Reuters, Tehran, Tuesday 3 February 2009

Iran launched a domestically made satellite into orbit, using Iranian launching technology.

The launch of the Omid (Hope) research & telecomms satellite was a MAJOR step in Iranian space technology.

The long-range BALLISTIC technology used to put satelliets into orbit can also be used for launching warheads although Iran says it has no plans to do so.

"Dear Iran, your sons hv placed the 1st indigenous satellite into orbit," Prez Mahmoud Ahmedinajad said in a televised message.

Isaac ben Israel, former head of Israel Space Agency, said in Jerusalem: "If Iran managed to fire a satellite into space it means they can reach Western Europe."

[You can always rely on an Israeli offficial to make a provocative statement like that].

Tal Inbar, Head of Space Research Centre at Israeli think tank Fisher Brothers Institute, said Iran is now the 9th country in the world capable of both PRODUCING a satellite and LAUNCHING it into space from a INDIGENOUSLY-MADE launcher.

[Looks like Iran is now beginning to get some SERIOUS respect from Israel]

Now what Iran needs is the wisdom, and not intelligence, in handling such technology.

An Iranian friend told me that Iran has a plan to send man to the space by 2012. So, this is their first step to reach their goal. I thought that Iran is all Mollah like the Talebans. But, they have proved themselves and has now entered the world's exclusive Space Club. It is a great achievement.

Frankly, I think they already have that. What's at issue here is their willingness to sit under the thumb of the United States.

From what I understand, prior to the revolution, Iran was one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world.

how the hell does this have to do with Malaysia? And why is it so exclusive to Muslim countries rather than industrializing countries in general.

Because Malaysia is a... self-proclaimed Muslim country?



I think actually the issue should not have been about Muslim countries. 'Muslim countries' is just a means to push the communal ego. Whether or not you are a Muslim country does not determine your capability of being able to produce a technology such as this.

Seriously though, any topic regarding Iran capability in terms of military & domestic technology, just posted 'em under MY Armed Forces thread. To my knowledge, Hang PC is an avid military enthusiast who admired Iran, his contribution regarding Iranian technology on a thread at CARI military forum are legendary.

actually i have to agree on your statement. But do u not realise that by posting a thread like this, you are also provoking and stirring racial sentiments? when launching a satellite clearly had nothing to do with being Muslim/not Muslim.

Reminds me of spastic kids in special olympics who feels the need to prove themselves. But in the eyes of others, even if u win at the special olympics, you're still spastic. And that no one doubted nor cared if u can do it or not.

Iran can shove their missile firing capability up their own @$$ for all we care. Theres no need to say "YAY! A MUSLIM DEVELOPED NEW TECH!" (over stated. it wasnt new anyway). No one ever doubted there are smart Muslims around. Most of us just don't even care. Live your own life please. Religious/Racial heroes are dead long ago.

It's a great achievement as long as they don't use those to blows the infidels to hell.

How Europe's companies are feeding Iran's bomb
http://www.iranfocus.com/en/iran-world-pre...bomb-17120.html

While the U.S. has ratcheted up its efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms, the Islamic Republic is reaping a windfall from European companies.

To all those Yanky-soaked brains among ya all.

If ya really, really wanna read anything good about Iran, n ya wanna get it from an American source, don't bother. Ya wont find anything.

But if all ya wanna do is to read everything bad about Iran, just continue sucking on them.

Dude. If YOU had MORE wisdom, you'd hv offered your advice to any other country BUT Iran.

Hv you done any reading at all about ancient world history?

Did you know that Iran as Persia built the first truly international east-west empire under Khouroush-e-Bozorg, a.k.a. Cyrus the Great, in 529 BC? He was also the guy enlightened enough to liberate the Israelites from slavery from their former Babylonian masters. BIG mistake.

N now the modern day Israelites r just dying to get the slightest excuse to destroy Iran. Talk about the dog biting the hand that fed it.

Did you know that the first so called civilised Europeans, i.e. the Greeks - whose earliest ancestors were pirates marauding over all the seas of the Great Green, i.e. the Aegean - only got civilised by learning n copying stuff from Trojans, Hittites n Egyptians, n later on Persians?

Dude. Do you even really know what I meant?

What do I care if Iran/Persia or any other Arab/Muslim nation is good in this and all that. I'm glad of course if every country advances, including your Iran. In fact I congratulate them on this 'advancement'.

But considering the tension that's going on between the Arab countries and the West and even within the Arab countries themselves such technology better not be used to well, 'exterminate the enemies'. After all, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is known to have made some very dangerous statements in the past, and my reservation is not undue.

Dude. We dont care whether you care or dont care about what.

But we hv to correct your misinformed views about any Muslim country based on misinformation manufactured by another country with any agenda damaging to the Muslim world.

Views like "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is known to have made some very dangerous statements in the past," for instance.

First of all, even IF they were true, they were ONLY dangerous, braggardly, bravadoistic STATEMENTS, most of which r beyond his country's current capability to execute.

Mere political-mileage STATEMENTS which are much, much less severe, not even 1/100,000 time as severe in impact, as the REAL, already executed ILLEGITIMATE INVASIONS n OCCUPATIONS of Iraq n Afghanistan.

Secondly, those STATEMENTS were actually made in PERSIAN to an IRANIAN audience, n they hv been MISTRANSLATED n EXAGGERATED beyond all recognition to feed the political agendas of the then powers that be in Washington, London etc.

Ahmadinejad has denied allegations of Holocaust denial[191] and acknowledged that it seems the West is right in its claim of the Holocaust:

"If the Europeans are telling the truth in their claim that they have killed six million Jews in the Holocaust during the World War II - which seems they are right in their claim because they insist on it and arrest and imprison those who oppose it, why the Palestinian nation should pay for the crime. Why have they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are committing crimes against the dear Palestine using their bombs, rockets, missiles and sanctions.[192]


Ahmadinejad's comments were condemned by major Western governments, the European Union, Russia, the United Nations Security Council and then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.[139] Egyptian, Turkish and Palestinian leaders also expressed displeasure over Ahmadinejad's remark.[140] Canada's then Prime Minister Paul Martin said, “this threat to Israel's existence, this call for genocide coupled with Iran's obvious nuclear ambitions is a matter that the world cannot ignore.”[141]

The translation of his statement has been disputed. Iran's foreign minister stated that Ahmadinejad had been "misunderstood": "He is talking about the regime. We do not recognise legally this regime."[142] Some experts state that the phrase in question (بايد از صفحه روزگار محو شود) is more accurately translated as "eliminated" or "wiped off" or "wiped away" from "the page of time" or "the pages of history", rather than "wiped off the map".[143] Reviewing the controversy over the translation, New York Times deputy foreign editor Ethan Bronner observed that "all official translations" of the comments, including the foreign ministry and president's office, "refer to wiping Israel away".[144] Dr. Joshua Teitelbaum, in a paper for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, examined the language that President Ahmadinejad has used when discussing Israel. Using Farsi translations from Dr. Denis MacEoin, a former lecturer in Islamic studies in the United Kingdom, Teitelbaum wrote that "the Iranian president was not just calling for “regime change” in Jerusalem, but rather the actual physical destruction of the State of Israel," and asserted that Ahmadinejad was advocating the genocide of its residents as well. Teitelbaum said that in a speech given on 26 October 2005, Ahmadinejad said the following about Israel: "Soon this stain of disgrace will be cleaned from the garment of the world of Islam, and this is attainable." Teitelbaum argued that this type of dehumanizing rhetoric is a documented prelude to genocide incitement. Dr. Juan Cole, a professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan, has argued that Ahmadinejad was not calling for the destruction of Israel, “Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to wipe Israel off the map because no such idiom exists in Persian.” Dr. Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard University has said “I don’t think he is inciting to genocide."[145] According to Gawdat Bahgat, Director of Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, "the fiery calls to destroy Israel are meant to mobilize domestic and regional constituencies" and that "Rhetoric aside, most analysts agree that the Islamic Republic and the Jewish state are not likely to engage in a military confrontation against each other."[146]


















