India, Nov. 7 -- Former United States intelligence officer Richard Barlow has claimed that America had knowledge of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, adding that it was deliberately ignored despite repeated warnings.

In an interview with news agency ANI, Barlow said that the US had downplayed the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Pakistan in the 1980s, on account of Pakistan's cooperation on supplying covert military aid to the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

"We had quite a bit of intelligence about Pakistan's nuclear program. Then the Directorate of Intelligence, which is primarily analytical. And we had huge quantities of intelligence about cons networks and the PAC networks," Barlow said.

He added t...