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UN envoy says Gaza a prison for Palestinians :: Read & Take Action

Source: Reuters

Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:51am ET

By Richard Waddington

GENEVA (Reuters) - Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians where life is "intolerable, appalling, tragic" and the Jewish state appears to have thrown away the key, a U.N. human rights envoy said on Tuesday.

U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory John Dugard said that the suffering of the Palestinians was a test of the readiness of the international community to protect human rights.

"If ... the international community cannot ... take some action, (it) must not be surprised if the people ... disbelieve that they are seriously committed to the promotion of human rights," he told the United Nations' Human Rights Council.

Israel hit back saying there was an "alarming disconnect" between the rapporteur's report to the U.N.'s human rights watchdog and the experience of Israelis who continued to "face the daily threat of Palestinian terrorism".

The South African lawyer, who has been a special U.N. investigator since 2001, repeated earlier accusations that Israel is breaking international humanitarian law with security measures which amount to "collective punishment."

Israel says its security restrictions, which include the construction of a steel and concrete barrier in the West Bank, are designed to stop suicide bombers entering Israel. Bombings have declined since the barrier was built.

It also maintains tight restrictions on the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza, a coastal strip that it pulled out of last year after 38 years of occupation.

"UNPUNISHED"

Dugard also attacked the United States, the European Union and Canada for withdrawing funding for the Palestinian Authority in protest at the governing party Hamas's refusal to accept Israel's right to exist.

"Israel violates international law as expounded by the Security Council and the International Court of Justice and goes unpunished. But the Palestinian people are punished for having democratically elected a regime unacceptable to Israel, the U.S. and the EU," Dugard said.

But Israel's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Itzhak Levanon said that by putting the "entire blame" on Israel the report "absolves the terrorists that have taken Palestinian society hostage from even the most minimal responsibility."

Dugard said that three-quarters of Gaza's 1.4 million people were dependent on food aid. Bombing raids by Israel since the June 25 capture of an army corporal by Palestinian militants had destroyed houses and the territory's only power plant.

"Gaza is a prison and Israel seems to have thrown away the key," he said.

The West Bank also faced a humanitarian crisis, albeit not as extreme as Gaza, in part due to the barrier, which Dugard alleged was no longer being justified by Israel on security grounds but was part of a move to annex more land.

Palestinians living between the barrier and the Green Line, the frontier at the end of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, could no longer freely access schools and places of work and many had abandoned local farms, he said.

"In other countries this process might be described as ethnic cleansing but political correctness forbids such language where Israel is concerned," Dugard said.

Watch Dugard's speech here,

And his answers to the Human Rights Council members here.

Read Dugard's full report on the Israeli violations published on the 17th of January of 2006 here,

And his most recent report published on the 5th of September 2006 here.

Take action:

- Forward this article and spread the word about the Israeli barbarism, and the American and European involvement in starving and punishing the Palestinians for practicing democracy.

- Click here to forward the above report to Kofi Annan (inquiries@un.org) and the President of the European Commission (sg-web-president@ec.europa.eu). Make sure you add your personal message in the given space.

- Send a Thank You email to John Dugard (c.j.r.dugard@law.leidenuniv.nl) for his efforts to expose the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians and for daring to speak out the truth despite the fact that this is probably the most dangerous thing to do these days.

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Together we can make the difference

Action Alert: Peace One Day

Today, the 21st of September, marks the International Day of Peace. For most nations of the world it is a gleam of hope that peace will prevail one day. For the Palestinians this day is no different from any other day they lived -barely- under the occupation of the biggest threat to world peace, "Israel".

In October 2005, the European Commission conducted a survey representing the EU's member nations with the question of which country presents the biggest threat to the world peace. Israel came first with 59 percent of the votes.

Nevertheless, Our world, the whole world, is becoming so ignorant and so blind that the butcher is being treated as a victim and the victims are not even considered human enough to be dealt with.

Peace can prevail one day, but never with the current Israeli policy of occupation and apartheid in place. If the world is honestly committed to peace then all nations of the globe should unite against the Israeli barbarism just as firm as we all stood against the apartheid regime in South Africa.

If you build a house you start with one brick.
If we want to build peace why not start with one day...
and that day has arrived.

Jeremy Gilley (The British director and founder of the UN Peace Day)

 

Action Needed

Send an Email to:

- The President of the European Commission
sg-web-president@ec.europa.eu 

- The UN Secretary General
inquiries@un.org

- George W. Bush
president@whitehouse.gov

requesting them to stop acting against the wish of the World, European, and American nations and urging them to stop starving the Palestinians and to pressure Israel to release the Palestinian prisoners, including the MP's and cabinet ministers, to end its occupation and apartheid, and to commit itself to a sustainable peace in the Middle East in which the Palestinians would be given back their basic rights including the inalienable right of return.