Ahmadinejad has said he respects Jews and that "in Palestine there are Muslims, Christians and Jews who live together". He added, "We love everyone in the world - Jews, Christians, Muslims, non-Muslims, non-Jews, non-Christians... We are against occupation, aggression, killings and displacing people - otherwise we have no problem with ordinary people." [19] Ahmadinejad has further said the Jewish community in Iran has its own independent member of parliament. Ahmadinejad has argued Zionists are "neither Jews nor Christians nor Muslims", and has asked "How can you possibly be religious and occupy the land of other people?"[150]

Shiraz Dossa, a professor at St. Francis Xavier University, in Nova Scotia, Canada, argued in June 2007 that

Ahmadinejad has not denied the Holocaust or proposed Israel’s liquidation; he has never done so in any of his speeches on the subject (all delivered in Farsi/Persian). As an Iran specialist, I can attest that both accusations are false... What Ahmadinejad has questioned is the mythologizing, the sacralization, of the Holocaust and the “Zionist regime’s” continued killing of Palestinians and Muslims. He has even raised doubts about the scale of the Holocaust. His rhetoric has been excessive and provocative. And he does not really care what we in the West think about Iran or Muslims; he does not kowtow to western or Israeli diktat.[193]

Dossa was criticized in Canadian media, by university president Sean Riley, and by 105 professors[194] at his university for his attendance at Tehran's Holocaust conference.[195] Dossa replied he did not know Holocaust deniers would be in attendance, that he has "never denied the Holocaust, only noted its propaganda power", and that the university should respect his academic freedom to participate

Opposition to the Existence of Israel
Friedman is retrospectively opposed to the creation of the State of Israel, which he believes should not have occurred and should be reversed. While at the Teheran conference, Friedman presented a plan under which Israel would be dissolved and all Jews, and their families, would be returned to their places of birth.[8] His views are somewhat similar to those of Neturei Karta, though he is not affiliated with them. He grew up in the Satmar community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.[9] Satmar leaders have condemned the participation in the Iranian conference.[9] Friedman has since been expelled by the board of the Vienna Jewish community.[10] Friedman is aligned with the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria.[11] In May 2006, Friedman met with Atef Adwan of Hamas and an acting Palestinian Cabinet Minister in Stockholm, Sweden, where Friedman announced his goals of building a "joint coalition" between Hamas and anti-Zionist Jews, and plans to send humanitarian aid to the West Bank.[12]


[edit] Participation in the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust
On December 11, 2006, Friedman participated in the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust a two-day symposium held in Tehran and sponsored by Iran's Foreign Ministry Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) for the purpose of subjecting the Holocaust to scholarly review. Friedman spoke at a forum hosted by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to discuss the Holocaust, where Friedman kissed Ahmadinejad.[8][9] Following the conference in Tehran, Friedman delayed his return to Austria reportedly due to his fears that he could be prosecuted by Austrian authorities for Holocaust denial. [5][13] Upon his return Austrian authorities did not indict, investigate or prosecute him and Friedman expressed no concerns regarding any legal matters.

The board of the Vienna Jewish community voted to excommunicate him, and has accused him of desecrating the Sabbath by participating in demonstrations.[14] His children have been expelled from the Vienna Talmud-Torah school. The school has claimed in court that they are owed 20,000 Euro in tuition fees, a claim Friedman has denied stating all tuition has been paid.[15] Friedman successfully challenged the schools expulsion in court resulting in accumulating fines assessed against the school until they allow his children to return.[16] The board threatened to sue Friedman for the cost of his sons Bar Mitzvah celebration in Vienna. Friedman emphatically denied the allegation and stated that the board's suit was in retaliation for losing his case against them for expelling his children from school. [17]

On March 11, 2007, while on a visit to Poland, three members of the Israeli Jewish-Orthodox organization ZAKA assaulted Friedman. Their leader, Yehuda Meshi Zahav, saw Friedman in a crowd and physically attacked him, because he was angered at his participation in the Tehran conference, leaving Friedman bruised.[18] Friedman did not press charges against Zahav or the other assailants.









Rabbi Ahron Cohen

Cult rabbi who condemns Israel and denies Holocaust besieged by protests
By Associated Press December 22, 2006

An Orthodox Jewish rabbi who participated in a conference in Iran that cast doubt on the Holocaust was under police protection at home Wednesday.

Since returning from Tehran on Sunday, Rabbi Ahron Cohen -- who opposes Israel's right to exist - has been denounced as a traitor in daily demonstrations outside his home in Salford, a
predominantly Jewish district close to Manchester's city centre.

Protesters are angry because Cohen accepted an invitation and warmly greeted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for the destruction of Israel.

"It's been made very clear he has no place in the community. He has been ostracised," said Rabbi Yehuda Brodie of the Manchester Beth Din, the local Jewish authority.

"He does not represent any serious faction of Judaism just because he wears the garb."

Cohen is a member of Neturei Karta, a group that opposes Zionism and the Israeli state, and supports close ties with Arabs, particularly Palestinians.

Britain's Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks attacked Cohen's participation in the Tehran conference as an "unforgivable betrayal of the memory of the victims of the Holocaust."

Cohen, however, said the meeting was designed to help defuse tensions.

"Maybe I am a traitor to Israel, but I am not a traitor to the Jewish people," he told The Associated Press.

Attending the three-day conference, he added, "was unpleasant and distasteful but had to be done."

Cohen insists he is not a Holocaust denier but said that the mass murder was ordained by God because Jews "needed to have that suffering."

"The victims have to accept what happened as God's will," he said, while dismissing the need to hold memorial events or to teach future generations about the killings of 6 million Jews during World War II.

A round-the-clock police operation was mounted outside the rabbi's house after it was pelted with hundreds of eggs within hours of his return Sunday.

On Monday night, police with dogs rushed to the residential street as hundreds of people joined the protest.

"He is not part of the religious society and we should all stand against him," said protester Isaac Friedlander.

"I lost family in the Holocaust and I can't believe he went to the denial conference. We don't want him living in our streets."

Cohen, who is in his 80s, branded the protesters as "the ugly face of Zionism."

"They are very sad, misguided and influenced by nationalism," he said.

"I won't leave because they say so, I'll ignore them. ... I'm strong."
















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Aryeh_Friedman

Dude. Thank you for your concern but what exactly do you mean when you call me misinformed. Is it when I express doubts about Muslim countries? So what is correctly informed? When I give them 100% support regardless? And bash the West 100% as well?

I have a right to have doubts and opinions about every country, regardless of its official religion. Not allowing people the benefit of the doubt is called brainwashing.




See my point now? Which wise leader would go around making such gung-ho statements? Obviously if you say you want to shoot someone in the end, whether you mean it or not, the other party would get ready to react accordingly.

What's even more baffling is if Iran is not capable of doing such things why make such threats in the first place? Either President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is very naive, or Iran is actually capable of doing such things.



As well as the horrors of the Taliban. If you want to get both sides of the coin that is.



You understand Persian?

edit: I do not deny that some of them may have been exaggerated to 'feed the political agendas of the then powers that be in Washington, London etc.' (read: Iraq and Bush's Weapons of Mass Destruction), but to assume that he is a completely innocent man is not what I agree with either. I don't know what you think but I'd prefer to distance myself emotionally (well I try to) from all world leaders - none of them can be completely trusted.

And I still don't get why you become so worked up about my first post in this thread. I would say the same thing to the US, Israel, North Korea or China. But of course, this thread being about Iran, I don't see why I should address other countries as well, right? Besides as I have said the situation in the Middle East is already so volatile - it is true that extra caution should be practiced in all levels. Unfortunately you seem to see that as an attack against the Muslim world by default.

