the existence throughout the Middle East of "an extermination program" directed against Jews and Israel that derives the bulk of its inspiration from Iran, which is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons in pursuit of said extermination program. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)