Israel's nuclear whistle blower jailed for 18 years

In the autumn of 1986 Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli citizen who had been employed at the Dimona Nuclear Power Plant in the Negrev Desert, gave evidence to the London Sunday Times newspaper that Israel was developing nuclear weapons.

He wanted to inform the world. It has been called an act of conscience. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to 18 years in Israeli prison. He spent the first eleven and a half years in solitary confinement. Today April 21, 2004 he was finally released. (well sort of)

Even though his full sentence has been served and all his secrets have been told, some would say his civil and human rights will continue to be violated as his punishment continues. The Israeli government is not permitting him to make contact with foreigners and most modern communications while confined to the city of Jaffa for one year. He is denied his passport and is forbidden to enter embassies or approach borders and airports. He may not talk to Israelis about his work at the nuclear weapons factory in Dimona, nor even recite his published revelations from the pages of the London Sunday Times in October, 1986.

Vanunu's data showed that Israel possessed over 200 bombs with boosted devices, neutron bombs, F-16 deliverable warheads, and Jericho warheads. The boosted weapons shown in the Vanunu photographs revealed a sophistication that inferred the requirement for testing. Vanunu revealed for the first time the underground plutonium separation facility where Israel was producing 40 kilograms annually, several times more than previous estimates. Photographs showed sophisticated designs which scientific experts say enabled the Israelis to build bombs with as little as 4 kilograms of plutonium. [Source: Farr]

Vanunu never saw the newspaper because five days prior to the release of the story he was lured to Rome and kidnapped there by Israeli secret agents.

 

Mordechai Vanunu