What's really, really much, much more baffling is that you still aint capable of seeing the crux of the matter.

Mahmoud has ONLY made THREATS, even assuming that those THREATS were as severe as blown up in Jewish-controlled Yanky media. Which as our friend Tengku Kuning has posted is very, very hotly debateable.

But Jungle George has ACTUALLY KILLED 550,000 Iraqi CIVILIANS n 150,000 Afghan CIVILIANS. For NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING.

While Ehud Olmert has just recently ACTUALLY GENOCIDED 1,500 defenceless Palestinians, currently still CITIZENS of his country, while zappin at the most 100 Hamas operatives.

Now then, who is the bigger DANGER? Iran or America-Israel?

My 5 year old niece can give you the answer. If you still hv trouble workin out one.

US has got 4,500 nukes, at the very least. Israel has got 750 nukes, at the very least, which is VERY SUSBTANTIALLY more than China's, by the way. Iran has got ZERO.

Work out the maths. You still think US-Israel is scared of Iran? Yeah, right.


Funny, but it looks like you're the one who's got really, really worked up about AwangPembela's post.

No. You're wrong.

We will disagree n fight against injustice, oppression, belligerence, state-sponsored terrorism n thuggery, genocide of defenceless civilians, supra-national political bullying aided by state media, etc. etc. etc., no matter who is the perpetrator n who is the victim.

Safir-2 Rocket & Omid Satellite













http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHpjnjIbyes

How does this relates to Malaysia?

I think you are confuse between Islamic Country & Muslim Country, there is a Difference between it. and YES Malaysia is indeed a Muslim Country

Then even my 3 year old niece can tell you, kerana mulut badan binasa.

You guys keep on falling back to the statistics of what US did and etc. Like I don't know! I'm not even remotely trying to say that Iran will commit genocide. I'm just saying, in whatever you do, practice caution. That includes what you say (refer back to Malay proverb). Don't tell me the US, Israel, Hamas or Taliban went against each other without an exchange of words.





Then do tell me how it looks like I'm the one that got really, really worked up about AwangPembela's post. : ) The way I see it, I've used way less CAPS than you or Awang Pembela did.




Good. Then stop thinking that just because I have the benefit of the doubt it automatically means I'm against the Muslim world. Like how when I posted up news about Hamas' share in the war crimes you started going ballistic, eventhough I just wanted to show another side of the conflict. : )




Then pray tell me what is the difference, instead of just telling me there is one. That would help a lot. : )

edit: I think I know the difference now, did my own research. Thanks for pointing that out, and welcome to the forum.

"Only" a threat, jees when a country has a nuclear weapon pointed at them its only a threat? I guess Iran is also not helping train and fund attacks in Iraq, or that Iran hasn't tried to influence the politics in Iraq ya? We already have too many countries with nuclear weapons, we don't need any more. Every time we have another country with nuclear weapon capability we increase the possibility of a nuclear war or even of accidents happening.

And when will you stop using the 550000 civilians killed by the Americans. I have already proved you wrong, and that the majority of that number is from civilain deaths caused by sectarian violence, most probably contributed mind you by Iran. Are you too dumb to learn or to listen. Or are you so biased agaisnt the West, that you blindly use statistics that you know are incorrect in the vain hope of proving your point.

How do you know that Israel has nuclear weapons let alone how many? Has Israel ever confirmed or denied that they have nuclear weapons?

"genocided" Palestinians?? Well I guess that also means that Hamas also "genocided" Israelis as well ya, by your definition, or is it that you apply one set of rules for Israel and the West compared to Muslims? I'm sorry I forgot the answer is yes. The West is bad and terrible the killer of children but Muslims are alwyas the sons and daughters of god isn't it.

Why don't you start applying the same set of rules for the West as you do for Muslims.

What is happening in Palestine is a human tragedy but both sides are to blame, Hamas as much as Israel, until Hamas accepts this, nothing will change. And until that happens I personally don't see why the rest of the world should help. This conflict has gone on for 50 years, unless BOTH sides accepts each others right to exist, it will never end.

^ Swingdoc, apparently there are also reports that Hamas militants fight in civilian clothes. Not trying to say Israel is more right or anything, but I think we should all also consider this possibility and review 'civilian' deaths with more salt in the future.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_we...ass_destruction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ef4AEAuiY...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hcXJTD51ro

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Non-P...feration_Treaty

FAS | Nuke | Guide | Israel |||| Search | Join FAS

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Nuclear Weapons
Israel has not confirmed that it has nuclear weapons and officially maintains that it will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East. Yet the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons is a "public secret" by now due to the declassification of large numbers of formerly highly classified US government documents which show that the United States by 1975 was convinced that Israel had nuclear weapons.
History

Israel began actively investigating the nuclear option from its earliest days. In 1949, HEMED GIMMEL a special unit of the IDF's Science Corps, began a two-year geological survey of the Negev desert with an eye toward the discovery of uranium reserves. Although no significant sources of uranium were found, recoverable amounts were located in phosphate deposits.

The program took another step forward with the creation of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) in 1952. Its chairman, Ernst David Bergmann, had long advocated an Israeli bomb as the best way to ensure "that we shall never again be led as lambs to the slaughter." Bergmann was also head of the Ministry of Defense's Research and Infrastructure Division (known by its Hebrew acronym, EMET), which had taken over the HEMED research centers (HEMED GIMMEL among them, now renamed Machon 4) as part of a reorganization. Under Bergmann, the line between the IAEC and EMET blurred to the point that Machon 4 functioned essentially as the chief laboratory for the IAEC. By 1953, Machon 4 had not only perfected a process for extracting the uranium found in the Negev, but had also developed a new method of producing heavy water, providing Israel with an indigenous capability to produce some of the most important nuclear materials.

For reactor design and construction, Israel sought the assistance of France. Nuclear cooperation between the two nations dates back as far as early 1950's, when construction began on France's 40MWt heavy water reactor and a chemical reprocessing plant at Marcoule. France was a natural partner for Israel and both governments saw an independent nuclear option as a means by which they could maintain a degree of autonomy in the bipolar environment of the cold war.

In the fall of 1956, France agreed to provide Israel with an 18 MWt research reactor. However, the onset of the Suez Crisis a few weeks later changed the situation dramatically. Following Egypt's closure of the Suez Canal in July, France and Britain had agreed with Israel that the latter should provoke a war with Egypt to provide the European nations with the pretext to send in their troops as peacekeepers to occupy and reopen the canal zone. In the wake of the Suez Crisis, the Soviet Union made a thinly veiled threat against the three nations. This episode not only enhanced the Israeli view that an independent nuclear capability was needed to prevent reliance on potentially unreliable allies, but also led to a sense of debt among French leaders that they had failed to fulfill commitments made to a partner. French premier Guy Mollet is even quoted as saying privately that France "owed" the bomb to Israel.

On 3 October 1957, France and Israel signed a revised agreement calling for France to build a 24 MWt reactor (although the cooling systems and waste facilities were designed to handle three times that power) and, in protocols that were not committed to paper, a chemical reprocessing plant. This complex was constructed in secret, and outside the IAEA inspection regime, by French and Israeli technicians at Dimona, in the Negev desert under the leadership of Col. Manes Pratt of the IDF Ordinance Corps.

Both the scale of the project and the secrecy involved made the construction of Dimona a massive undertaking. A new intelligence agency, the Office of Science Liasons,(LEKEM) was created to provide security and intelligence for the project. At the height construction, some 1,500 Israelis some French workers were employed building Dimona. To maintain secrecy, French customs officials were told that the largest of the reactor components, such as the reactor tank, were part of a desalinization plant bound for Latin America. In addition, after buying heavy water from Norway on the condition that it not be transferred to a third country, the French Air Force secretly flew as much as four tons of the substance to Israel.