 

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Together we can make the difference

See It Right! ... A call for help and reflection

few days ago, my friend in Jordan sent me this full-of-determination letter written by the amazing Palestinian Samah.

 

To whom it may concern:

I am Samah Mahmoud Mohammed Ganem. I graduated from Jordan University as an English language and literature major in 1999.

For 2 years I have worked as a volunteer in one of the blind schools in Jordan. Working with blind kids along with my experience at the university motivated me to search for the best methods to teach blind kids not only to comprehend and master the language, but also to challenge their obstacle to do whatever they feel is right for them.

My further goal is to go on with my education in teaching English as a second language. Intention is to assist all blind students as well as teachers to acquire the best teaching and learning, techniques and methods, by going on with my education.

To be able to endeavor this aim in life, going on with education is essential, teachers similar to all majors need to update their methods especially in dealing with the most understanding generations. Teachers also are similar to doctors; they are specialized in the biological nature of their patients, while teachers deal with their patients’ minds, hearts and souls.

Being blind by birth as God has gently meant it for me gives me the role I would like to play over my life, to enlighten my blind sisters’ and brothers’ visions. It is the challenge to change people watching all those with special needs prospective in how to look at them.

Unable to see physically right, however we have an open mind willing to understand and comprehend the environment around.

Going on with my education is not an easy task; on my side I turn to your help and support. Please do share and offer your light to the dark city. One candle can spread the light farther to millions if given in honest support.

You are my wings beyond the wind.

In your offers I will have the power to improve for the best, I need to be stronger to aid my community; I would like to be one of the best soldiers to serve the best nation.

I can tell you with all confidence, Samah wrote these words herself. She wrote them not only to seek help, a very legitimate reason itself for someone with such a dream and determination, but also to teach all of us how to have a dream and live for it, how to look at the full half of the glass instead of the empty one, how to "see" this world full of opportunities and hope rather than seeing it full of evil, darkness and hatred and more importantly to teach us that while "we" keep blaming our fate for joys that we miss there are other humans very satisfied with their lives although they miss some joys that are very essential and vital for us that we cannot even imagine ourselves living without them.

You may be probably asking yourself now: but what can I do? Whoever and wherever you are you can do a lot for Samah. If you work or study in an academic institution you can knock the doors there with Samah's letter in your hand. There should be someone there who would be good enough to offer her a scholarship. If you work in a company approach those in charge and see if they can offer any help. If you have a friend or relative who is rich enough to sponsor a postgraduate student get in touch with them and translate Samah's dream into reality. Don't feel shy or embarrassed; you are not begging anyone for money, you are not doing it for yourself but rather for a good a noble cause. And if non of these apply to you remember that you always have something that you can do right now, spread the word!

If you think you can help or if you need more information please contact Tuleen Abu Shmais on her email

tshmais@gmail.com.

I Found a Treasure!

Last week I received several notices about Forced Migration Review's (FMR) most recent edition on Palestinian refugees. I never had the chance to have a look at it before today when I took a break to check that journal for the first time. It is a masterwork! One of the most comprehensive publication I've ever seen in my whole life tackling different aspects of the Palestinian refugees and their continuous suffering. 50+ pages out of a total of 71 pages are dedicated for this topic with 29 articles discussing a broad range of relevant issues including history, politics, occupation, health, refugee camps, house demolishings, civil society and so on. It is a must-read journal for everyone looking to educate themselves on the Palestinian cause in general, and on Palestinian refugees in particular.

Yet don't get me wrong. This is NOT the treasure I'm talking about. Browsing FMR's website, I got redirected to the publisher's online portal "Forced Migration Online"; Now this is the real gold mine. This portal is a world of information on human displacement of which Palestinian refugees is just one example.

Go to the first section "Regional resources" >> "Research Guides" and you will find five different and very detailed research guides on Palestinian refugees in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Go to "Thematic Resources" >> "Resource Summaries" and select "Palestinians", you'll get a list of resources under the theme "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People" including documents, websites and relevant organisations.

Go to the "Digital Library" and search for the word "Palestinian" and you will get 1038 results which include all work and research papers related to the Palestinian refugees that you might have ever heard or thought about.

Go to "Web Catalogue" and search for the word "Palestinian" and you will get a plenty of selected web-based resources related to the Palestinian refugees. You can also suggest any other resources that you may know.

Go to "Organisations" and search for the word "Palestinian" and you find a comprehensive list of organisations whose activities are relevant to the Palestinian refugees.

Go to "Handbooks and guidelines" and you'll find very useful documents related to the refugees in general.

Go to "Working Papers" and you'll get a number of excellent working papers prepared by the Refugees Studies Centre, the publisher of both "Forced Migration Online" and "Forced Migration Review". A number of these are on the Palestinian refugees.

Isn't this a real treasure?!

Israel is Behind 9/11; What a Surprise!

