MADRAS, India -- If there is one man who can be held singularly responsible for nuclear proliferation, it has to be Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb. Khan was a metallurgist before he became a nuclear businessman. That's what he was: He ran a "Nuclear Wal-Mart," according to a new book about him.
The tome, " Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity and the Rise and Fall of the A.Q. Khan Network," by Gordon Corera, reads like a thriller.
Khan has been under house arrest in one of Islamabad's posh localities. Recently, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. A wave of sympathy for the 70-year-old scientist is now sweeping Pakistan: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz sent him flowers, and cricketer-cum-politician Imran Khan said the ailing Khan would be treated in the best cancer hospital in Lahore. Khan owns the hospital.