Trouble arose in May 1960, when France began to pressure Israel to make the project public and to submit to international inspections of the site, threatening to withhold the reactor fuel unless they did. President de Gaulle was concerned that the inevitable scandal following any revelations about French assistance with the project, especially the chemical reprocessing plant, would have negative repercussions for France's international position, already on shaky ground because of its war in Algeria.

At a subsequent meeting with Ben-Gurion, de Gaulle offered to sell Israel fighter aircraft in exchange for stopping work on the reprocessing plant, and came away from the meeting convinced that the matter was closed. It was not. Over the next few months, Israel worked out a compromise. France would supply the uranium and components already placed on order and would not insist on international inspections. In return, Israel would assure France that they had no intention of making atomic weapons, would not reprocess any plutonium, and would reveal the existence of the reactor, which would be completed without French assistance. In reality, not much changed - French contractors finished work on the reactor and reprocessing plant, uranium fuel was delivered and the reactor went critical in 1964.

DIA Estimate For Israeli Nuclear Weapons


Excerpt from 160-page secret DIA report, first disclosed and reproduced in Rowan Scarborough, Rumsfeld's War (Regnery, 2004), pp. 194-223.
The United States first became aware of Dimona's existence after U-2 overflights in 1958 captured the facility's construction, but it was not identified as a nuclear site until two years later. The complex was variously explained as a textile plant, an agricultural station, and a metallurgical research facility, until David Ben-Gurion stated in December 1960 that Dimona complex was a nuclear research center built for "peaceful purposes."

There followed two decades in which the United States, through a combination of benign neglect, erroneous analysis, and successful Israeli deception, failed to discern first the details of Israel's nuclear program. As early as 8 December 1960, the CIA issued a report outlining Dimona's implications for nuclear proliferation, and the CIA station in Tel Aviv had determined by the mid-1960s that the Israeli nuclear weapons program was an established and irreversible fact.

United States inspectors visited Dimona seven times during the 1960s, but they were unable to obtain an accurate picture of the activities carried out there, largely due to tight Israeli control over the timing and agenda of the visits. The Israelis went so far as to install false control room panels and to brick over elevators and hallways that accessed certain areas of the facility. The inspectors were able to report that there was no clear scientific research or civilian nuclear power program justifying such a large reactor - circumstantial evidence of the Israeli bomb program - but found no evidence of "weapons related activities" such as the existence of a plutonium reprocessing plant.

Although the United States government did not encourage or approve of the Israeli nuclear program, it also did nothing to stop it. Walworth Barbour, US ambassador to Israel from 1961-73, the bomb program's crucial years, primarily saw his job as being to insulate the President from facts which might compel him to act on the nuclear issue, alledgedly saying at one point that "The President did not send me there to give him problems. He does not want to be told any bad news." After the 1967 war, Barbour even put a stop to military attachés' intelligence collection efforts around Dimona. Even when Barbour did authorize forwarding information, as he did in 1966 when embassy staff learned that Israel was beginning to put nuclear warheads in missiles, the message seemed to disappear into the bureaucracy and was never acted upon.

Nuclear Weapons Production

In early 1968, the CIA issued a report concluding that Israel had successfully started production of nuclear weapons. This estimate, however, was based on an informal conversation between Carl Duckett, head of the CIA's Office of Science and Technology, and Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb. Teller said that, based on conversations with friends in the Israeli scientific and defense establishment, he had concluded that Israel was capable of building the bomb, and that the CIA should not wait for an Israeli test to make a final assessment because that test would never be carried out.

CIA estimates of the Israeli arsenal's size did not improve with time. In 1974, Duckett estimated that Israel had between ten and twenty nuclear weapons. The upper bound was derived from CIA speculation regarding the number of possible Israeli targets, and not from any specific intelligence. Because this target list was presumed to be relatively static, this remained the official American estimate until the early 1980s.

The actual size and composition of Israel's nuclear stockpile is uncertain and the subject of many - often conflicting - estimates and reports. It is widely reported that Israel had two bombs in 1967, and that Prime Minister Eshkol ordered them armed in Israel's first nuclear alert during the Six-Day War. It is also reported that, fearing defeat in the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israelis assembled 13 twenty-kiloton atomic bombs.

Israel could potentially have produced a few dozen nuclear warheads in the period 1970-1980, and is thought to have produced sufficient fissile material to build 100 to 200 warheads by the mid-1990s. In 1986 descriptions and photographs of Israeli nuclear warheads were published in the London Sunday Times of a purported underground bomb factory at the Dimona nuclear reactor. The photographs were taken by Mordechai Vanunu, a dismissed Israeli nuclear technician. His information led some experts to conclude that Israel had a stockpile of 100 to 200 nuclear devices at that time.

By the late 1990s the U.S. Intelligence Community estimated that Israel possessed between 75-130 weapons, based on production estimates. The stockpile would certainly include warheads for mobile Jericho-1 and Jericho-2 missiles, as well as bombs for Israeli aircraft, and may include other tactical nuclear weapons of various types. Some published estimates even claimed that Israel might have as many as 400 nuclear weapons by the late 1990s. We believe these numbers are exaggerated, and that Israel's nuclear weapons inventory may include less than 100 nuclear weapons. Stockpiled plutonium could be used to build additional weapons if so decided.


Estimates for Israel's nuclear weapons stockpile range from 70 to 400 warheads. The actual number is probably closer to the lower estimate. Additional weapons could probably be built from inventories of fissile materials.
The Dimona nuclear reactor is the source of plutonium for Israeli nuclear weapons. The number of nuclear weapons that could have been produced by Israel has generally been estimated on the basis of assumptions about the power level of this reactor, combined with estimates for the number of delivery vehicles (aircraft, missiles) assigned a nuclear mission.

Information made public in 1986 by Mordechai Vanunu indicated that at that time, weapons grade plutonium was being produced at a rate of about 40 kilograms annually. If this figure corresponded with the steady-state capacity of the entire Dimona facility, analysts suggested that the reactor might have a power level of at least 150 megawatts, about twice the power level at which is was believed to be operating around 1970. To accommodate this higher power level, analysts had suggested that Israel had constructed an enlarged cooling system. An alternative interpretation of the information supplied by Vanunu was that the reactor's power level had remained at about 75 megawatts, and that the production rate of plutonium in the early 1980s reflected a backlog of previously generated material.

The constraints on the size of Israel's stockpile include several potential variables, several of which are generic to any nuclear weapons program. The Dimona reactor may have operated an average of between 200 and 300 days annually, and produced approximately 0.9 to 1.0 grams of plutonium for each thermal megawatt day. Israel may have use between 4 and 5 kilograms of plutonium per weapon [5 kilograms is a conservative estimate, and Vanunu reported that Israeli weapons used 4 kg].

The key variable that is specific to Israel is the power level of the reactor, which is reported to be at least 75 MWt and possibly as high as 200 MWt. New high-resolution satellite imagery provides important insight this matter. The imagery of the Dimona nuclear reactor was acquired by the Public Eye Project of the Federation of American Scientists from Space Imaging Corporation's IKONOS satellite. The cooling towers associated with the Dimona reactor are clearly visible and identifiable in satellite imagery. Comparison of recently acquired commercial IKONOS imagery with declassified American CORONA reconnaissance satellite imagery indicates that no new cooling towers were constructed in the years between 1971 and 2000. This strongly suggests that the reactor's power level has not been increased significantly during this period. This would suggest an annual production rate of plutonium of about 20 kilograms.

Based on plausible upper and lower bounds of the operating practices at the reactor, Israel could have thus produced enough plutonium for at least 100 nuclear weapons, but probably not significantly more than 200 weapons.

Some type of non-nuclear test, perhaps a zero yield or implosion test, occurred on 2 November 1966 [possibly at Al-Naqab in the Negev]. There is no evidence that Israel has ever carried out a nuclear test, although many observers speculated that a suspected nuclear explosion in the southern Indian Ocean in 1979 was a joint South African-Israeli test.


