Three countries gave up the bomb. One was rewarded. One was killed. One was invaded.
October 4, 2003. The German cargo ship BBC China is diverted to Italy. US and Italian authorities open five containers — centrifuge components bound for Libya. The Khan network — intercepted at last.
Twenty years earlier, another country had built — and given up. Apartheid South Africa. By 1989, six bombs at Pelindaba. Then F.W. de Klerk took office. The Cold War was over. Cuba was leaving Angola. Majority rule was coming. He didn't want to hand functional weapons to a Black-led government he didn't fully trust — or to a world that would never accept South Africa back if he did. Every device was dismantled. South Africa joined the NPT. The reward: reintegration. And Mandela.
Libya was different. Gaddafi had wanted the bomb since 1969. Refused by China. Refused by India. Robbed by Pakistan. Until 1997 — A.Q. Khan offered the full package. Centrifuges. Designs. A Chinese warhead schematic. Then BBC China was intercepted. Within weeks, Gaddafi surrendered. Centrifuges flew to Oak Ridge. The Deal in the Desert. Eight years later, NATO bombed Libya. Gaddafi was dragged from a drainage pipe. Shot on video.