Israel arrests nuclear whistleblower Vanunu.

This will be off the mainstream press radar. Vanunu has been severely restricted as to what he may do since his release from prison and he often breaks the rules. Israel manages to keep quiet about its own nuclear arsenal. All press will be about Iran which of course does not yet have any such weapons but it is taken for granted that it is not allowable that it should ever have them either. Of course India and even Pakistan have them already too! This is from antiwar.com.


Israeli police arrest nuclear whistleblower Vanunu

Israeli police arrest nuclear whistleblower Vanunu for violating terms of prison release

AMY TEIBEL
AP News

Dec 29, 2009 09:49 EST

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu was ordered to be put under house arrest Tuesday after being charged with violating a condition of his 2004 release from an Israeli prison.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Vanunu met with "a number of foreigners," something he was ordered not to do for fear he might divulge classified information.

Vanunu, who has been charged with violating this order before, flashed a "V" sign and unleashed a rambling tirade against the "impotent" Jewish state as he entered a Jerusalem court.

His lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, said Vanunu was arrested because he has a Norwegian girlfriend whom police have already interrogated.

A court spokesman said Vanunu would be released from jail Tuesday evening and was ordered to stay under house arrest through Thursday.

Vanunu was a former low-level technician at an Israeli nuclear plant who leaked details and pictures of the operation to the Sunday Times of London in 1986.

Israeli intelligence agents kidnapped him in Rome and brought him back to Israel to stand trial. He served 18 years in prison before being freed, but he is not allowed to leave the country.

Upon his release in 2004, Vanunu was banned from leaving the country and having unauthorized contact with foreigners.

Following a policy that it calls "nuclear ambiguity," Israel has never acknowledged or denied having a nuclear weapons program. But experts concluded from the material that Vanunu divulged that Israel had the world's sixth-largest nuclear arsenal.

Mordechai Vanunu

From time to time we need to be reminded of this whistleblower. Israel would never submit to the type of inspections that Iran is subject to but than it need not since it has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and indeed has nuclear weapons. The US never says boo about this. The US and some of its allies refuse to sign on to the idea of a nuclear free Middle East. The problem for the US is not nuclear proliferation but proliferation to regimes hostile to the US.


Unrepentant and Unbreakable The Time for Mordechai Vanunu is Now
By Rannie AmiriI 09/10/08 "Counterpunch" -- - As the world awaits the announcement of this year’s recipient(s) of the Nobel Peace Prize, there is no doubt 2008 has been witness to a call to war. The pressure exerted by Israel in goading the United States to attack Iran has been relentless, and thankfully, resisted up to now. In this context, is there any better person to receive the Peace Prize than the man who initially exposed the Middle East’s first—and only—nuclear power over two decades ago? After divulging pictures related to Israel’s clandestine atomic stockpile during a 1986 interview with The Sunday Times, Mordechai Vanunu was lured back to Israel by the Mossad and subsequently spent the next 18 years in prison (11 of them in solitary confinement) before being released in 2004. "I am proud and happy to do what I did,” he said at the time. He had remained unrepentant and indeed, unbreakable. Life after release has not been easy, however. In flagrant violation of Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Israelis placed numerous prohibitions and restrictions on Vanunu’s movements and travels. His freedom to speak with the press or any non-Israeli citizen for that matter was also severely curtailed. In 2007, he was found to be in violation of his parole, in part for attempting to leave Jerusalem in order to visit Bethlehem, and sentenced to six months in prison. The sentence was suspended pending appeals, and this past September an Israeli court reduced the term to three months, citing “…the absence of indications that his actions put the country’s security at risk.”As many are no doubt keenly aware, unlike Iran, Israel is a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and prohibits full inspection of its Dimona reactor by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) personnel. At the IAEA’s 52nd General Conference of Member States which recently concluded in Vienna, a resolution was passed calling for a Middle East nuclear-free zone. It implored countries "not to develop, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons” until such a zone is established and demanded all Middle East nations open up suspected facilities to the agency’s inspectors. The vote was 82-0 in favor of the resolution. The United States and Israel were among the 13 countries abstaining. Although a second resolution more critical of Israel was narrowly defeated after opposition by the United States and the European Union, a clear message was nonetheless sent to the region’s only true rogue nuclear state.All of this would not have been possible without the courage of Vanunu 20 years ago and today. Although often described as a mere “whistleblower”, the term does not do him justice. He was rather the “siren” who first alerted the world that nuclear weapons had found their way into the volatile Middle East. As he sits incarcerated, and as the nuclear outlier that imprisoned him manufactures the casus belli required to plunge the region into a war ironically over non-existent nuclear weapons, there can be no more a compelling set of circumstances than these needed to award the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize to Mordechai Vanunu. The overdue recipient should wait no longer. His time has come and it is now.Rannie Amiri is an independent commentator on the Arab and Islamic worlds. He may be reached at: rbamiri yahoo.com.