Sources and Resources
Avner Cohen and William Burr, Israel Crosses the Thresshold, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 2006
Israel Crosses the Threshold, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 189, April 28, 2006
Bibliography of Israeli Nuclear Science Publications by Mark Gorwitz, June 2005
Israeli Nuclear Forces, 2002, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September/October 2002
The Bomb That Never Is by Avner Cohen, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 2000, Vol 56, No. 3 pp.22-23
Israel and the Bomb, a supporting repository on the National Security Archive web site for Avner Cohen's book Israel and the Bomb (Columbia University press, 1998), including declassified documents.
Obsessive secrecy undermines democracy By Reuven Pedatzur Ha'aretz. Tuesday, August 8, 2000 -- Cohen published "Israel and the Bomb" in the United States, and a Hebrew translation of the book has appeared here. In the eyes of the defense establishment, Cohen has committed a double sin.
Fighting to preserve the tattered veil of secrecy By Ronen Bergman The publication of Dr. Avner Cohen's book and of the Vanunu trial transcripts set off alarm bells for the Defense Ministry's chief of security, who is striving to protect the traditional opacity regarding Israel's nuclear affairs.
Blast, from the past to the present By Yirmiyahu Yovel Ha'aretz. 28 July 2000 -- If, in the context of the peace agreements and talks with the United States, Israel were to confirm its nuclear capability - while committing itself to no nuclear testing and pledging to build its defense system on conventional weapons as in the past - maybe then it might achieve at least de facto recognition, if not international legitimacy, for its nuclear weaponry, to be used only as a "last resort" and a tool for safeguarding peace after Israel withdraws.
The Third Temple's Holy Of Holies: Israel's Nuclear Weapons Warner D. Farr, LTC, U.S. Army, September 1999
Israel: Plutonium Production The Risk Report Volume 2 Number 4 (July-August 1996).
Israel: Uranium Processing and Enrichment The Risk Report Volume 2 Number 4 (July-August 1996).
Israel The Nuclear Potential of Individual Countries Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons Problems of Extension Appendix 2 Russian Federation Foreign Intelligence Service 6 April 1995
The Samson Option. Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy Seymour M Hersh, [New York: Random House, 1991]

^So the main evidence of the existanceof Isreali nuclear weapons is a conversation between Carl Duckett and Edward Teller, 2 people who only speculated that they thought that Israel had nuclear weapons without any real evidence of it. Reading this article above has made me doubt more that israel has nuclear weapons my reasoning is as such.

You can't just build a nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons require testing, nobody is going build a nuclear missle without first testing that the bomb part of it is going to work. You can have as many computer models as you want but the hard truth will be in a nuclear testing. And a nuclear testing is not somehting easy to hide. The intelligence community of every country in the world would be grossly incompetant if they missed a nuclear bomb test in a small countey like Israel. So therefore the only way Israel could build a nuclear bomb is with the help of other countries. The most like allies would be the US or France. The article above suggests that neither countries know for sure that Israel has nuclear weapons.


I agree and although I symphatise with the Palestinians, I'm not a fan of Hamas. There was also personal Palestinian accounts of Hamas fighters using Palestinian civillians as human shields. Then they can go on camera, and with "a heavy heart" report the deaths of these very civillains at the same time condemming Israel for it. What I have learnt from experience is that in a war, both sides are usually to blame, and never take what either side says at face value. In this war both sides are skilled at manipulating the international media.

http://msnbc.com/news/wld/graphics/strategic_israel_dw.htm
http://www.serve.com/vanunu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu

Mordechai Vanunu
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Mordechai Vanunu in the garden of St. George's Cathedral. This picture was taken two days after his 21 April 2004 release from prisonMordechai Vanunu (Hebrew: מרדכי ואנונו‎), born in Marrakech, Morocco on 13 October 1954 is an Israeli former nuclear technician who revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy and kidnapped by Israeli agents. He was transported to Israel and convicted of treason.

Mordechai Vanunu spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 years in solitary confinement. Vanunu was released from prison in 2004, subject to a broad array of restrictions on his speech and movement. Since then he has been briefly arrested several times for violations of those restrictions, including giving various interviews to foreign journalists and attempting to leave Israel. He says he has been persecuted by the authorities in Israel because of his conversion to Christianity,[1] saying "I want to tell those who say I am a traitor, I suffered here 18 years because I am a Christian."[2]

In 2007 Vanunu was sentenced to six months in prison for violating terms of his parole. The sentence was considered unusual even by the prosecution who expected a suspended sentence. In response, Amnesty International issued a press release on 2 July 2007, stating that "The organization considers Mordechai Vanunu to be a prisoner of conscience and calls for his immediate and unconditional release."[3] Vanunu has been characterized by some as a whistleblower[4][5] and by others as a traitor.[6][7][8][9] He is considered by many Europeans as a 'hero of the nuclear age'[10] and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year from 1988 to 2004.

Contents [hide]
1 Early and educational life
2 Negev Nuclear Research Center
3 Disclosure, abduction, and publication
4 Imprisonment
5 Release and Asylum Applications
6 Arrests and hearings
7 Support, awards, and honors
8 See also
9 Bibliography
10 Documentaries
11 References



[edit] Early and educational life
Vanunu was born in Marrakech, Morocco to a Jewish family; his father was a rabbi. In 1963, at the age of nine, he emigrated under the Law of Return with his parents and the first 4 of his 11 brothers and sisters to Israel. In 1973, he enrolled for a mathematics and physics program at Tel Aviv University. However extended reserve duty in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and a shortage of funds caused him to break off his studies.[11] Vanunu completed his three years of military service as a sapper in the IDF Combat Engineering Corps, with the rank of First sergeant. After completing his service and starting work at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, Vanunu became a part-time geography and philosophy student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,[11] where he became critical of many policies of the Israeli government, forming a group called "Campus" with four other Jewish students and five Arab students. Vanunu was also affiliated with a group called "Movement for the Advancement of Peace."

Vanunu graduated from Beersheba University in 1985 with a BA in Philosophy and Geography.[12]


[edit] Negev Nuclear Research Center

Vanunu's photograph of a Negev Nuclear Research Center glove box containing nuclear materials in a model bomb assembly, one of about 60 photographs he later gave to the British press.Between 1976 and 1985, Vanunu was employed as a nuclear plant technician and shift manager at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, an Israeli facility used to develop and manufacture nuclear weapons,[11][13] located in the Negev desert south of Dimona. Most worldwide intelligence agencies estimate that Israel developed nuclear weapons as early as the 1960s, but the country has intentionally maintained a "policy of deliberate ambiguity", neither acknowledging nor denying that it possesses the weapons. It was during his employment there that one of the left-wing groups in which Vanunu held membership protested against Israel's 1981 destruction of Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor, which was part of the Iraqi nuclear weapons development programme. The Jerusalem Post stated that Vanunu took active part in these protests,[14] arguing that this showed that he was motivated by antipathy to Israel's policies in his later actions.

It is believed that at Dimona, Vanunu became increasingly troubled about the Israeli nuclear weapons programme on which he worked. When he was laid off from Dimona in 1985, Vanunu left Israel. He arrived in Nepal and considered a conversion to Buddhism, later traveling to Burma and Thailand. In 1986, he traveled to Sydney, Australia. While there, Vanunu lived in a hostel in Kings Cross and worked in odd jobs, first as a hotel dishwasher and later as a taxi driver.

Vanunu began to attend the local church, St. John's, Darlinghurst. There he met the Reverend John McKnight, who worked with the homeless and drug addicts. Vanunu converted to Christianity and was baptized as John Crossman into the Anglican Church of Australia, making him further estranged from his family.


[edit] Disclosure, abduction, and publication

On 5 October 1986, the British newspaper The Sunday Times ran the story on its front page under the headline: "Revealed: the secrets of Israel's nuclear arsenal."While in Sydney, he met Peter Hounam, a journalist from The Sunday Times in London. In early September 1986, Vanunu flew to London with Hounam, and in violation of his non-disclosure agreement, revealed to The Sunday Times his knowledge of the Israeli nuclear programme, including photographs he had secretly taken at the Dimona site.

