Michael Burleigh

Loose Nukes

The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor

By

Allen Lane / The Penguin Press 179pp £20 order from our bookshop

Channel-hoppers may recall the 1994 Hollywood action comedy True Lies, in which Islamist jihadists purloined nuclear warheads stolen in Kazakhstan (a state which has actually decommissioned its nuclear arsenal) and used them to menace America. Capably assisted by wife Jamie Lee Curtis, agent Arnold Schwarzenegger saved the day, using a missile fired from a Harrier jump jet to despatch the lead malefactor to fiery oblivion. 

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