Mordechai vanunu
In 1986, a former nuclear reactor employee in Israel denounced the secret atomic bombs program of the Jewish state. Mordechai Vanunu was eventually kidnapped by Mossad and was arrested for almost 20 years.
“We have broken a blow to Iran’s weapon program,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after the attacks launched by Israel.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful, but Israel of secretly seeking to produce nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, Israel neither confirms nor deny Have a nuclear arsenal, although there is wide worldwide belief that yes.
This is due to a man and the revelations he has done, exposing the clandestine operations that Israel performed to become a nuclear power.
This information cost him freedom for two decades.
“The Secrets of Arsenal”
Fun Former nuclear reactor employee From Dimona, where he worked for nine years, until 1985.
But before leaving office, he clandestinely took two rolls of photographs of the installation.
The photos showed the equipment for the extraction of radioactive material to the arms production and the thermonuclear device models laboratory.
In 1986, he joined an antinuclear group in Sydney, Australia, and it was there that contacted Colombian freelance journalist Oscar Guerrero. Guerrero convinced him to publish the photos.
He then contacted journalist Peter Hornam of the British newspaper The Sunday Times.
In October 1986, the Sunday Times published an articlewidely acclaimed as one of the best in British journalism, entitled “revealed: The Secrets of the Nuclear Arsenal of Israel.”
The source was the Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai vanunuand its revelation confirmed suspicions about the nuclear abilities of his country, revealing a larger and more advanced weapons program than anyone had previously imagined.
Vanunu worked at the UltraSecret Center for Nuclear Research of Dimona, in the Negev Desert, about 150 kilometers south of Jerusalem by road.
The newspaper concluded that Israel had become again sixth largest nuclear power from the world and had up to 200 atomic weapons.
“We were tense, exhausted, most people there had never worked in a report as important as this,” the newspaper’s investigative journalist Peter Hrsam told BBC.
But the day The Sunday Times published the report – October 5 – Your main source has disappeared.
Traitor or complainant?
Hornam met Vanunu in Sydney, Australia, in August 1986, and was impressed by the complainant’s appearance and behavior.
“When I saw Vanunu sitting there – a small man, snort, without self -confidence and dressed in a very casual way – he certainly didn’t seem like a nuclear scientist,” Hornam recalled.
“But I was convinced with your decision to Tell the world what you saw In Dimona, ”he added.
In late 1985, Vasi decided to drop his job and embark on a trip through Asia, disillusioned with Israel’s treatment to Palestinians and the development of nuclear weapons.
Before leaving, he took photos of the nuclear center, including equipment for the extraction of radioactive material for the production of weapons and laboratory models from thermoonuclear devices.
It was a decision that first led him to London and Sunday Times, and then to Rome, where was kidnapped by the intelligence service Israelite Mossad, who brought him back to Israel, where he served a long prison sentence.
“He began to outline the story of how he had smuggled a camera without a movie into his headquarters, then hid the movie on the socks and started to take some pictures secretly,” Hamam said.
Sunday Times editors asked Hornam to bring Vanunu back to London to further corroborate his testimony.
Despite his fears, Vanunu agreed to fly to the United Kingdom. Sunday Times hosted it on a discreet hotel on the outskirts of London.
But he was restless and was transferred to a London hotel, where things took an unexpected course. “That weekend, he met a woman as he walked down the street. He saw it a few times And went to the movies with her. And I asked him, ‘Are you sure this woman is real?’ ”Hornam recalled.
During his stay in London, Hornam was increasingly concerned about VaNunu’s safety and began to visit him periodically. He remembered their last conversation.
“He said, ‘I’m going to northern England for a few days. I’ll be fine.’ And I said, ‘Look, whatever happens, Call me twice a day Just to make sure it’s safe. ‘
A month later, the Israelite government revealed that Vanunu had been arrested. He had been the victim of a classic trap of seduction in Rome and had been smuggled, unconscious, back to Israel by boat.
Chronicle of a kidnapping
Upon being transported from an arrest in Israel, Vanunu wrote some details of his kidnapping in the palm of the hand, which raised toward the van window so that journalists could get the information.
He said that in London, an American Mossad agent, Cheryl Bentov, who was a tourist, befriended him.
She attracted him to Rome on September 30 to spend a few days together. Once there, he was kidnapped and drugged.
Vasi was tried in March 1987 for betrayal and espionage and later sentenced to 18 years in prison. He spent more than half of these years in solitary confinement.
“I wanted to tell the world what was happening… this is not betrayal, is to inform the worldin contrast to Israel’s policies, ”Vas said in an interview recorded in prison.
He was released on April 21, 2004 and since then he had his permission to leave Israel denied. He was arrested several times for violating the conditions of his parole.
Before being arrested in 2009, Vanunu shouted: “You have not received anything from me in 18 years; you will not receive anything from me in three months! What a shame, Israel!”
Secret agreement
Even VaNunu’s revelations were little known about Israel’s nuclear capacity, even among its nearest allies.
Israel is believed to have started its nuclear program Shortly after the foundation of the state em 1948.
At a large numerical disadvantage in relation to his enemies, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion recognized the value of nuclear dissuasion, but did not want to disturb Israel’s allies by introducing unconventional weapons into an unstable region.
Israel, therefore, came to a secret agreement with France To build Dimona Center, which is believed to have come into production to make nuclear weapons ingredients in the 1960s. For years, Israel said it was a textile factory.
American inspectors visited the site several times in the 1960s, but, according to reports, were unaware of the existence of underground floors, as elevator wells and entrances had been sealed with bricks and plaster.
It is estimated that Israel currently has about 90 nuclear power plantsaccording to the Arms Control Center and not proliferation.
However, it maintains an official ambiguity policy regarding their nuclear capacity, and Israeli leaders have often repeated over the years that “Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.”
Since 1970, 191 States adhered to the Treaty of Non -Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (TNP), an agreement aimed at preventing nuclear weapons proliferation and promoting disarmament.
Five countries (USA, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China) are allowed to have weapons because they built and tested a nuclear explosive device before the treaty’s entry into force on January 1, 1967.
Israel is not a signatory to the treaty.
Vasi is considered a traitor in Israel, but his supporters celebrated his liberation in 2004, calling him a “hero of peace.”
In his first interview after his release, he told the BBC that does not regret.
“What I did was inform the world about what is happening in secret. I did not come to say, ‘We must destroy Israel, we must destroy Dimona.’ I said, ‘See what you have and judge for yourself.’ ”
