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Mordechai Vananu Headed back to Israeli Prison

Posted on May 19, 2010
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Whistler blower revealed Israeli Nuclear Program

 By Kenneth J. Theisen
 
The U.S. has accused Iran of having a secret nuclear weapons program, despite having no proof of an existing program. To keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon our imperialist leaders have told us that “all options are on the table,” including military options. We are told this is necessary because otherwise a nuclear arms race may be unleashed in the Middle East. In the midst of all this propaganda we are supposed to forget that a certain Middle Eastern state already has nuclear weapons. 
 
That state is of course Israel.

 
As an ally of U.S. imperialism, Israel serves as an outpost of the U.S. empire in that region of the world. It is well known that Israel is a nuclear armed state with at least scores of nukes, and possibly some 200. But we are all supposed to ignore facts and believe lies instead.
 
One way this suppression of truth manifests itself is in the true story of Mordechai Vanunu. He is a former technician who worked at Israel’s nuclear plant near the southern town of Dimona. Vanunu revealed details of the Israel’s nuclear arsenal to the British newspaper The Sunday Times in 1986. As a result of his revelation he was abducted by Mossad agents in Italy on September 30, 1986 and secretly taken to Israel where he was tried and sentenced to a prison term of 18 years. He spent his first 11 years in prison in solitary confinement. When he was finally released in April 2004, the Israeli authorities considered placing him under administrative detention, but the option was rejected as illegal by Israel’s Attorney General.
 
But even though he was “released” from prison, Vanunu is still a prisoner. He has been subject to police supervision since his release under the terms of a draconian military order which is renewed every six months, most recently in April 2010. According to the order, Vanunu is banned from communicating with foreigners, including journalists; he cannot leave the country; he is forbidden from visiting foreign embassies; and must inform the authorities if he wishes to change addresses. He has been forbidden to move to the U.S. to be with his family. He is now on his way back to prison. Vanunu was convicted on April 30, 2007 of contact with a foreign national without authorization and sentenced to six months, reduced on appeal to three.
 
He was given the option of doing community service in West Jerusalem instead of serving the three months in prison. But Vanunu declined, citing fears for his safety as many Israelis consider him a national traitor, and instead offered to carry out the service in Palestinian East Jerusalem, where he now lives. The court refused.
 
On May 11th the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that he must now serve those three months because he violated the restrictions imposed on him by the military.  He must report to prison by May 23rd. Vanunu told Amnesty International on May 12th, “Whether I go to prison or not, it doesn’t matter to me. I feel like I’m in prison already, trapped in Israel.”
 
I have been monitoring the U.S. State Department and White House websites looking for some kind of statement from U.S. leaders about this violation of rights. I expect any day now that the U.S. will be approaching the U.N. and demanding that sanctions be imposed on Israel for starting a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. I hope soon to see an announcement that President Obama will cut off the billions in U.S. aid to Israel unless it gets rid of its nukes. I am also expecting the billions of dollars of weapons given to Israel by the U.S. to cease being transported across the seas. And if I believed in hell, I would expect it to freeze over too before any of this really happens.

1 thought on “Mordechai Vananu Headed back to Israeli Prison”

  1. eileen fleming says:
    May 20, 2010 at 4:35 pm

    “HOPE has two children. The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it.”-St. Augustine

    MY FAX of May 20, 2010

    Dear President Obama,

    In support of the New START Treaty I beseech you to also be an honest broker regarding Israel’s WMD.

    Mordechai “Vanunu told the world that Israel had developed between one hundred and two hundred atomic bombs [in 1986!] and had gone on to develop neutron bombs and thermonuclear weapons. Enough to destroy the entire Middle East and nobody has done anything about it since.”-Peter Hounam, 2003 for the BBC.

    In 2005, Vanunu told me: “President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons. Kennedy insisted on an open internal inspection. When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to ’69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them. Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year.”

    THE REST:

    http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1724&Itemid=233

    Eileen Fleming,
    Producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
    Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
    A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com
    Staff Member of Salem-news.com
    Author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
    http://www.youtube.com/user/eileenfleming

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