Vanunu avoids jail

This is from the Times. It is costly to be a whistleblower in Israel especially when it comes to their unmentionable nuclear program! Even talking to the press about it is a crime after having served 18 years in jail already. Israel neeedn't worry. Count the number of times Iran's nuclear program is mentioned in the press against that of Israel!


Vanunu avoids jail
The Israeli government has backed down over a threat to imprison Mordechai Vanunu, who served 18 years for revealing its nuclear weapons programme to The Sunday Times and now stands accused of breaching the conditions of his 2004 release by speaking to foreign reporters, writes Peter Hounam.

Vanunu is due in court on Tuesday to challenge a six-month sentence for giving interviews. Avigdor Feldman, his lawyer, said that Vanunu had accepted the proposal of a community service order instead.

Mordechai Vanunu: Back in Jail

The new charges against Vanunu have not been given much publicity. In fact the Israeli nuclear weapons program and the fact that it has nuclear weapons is rarely mentioned in the press. The pressure to have a nuclear free Middle East does not include Israel (or Pakistan if it is in the middle east). It doesn't really matter that Israel has nuclear weapons since it is pro-US. It is only if nuclear weapons are obtained by those opposed to the US that there is any big fuss made.

Back Behind Bars
The Unbreakable Mordechai Vanunu
By RANNIE AMIRI

"I said to the Shabak, the Mossad, 'you didn't succeed to break me, you didn't succeed to make me crazy.'"

Mordechai Vanunu, former Israeli nuclear technician, upon being released from Ashkelon's Shikma prison on April 21st, 2004, where he served 18 years.

They were words of courage and defiance, uttered by a man who embodied both. Mordechai Vanunu spent 18 years in jail, a full 11 of them in solitary confinement, for revealing Israel's yet undeclared nuclear capability to the world. He had emerged from Shikma with arms outstretched, repeatedly flashing the victory sign ­ or was it peace? ­ and refused to answer questions posed to him in Hebrew from the awaiting media. "I am proud and happy to do what I did," he unabashedly stated.

And what he has done since will now land him back behind bars.

An Israeli court has just sentenced Vanunu to six months in jail for violating the terms of his parole, which prohibit him from having any contact with foreigners or visiting the West Bank. As in all matters, he was fearless in doing both.

It thus behooves us to retell this man's remarkable story, lest we forget what a person of conscience can achieve.

Mordechai Vanunu was the first to expose Israel's dirty little secret: it was a major atomic power. He worked as a technician at the Dimona nuclear plant in the Negev desert from 1976 - 1985. Then, in a 1986 interview with London's Sunday Times, he disclosed pictures that not only proved Israel had the capacity to produce nuclear weapons, but was actually in possession of them.

Just prior to the publication of his interview on October 5, events unfolded as if they came straight off the pages of a Robert Ludlum thriller. On September 30, Vanunu was lured by a female Mossad agent from London to Rome, where he was captured and scurried off to Israel. Behind closed doors he stood trial for treason, was quickly convicted and sentenced to an 18-year term. If the Israeli government had hoped he would quietly and contritely fade away, they were sadly mistaken.

Vanunu vociferously renewed his call for Israel to come clean regarding its nuclear arsenal (reportedly the world's fifth largest) and open the Dimona reactor to international inspection. Israel still remains the only country in the Middle East to be a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has likewise barred entry to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) personnel.

Israeli politicians, from left, right and center, roundly heaped scorn on Vanunu after his release, whom they dubbed a "traitor." Conditions of his parole included prohibition of traveling abroad for one year or possessing a passport, limitation of his movement within the country, speaking with non-Israeli citizens, and discussing anything related to his former work at Dimona. These restrictions were condemned by Amnesty International who demanded their rescindment, citing Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which permit a citizen to move freely about or leave the country of their citizenship.

Although the term "whistleblower" is often used to describe Vanunu, it is a rather weak and understated characterization. He was a siren, alerting the world that nuclear weapons had found their way into the Middle East, shattering Israel's official policy of nuclear ambiguity.

Born in Morocco, Vanunu converted to Christianity before being imprisoned. He felt both his religious and political views (a staunch advocate of Palestinian rights) led to the harsh treatment he received while incarcerated, which he described as "cruel and barbaric."

Despite interrogation by the world's most ruthless intelligence agencies and imprisonment in what could have only been unforgiving conditions, Vanunu endured, saying:

"I am a symbol of the will of freedom, that you cannot break the human spirit."

A Nobel Peace Prize recipient in waiting and a true hero of our time no less.

Rannie Amiri is an independent commentator on issues dealing with the Arab and Islamic worlds. He may be reached at: rbamiri@yahoo.com.