Former CIA officer Richard Barlow reveals how exposing Pakistan's nuclear weapons program cost him his career, marriage, and home, living in motorhome for 18 years.

"My life was completely destroyed... my wife left... I've been living in my motorhome camping for 18 years now," said former CIA counterproliferation officer Richard Barlow, who stated that he had to pay a devastating personal price for exposing Pakistan's clandestine nuclear weapons programme in the 1980s and seeing his life shattered by the very government he served.

In an interview with ANI, Barlow recounted how his relentless pursuit of truth led to professional sabotage, personal ruin, the end of his marriage, and nearly two decades of homelessness, all while Pakistan successfully built and proliferated the "Islamic bomb".

According to the former CIA officer, his ordeal began in 1985 when he joined the intelligence agency as a specialist on Pakistan's nuclear procurement networks, which were run by Abdul Qadeer Khan.

"I was the one who took action against the networks because nobody was doing it," Barlow told ANI.

Despite abundant intelligence showing Pakistan's illegal acquisitions of US materials for uranium enrichment and bomb-making, the Reagan administration prioritised the Afghan war against the Soviets, viewing Pakistan as an indispensable ally for arming the Mujahideen.

"We had superb intelligence on Pakistan's nuclear weapons and enrichment activities...better than on any other programme in history," Barlow revealed. Yet, the Cold War imperatives trumped nonproliferation.

According to Barlow, the then US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski's memo had set the tone: "We cannot let our proliferation policy dictate our foreign policy."

Barlow's breakthrough came in 1987 when he orchestrated the arrest of Arshad Pervez, a Pakistani agent attempting to smuggle 25 tonnes of maraging steel--essential for gas centrifuges--from the US. Working with the Customs Service, Barlow ran an undercover sting that exposed retired Pakistani Brigadier General Inamul Haq as the mastermind directly linked to Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), the core of Pakistan's nuclear programme. The arrest triggered a firestorm.

According to Barlow, US State Department officials, including then Deputy Assistant Secretary Robert Peck, tipped off Islamabad, allowing Haq to evade capture.