The Sunday Times was wary of being duped after having previously been embarrassed by the Hitler Diaries hoax. As a result, the newspaper insisted on verifying Vanunu's story with leading nuclear weapon experts, including former U.S. nuclear weapons designer Theodore Taylor and former British designer Frank Barnaby, who agreed that Vanunu's story was factual. Vanunu gave detailed descriptions of lithium-6 separation required for the production of tritium, an essential ingredient of fusion-boosted fission bombs. While both experts concluded that Israel might be making such single-stage boosted bombs, Vanunu, whose work experience was limited to material (not component) production, gave no specific evidence that Israel was making two-stage thermonuclear bombs, such as neutron bombs. Vanunu described the plutonium processing used, giving a production rate of about 30 kg per year, and stated that Israel used about 4 kg per weapon.[15][16] From this information it was possible to estimate that Israel had sufficient plutonium for about 150 nuclear weapons.[17]

Vanunu states in his letters that he intended to share the money received from the newspaper for the information with the Anglican Church of Australia. Apparently frustrated by the delay while Hounam was completing his research, Vanunu approached a rival newspaper, the tabloid Sunday Mirror, whose owner was Robert Maxwell. In 1991, a self-described former Mossad officer or government translator named Ari Ben-Menashe alleged that Maxwell had tipped off the Mossad, possibly through British secret services, about Vanunu. It is also possible that they were alerted by enquiries made to Israelis or to the Israeli Embassy in London by Sunday Mirror journalists.

The Israeli government decided to detain Vanunu, but determined that to avoid harming its good relationship with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and not to risk confrontation with British Intelligence Vanunu should be persuaded to leave UK territory under his own volition. Masquerading as an American tourist called "Cindy", Israeli Mossad agent Cheryl Bentov befriended Vanunu, and on 30 September persuaded him to fly to Rome with her on a holiday.[18] Once in Rome, Mossad agents illegally captured, drugged and carried him to Israel on a freighter, beginning what was to be more than a decade of solitary confinement in Israeli prisons.

On 5 October, the Sunday Times published the information it had revealed, and estimated that Israel had produced more than 100 nuclear warheads.


[edit] Imprisonment

Vanunu revealed details of his detention by writing on his hand: "Vanunu M was hijacked in Rome. ITL. 30.9.86, 21:00. Came to Rome by fly BA504."Vanunu was put on trial in Israel on charges of treason and espionage. The trial, held in secret, took place in the District Court in Jerusalem before Chief Justice Eliahu Noam and judges Zvi Tal and Shalom Brener. He was not permitted contact with the media but he wrote the details of his abduction (or "hijacking" as he put it) on the palm of his hand, and while being transported he held his hand against the van's window so that waiting journalists could get the information.

On 27 February 1988, the court sentenced him to 18 years' imprisonment from the date of his capture. The Israeli government refused to release the transcript of the court case until, after the threat of legal action, it agreed to let censored extracts be published in Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper, in late 1999.

The death penalty in Israel is restricted to special circumstances. In 2004, former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit told Reuters that the option of extrajudicial execution was considered in 1986, but rejected because "Jews don't do that to other Jews."[19]

The Israeli government kept him in near total isolation for more than 11 years, allegedly out of concern that he might reveal more Israeli nuclear secrets and because he was still bound by the contract that swore him to secrecy on the subject. While in prison, he refused psychiatric treatment.

Many critics argue that Vanunu had no additional information that would pose a real security threat to Israel, and that the Israeli government's real motivation is a desire to avoid political embarrassment and financial complications for itself and allies such as the United States. By not acknowledging possession of nuclear weapons, Israel avoids a US legal prohibition on funding countries which proliferate weapons of mass destruction. Such an admission would prevent Israel from receiving, as it does now, more than $3 billion each year in military and other aid from Washington.[20]

Ray Kidder, then a senior American nuclear scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has said:

“ On the basis of this research and my own professional experience, I am ready to challenge any official assertion that Mr. Vanunu possesses any technical nuclear information not already made public.[21] ”

His last appeal against his conviction, to the Supreme Court of Israel in 1990, failed.

While in prison, Vanunu says, he took part in small acts of rebellion, such as refusing to talk with the guards, reading only English-language newspapers, and watching only BBC television. "He is the most stubborn, principled, and tough person I have ever met," said his lawyer, Avigdor Feldman.


[edit] Release and Asylum Applications
In 2004, shortly before his scheduled release, Vanunu remained defiant under interrogation by the security service, Shin Bet. In recordings of the interview made public after his release, he is heard saying "I am neither a traitor nor a spy, I only wanted the world to know what was happening." He also said, "We don't need a Jewish state. There needs to be a Palestinian state. Jews can, and have lived anywhere, so a Jewish State is not necessary."[22]

Vanunu was released from prison on 21 April 2004. He indicated a desire to completely dissociate himself from Israel, initially refusing to speak in Hebrew, and planning to move to Europe or the US[23] as soon as the Israeli government would permit him to do so.

A number of restrictions were placed upon Vanunu by Israeli authorities, who stated their reason was fear of him spreading further state secrets and that he is still bound by his non-disclosure agreement. These stipulate that he must inform the authorities of his place of residence and his movements between cities, and may not leave the country. These restrictions were extended to April 2006,[24] and then April 2007, due to his violations of court rulings. While a court found in 2005 that he should be free to go to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the 2006 restrictions explicitly forbade him to visit either, reversing the court's initial decision. In addition, Vanunu is not allowed to meet with foreigners or contact them by phone or e-mail, enter or approach any embassy, visit any port of entry, or come within 500 metres of any international border crossing.

Vanunu says that his knowledge is now outdated and he has nothing more he could possibly reveal that is not already widely known. Despite the stated restrictions, since his release Vanunu has freely given interviews to the foreign press, including a live phone interview to BBC Radio Scotland.

On 22 April 2004, Vanunu asked the Norwegian government for a Norwegian passport and asylum in Norway for "humanitarian reasons," according to Norwegian news agencies. He also sent applications to other countries, and stated that he would accept asylum in any country because he fears for his life. Former conservative Norwegian Prime Minister Kåre Willoch asked the conservative government to give Vanunu asylum, and the University of Tromsø offered him a job. On 9 April 2008, it was revealed that Vanunu's request for asylum in Norway was rejected in 2004 by Erna Solberg, Minister of Local Government in the coalition government lead by then Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. While the Norwegian foreigner directorate (State Department) (UDI) had been prepared to grant Vanunu asylum, it was suddenly decided that the application could not be accepted because Vanunu had applied for it from outside of the borders of Norway. An unclassified document revealed that Solberg and the government considered that extracting Vanunu from Israel might be seen as an action against Israel and thereby unfitting the Norwegian government's tradition role as a friend of Israel and as a political player in the Middle East. Since the information has been revealed, Solberg has rejected criticism and defended her decision.[25][26][27]

Vanunu's application for asylum in Sweden has also been rejected on the grounds that Sweden, like Norway does not accept absentee asylum applications. He also unsuccessfully requested asylum in Ireland, which would require him to first be allowed to leave Israel.

In 2006, Microsoft was accused [28] of helping Israeli police to obtain documents incriminating Vanunu.

On 22 February 2006 in a Jerusalem court it was revealed that Israeli police had led Microsoft to hand over all the details of Vanunu's Hotmail email account by alluding that he was being investigated for espionage. This happened before a court order had been obtained[29]

Vanunu wrote:

Microsoft obeyed the orders and gave them all the details...three months before I was arrested and my computers were confiscated...it is strange to ask Microsoft to give this information before obtaining the court order to listen to my private conversations. It means they wanted to go through my emails in secret, or maybe, with the help of the secret services, the Shaback, Mossad.

International calls for his freedom of movement and freedom of speech made by organizations supporting Vanunu have been either ignored or rejected by Israel.

On 15 May 2008, the Norwegian Lawyer's Petition for Vanunu was released. It calls on the Norwegian government to urgently implement a three-point action plan within the framework of international and Norwegian law and allow Vanunu to travel to, live and work in Norway.[30]


[edit] Arrests and hearings
Vanunu was denied parole at a hearing in May 1998.[31] Five years later, parole was again refused. At this parole hearing, Vanunu's lawyer Avigdor Feldman maintained that his client had no more secrets and should be freed. But the prosecution argued that the imminent war with Iraq would preclude his release. After the hearing Mr Feldman said:

"The prosecutor said that if Vanunu were released, the Americans would probably leave Iraq and go after Israel and Israel's nuclear weapons - which I found extremely ridiculous."

The real force blocking Vanunu's release who had been known only as "Y" was exposed in 2001 as Yehiyel Horev, the head of Mossad's nuclear and military secrets branch.[32] Following his release in 2004, Vanunu appeared in Israeli courts on numerous occasions on charges of having violated the terms of his release. He was arrested and detained for attempting to go to Bethlehem, on at least one occasion his room in St. George's Cathedral was raided by policemen and his belongings were confiscated.[33]

On 11 November 2004, Vanunu was arrested by the International Investigations Unit of the Israeli police at around 9am while eating breakfast. The arrest stemmed from an ongoing probe examining suspicions of leaking national secrets and violating legal rulings since his release from prison. Police officers wearing bulletproof vests and carrying machine guns entered into the walled compound of St. George's Anglican Church in East Jerusalem, where Vanunu had been renting a room since his release. Police removed papers and a computer from his room. After a few hours' detention, Vanunu was put under house arrest, which was to last seven days.[34]
On 24 December 2004 in a vehicle marked as belonging to the foreign press, Vanunu was apprehended by Israeli Police while he was attempting to enter the West Bank in violation of his release restrictions (see above), allegedly to attend mass at the Church of the Nativity. After posting bail of 50,000 NIS, he was released into five-day house arrest.[35]
On 26 January 2005 the BBC reported that its Jerusalem deputy bureau chief, Simon Wilson, was banned from Israel after he refused to submit interview material made with Vanunu to Israeli censors.[36] Vanunu gave the interview in violation of court orders. Wilson was allowed to return to Israel on 12 March 2005 after signing an apology letter acknowledging that he defied the law.[37]
On 17 March 2005 Vanunu was charged with 21 counts of "contravening a lawful direction" (maximum penalty two years' imprisonment per count) and one count of "attempting to contravene a lawful direction."
On 18 November 2005 Vanunu was arrested at the al-Ram checkpoint north of Jerusalem as he was returning by bus from the West Bank. The Israeli authorities say Vanunu's travel ban includes visits to the Palestinian territories.[38]
On 13 April 2007 Vanunu was informed that the Israeli government has continued his house arrest in Jerusalem and has renewed all the restrictions against him, for the fourth time and third year of detention in east Jerusalem.
On 30 April 2007 Vanunu was convicted of violating the order barring foreign contacts and traveling outside Jerusalem.[39]
In July 2007, Vanunu was sentenced to a further six months imprisonment for speaking to foreigners and traveling to Bethlehem.[40] The court's sentence was unexpected, and even the prosecution expected the court to hand down a suspended sentence, meant solely as a deterrent.[41]Following his sentence, Vanunu commented that his conviction proved that Israel was still ruled, in effect, by the British Mandate because the law under which he was convicted is from that era. "Maybe I need to turn to the Queen or to Tony Blair in order to grant me justice," he said.[42]
While having dinner at the American Colony in East Jerusalem with a foreigner, Vanunu was arrested for the second time on a Christmas Eve.[43]
On 7 January 2008, the day before his appeal against the above sentence was to begin, Israel instead re-sentenced him to six months of community service.[44]
On 19 February 2008 Vanunu wrote: "The court hearing today Feb. 19 was again postponed, because of a small snow here. We are waiting for the next hearing date" which would be "soon."[45] Vanunu's appeal hearing was scheduled to resume on 23 March 2008 but on that date he learned that it was rescheduled to 13 May 2008.[46]
On 7 April 2008 Vanunu learned that Israel had renewed the restrictions against him for the fifth year. On 9 April 2008 it was reported that Norway had joined Sweden, Canada and Denmark in refusing asylum to Vanunu.[47]
On 9 April 2008 unclassified documents revealed that the former Norwegian coalition government led by former Prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik denied Vanunu asylum in 2004 as a supportive action to the Israeli government.[25]
On 13 May 2008 Vanunu wrote that although three judges attempted to convince the Government Lawyer to offer community service in East Jerusalem, it was denied. Vanunu's appeal against his six months jail sentence was set to resume on 8 July 2008[48]
On 15 May 2008 the Norwegian Lawyer's Petition called upon the Norwegian government to urgently implement a three-point action plan within the framework of international and Norwegian law, to grant Vanunu asylum and permission to work and stay in Norway.[30]
On 8 July 2008 Israeli judges announced that they would delay their decision until September.[49][50]
On 23 September 2008 the Jerusalem District Court announced: "In light of (Vanunu's) ailing health and the absence of claims that his actions put the country's security in jeopardy, we believe his sentence should be reduced." Vanunu said his health is fine and that, "The issue is about my right to be free, my right to speak and my right to leave the state."[51]
In October 2008, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond called for Vanunu's release, saying:[52]
"The Scottish Government is well aware of the campaign by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and supports the lifting of all restrictions imposed on Mr Mordechai Vanunu."

November 26, 2008:"Vanunu's Supreme Court appeal fighting a three month jail sentence [reduced from six] for speaking to foreigners-who happened to be media-in 2004, is scheduled to be heard in the New Year."
[1]


[edit] Support, awards, and honors
Amnesty International described his treatment as constituting "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment [...] such as is prohibited by international law."

Vanunu received the Right Livelihood Award in 1987, and was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Tromsø in 2001. He was nominated by Joseph Rotblat for the Nobel Peace Prize every year from 1988 to 2004. Former recipients are among the thousands of people and groups with rights to nominate Nobel candidates. The secretive Nobel committee never comments on specific nominations, but members often note that anyone can be nominated. In 2006 there were 191 nominations for the prize.[53]

In 2005 he received the Peace Prize of the Norwegian People (Folkets fredspris). Previous recipients of this prize include Vytautas Landsbergis (1991), Alva Myrdal (1982), Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams.

In September 2004, artist and musician Yoko Ono gave Mordechai Vanunu a peace prize founded in her late husband, John Lennon’s memory.

In December 2004, as a statement of solidarity, he was elected by the students of the University of Glasgow to serve for three years as Rector.[54] On Friday 22 April 2005 he was formally installed in the post,[55] but cannot carry out any of its functions as he is still confined to Israel. Since then The Herald newspaper has launched a campaign for his release.

4 June 2008: Vanunu seeks support in his Letter to Editors and the world: "I am asking the Media to report on my case and on the efforts of Norwegian Lawyers and citizens to grant me asylum...Israel was founded contingent on upholding the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I am asking the world to demand they honor it."[2]


13 January 2009: Regarding the First Annual Global V Day, April 21, 2009, proposed by an Italy based global group "The Times They Are a'Changin'- FREE Vanunu Mordechai! Now! Vanunu wrote: "I want to thank you for the group Free Vanunu Now. But I don't want any international day. My target is to remind Israel to let me go free now. I am alive here, waiting to be free, only Dead Saints have special day. NO NEED NOW FOR SPECIAL DAY, ONLY FREEDOM NOW. Thank you. vmjc" [3]


5 February 2009: The First Face Book: NOT a GROUP! And Only for SUPPORTERS of Vanunu was established the day after Vanunu deleted his Face Book Account after writing: "any one can write do what they want but, not involving me...OK. Again, write as you want" [4]


[edit] See also
Israel and weapons of mass destruction
Nuclear proliferation
List of people considered whistleblowers
Nuclear-Free Future Award
List of whistleblowers

[edit] Bibliography
Black, Ian. Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services, Grove Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8021-3286-3
Cohen, Avner. Israel and the Bomb, New York: Columbia University Press (1999), ISBN 0-231-10483-9
Cohen, Yoel. The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Dimona & the Bomb. ISBN 0-8419-1432-X
Fleming, Eileen. Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory ISBN 1432702548.
Gaffney, Mark. Dimona: The Third Temple? The Story Behind the Vanunu Revelation. ISBN 0-915597-77-2
Gilling, Tom and John McKnight. Trial and Error — Mordechai Vanunu and Israel's Nuclear Bomb. 1991 Monarch Publications. ISBN 1-85424-129-X
Hounam, Peter. The Woman from Mossad: The Torment of Mordechai Vanunu. ISBN 1-58394-005-7 paperback edition title: The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu & the Israeli Nuclear Program
Toscano, Louis. Triple Cross. 1990 Birch Lane Press ISBN 1-55972-028-X
Spiro, Gideon. Vanunu and the Israeli Bomb.

[edit] Documentaries
Israel's Nuclear Whistleblower BBC News broadcast 2004-05-30

[edit] References
^ "Suffered in Israeli jail, says Christian convert". Christian Century. 2004-05-18. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m105...121/ai_n6159160. Retrieved on 12 February 2009.
^ "Israeli nuclear spy released". CNN. 2004-04-21. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/21/israel.vanunu/. Retrieved on 12 February 2009.
^ "Israel: Israel: Mordechai Vanunu sentence clear violation of human rights". Amnesty International. 2 July 2007. http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGMDE150442007.
^ "Correspondent: Israel's Secret Weapon (transcript)". BBC. 17 March 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pr.../17_03_2003.txt.
^ "Capturing nuclear whistle-blower was 'a lucky stroke,' agents recall". Ha'aretz. 12 November 2006. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.j...0&listSrc=Y.
^ "The meaning of Vanunu". Jewish World Review. 26 April 2004. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0404/stephens_vanunu.php3.
^ "Vanunu: traitor or prisoner of conscience?". The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 April 2004. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/21/...l?from=storyrhs.
^ "Vanunu: Hero or traitor?". j.. 23 April 2004. http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/modul...splaystory.html.
^ "Vanunu 'wanted to avert holocaust'". BBC. 29 May 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3758693.stm.
^ http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0421-06.htm
^ a b c Yossi Melman (25 April 2004). "Who's afraid of Mordechai Vanunu?". Haaretz. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.j...0&listSrc=Y. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
^ Fleming, Eileen (5 February 2007). Third Intifada/Uprising: NONVIOLENT But With Words Sharper Than A Two-Edged Sword - Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory. Outskirts Press. p. 104. ISBN 1432702548.
^ "Israel: Plutonium Production". The Risk Report (Wisconsin Project On Nuclear Arms Control) 2 (4). July-August 1996. http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/israel/plut.html. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
^ "??? (Problem with this URL)". Jerusalem Post. ???. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pag...d=1082438195598.
^ "Focus: The secrets that shocked the world". The Sunday Times. 25 April 2004. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20...86956_1,00.html.
^ Frank Barnaby (Autumn, 1987). "The Nuclear Arsenal in the Middle East" (PDF). Journal of Palestine Studies 17 (1): 97–106. doi:10.1525/jps.1987.17.1.00p0146h. http://armscontrolwonk.com/Barnaby.pdf. Retrieved on 2006-12-28.
^ Frank Barnaby (14 June 2004) (PDF), Expert opinion of Frank Charles Barnaby in the matter of Mordechai Vanunu, http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/barnaby.pdf, retrieved on 2007-12-16
^ Yossi Melman (21 April 2004). "Capturing nuclear whistle-blower was 'a lucky stroke,' agents recall". Haaretz. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.j...0&listSrc=Y.
^ "Israeli nuclear whistleblower due to be released from jail (transcript from AM radio)". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 12 February 2004. http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1043340.htm.
^ "Calls for Olmert to resign after nuclear gaffe". The Guardian. 13 December 2006. http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1970963,00.html.
^ "U.S. Expert: It's Safe to Release Vanunu". Nonviolence.org (from Ha'aretz). 26 January 2000. http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/archive2/jan26.html.
^ "Vanunu defiant ahead of release". BBC. 2004-04-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3640989.stm. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
^ "Discussion with a Friend from JAKARTA (letter from Vanunu)". The Mordechai Vanunu Website. 13 January 2006. http://www.serve.com/vanunu/20060113jakarta.html.
^ "Israel extends Vanunu travel ban". BBC. 19 April 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4459371.stm.
^ a b Erna Solberg hindret Vanunu i å få asyl - VG Nett
^ Vanunu: - Håper Norge angrer asyl-avslaget - VG Nett
^ Vanunu-venner i harnisk - VG Nett
^ "Today, our chance to fight a new hi-tech tyranny". The Observer. 28 May 2006. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/amnesty/sto...1784718,00.html.
^ "UK Indymedia - Vanunu Freedom Ride - Mission Accomplished!". UK Indymedia. 22 April 2007. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/368463.html.
^ a b Arabisto.com
^ "Vanunu denied parole". BBC. 4 May 1998. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/87850.stm. Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
^ "Israeli nuclear 'power' exposed". BBC. 16 March 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/corr...ent/2841377.stm. Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
^ "Israelis seize Vanunu inside cathedral". timesonline. 12 November 2004. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...ticle390133.ece. Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
^ "Bishop angry over Vanunu arrest". BBC. 11 November 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4003869.stm.
^ "Police keep Vanunu in Jerusalem". BBC. 25 December 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4124597.stm.
^ "Israel bars senior BBC producer". BBC. 26 January 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4208619.stm.
^ "BBC says sorry to Israel". The Guardian. 12 March 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1435915,00.html.
^ "Vanunu held after West Bank visit". BBC. 18 November 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4450004.stm.
^ Vanunu convicted of violating order barring foreign contacts, Nir Hasson, Haaretz, 30 April 2007 (accessed 30 April 2007)
^ "Vanunu jailed again after talks with foreigners". The Guardian. 3 July 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2117087,00.html.
^ "Vanunu to return to prison for violating the terms of his parole". Haaretz. 7 February 2007. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/877367.html.
^ Vanunu to return to prison for violating the terms of his parole, Nir Hasson, Haaretz, 2 July 2007 (accessed 2 July 2007)
^ Christmas Eve arrest
^ The Vanunu Saga: 2008 By Eileen Fleming
^ Voices - A Man without a Country has a Local and Global Community
^ We Are Wide Awake.org - Eye Witness Reporting on Israel Palestine
^ Vanunu's Fifth Year of Restrictions Begins and Norway Caves» OpEdNews
^ On 13 May 2008 Vanunu wrote
^ Judges delay decision
^ Decision in September 2008
^ Court announces Vanunu's sentence should be reduced
^ "Scottish government backs call to free Israeli nukes whistleblower". Mathaba News Network. 3 October 2008. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=607806. Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
^ "The Norwegian Nobel Institute- From Nomination to Ceremony". http://nobelpeaceprize.org/eng_com_nom.html. Retrieved on 2007-06-22.
^ "Vanunu elected university rector". BBC. 16 December 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4100119.stm.
^ "Formal installation of Mr Mordechai Vanunu as the 119th Rector of the University of Glasgow". University of Glasgow. 22 April 2005. http://www.gla.ac.uk:443/newsdesk/events/d...ent_Number=2146.
Academic offices
Preceded by
Greg Hemphill Rector of the University of Glasgow
2004–2008 Succeeded by
Charles Kennedy

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu"
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