I haven't written on 9/11 before. After five years of reading, listening and watching the analysis of what actually happened that day and the sequence of event preceding and following it, it was not a difficult job for me to come with the conclusion that if it was Al-Qaida who carried out the 9/11 bombings, I am definite that they were not the only puppeteers in the scene whether they knew it or not. I cannot say that I was addicted to research on 9/11, but the more I read the cleared the overall picture becomes to me.

What is of interest for me today is that I have no doubt now, what soever, that the Israeli knew from the beginning about the plot and I won't be surprised at all to learn that they indirectly facilitated or affected the progress of the plot to achieve their evil goals. I'm not going to start explaining what I believe to be a conspiracy behind 9/11 as this will take piles or writings. But considering the testimonies of the eyewitnesses in the three locations targeted I can say that what might actually happened was that the Zionists knew the WTC was going to be one of the targets; They also knew that the construction was durable enough to tolerate airplane clashes. Yet for them to get the most out of the day they decided that the whole building must collapse and therefor they implanted explosives in the building (all scientific analyses proved that what happened to the WTC could never occur without a controlled demolition).

What about the attack on the Pentagon? All witnesses can tell you that there was no airplane at all, not even parts of that plane. All what could be found were few parts of a small single-engine plane, something like a glider. But hold on, isn't this too much to believe? Not at all, especially if we come to know that this dirty trick was thought of long time ago to gain the support of the US public opinion to bring down the governing regime in Cuba. The CIA's plan was to get one airplane with CIA agents to take off as if it is heading to Cuba in a normal trip then to change the direction of the flight and get another unmanned plane to fly to explode in Cuba so that they could make it look like as if it was the Cubans who attacked the airplane and hence give themselves the excuse to retaliate and declare war on Cuba. What about the passengers on flight 77? Well, They could have been taken somewhere else and killed there, or probably most of those on that flight were CIA agents who killed the hijackers and everyone else and hid the airplane somewhere (there are many places on this planet that are still black boxes for normal people like us).

So, so far the Zionists intended to destroy the WTC and they did, for some reason (probably obvious for some people) they didn't want the Pentagon to be severely effected, yet they didn't want to miss the chance of heating more Americans when the symbol of their military power get attacked, so they replaced the Boeing 757 with a single-engine craft. What about flight 93? This is the big secret, I'm really very curious to know where it was heading to. The White House probably? Whatever the target was it seemed to be a very sensitive target that the Zionists did not even want to give it the chance to be touched, and therefor flight 93 faced the same destiny of flight 77 with the exception that it wasn't replaced with another plane but rather with a made-up explosion on ground. For the first time in history a jet airplane just evaporates!

Probably you won't believe that Israel knew about it and monitored the plot until it happened. Paul Thomson built a Complete timeline of all events and incidents related to 9/11. With a simple search for the word "Israel" in the timetable, I got the following:

September 1, 1992: US Misses Opportunity to Stop First WTC Bombing and Discover al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda Operatives Ahmad Ajaj and Ramzi Yousef enter the US together. Ajaj is arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York City. Yousef is not arrested, and later, he masterminds the 1993 bombing of the WTC. “The US government was pretty sure Ajaj was a terrorist from the moment he stepped foot on US soil,” because his “suitcases were stuffed with fake passports, fake IDs and a cheat sheet on how to lie to US immigration inspectors,” plus “two handwritten notebooks filled with bomb recipes, six bomb-making manuals, four how-to videotapes concerning weaponry, and an advanced guide to surveillance training.” However, Ajaj is charged only with passport fraud, and serves a six-month sentence. From prison, Ajaj frequently calls Yousef and others in the 1993 WTC bombing plot, but no one translates the calls until long after the bombing. [Los Angeles Times, 10/14/2001] Ajaj is released from prison three days after the WTC bombing, but is later rearrested and sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. [Los Angeles Times, 10/14/2001] One of the manuals seized from Ajaj is horribly mistranslated for the trial. For instance, the title page is said to say “The Basic Rule,” published in Jordan in 1982, when in fact the title says “al-Qaeda” (which means “the base” in English), published in Afghanistan in 1989. Investigators later complain that a proper translation could have shown an early connection between al-Qaeda and the WTC bombing. [New York Times, 1/14/2001] An Israeli Newsweekly later reports that the Palestinian Ajaj may have been a mole for the Israeli Mossad. The Village Voice has suggested that Ajaj may have had “advance knowledge of the World Trade Center bombing, which he shared with Mossad, and that Mossad, for whatever reason, kept the secret to itself.” Ajaj was not just knowledgeable, but was involved in the planning of the bombing from his prison cell. [Village Voice, 8/3/1993]

Entity Tags: Ahmad Ajaj, al-Qaeda, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks, Ramzi Yousef, World Trade Center

1996: Mossad Supposedly Plans to Kill Bin Laden

Israeli spy agency Mossad supposedly plots to kill Osama bin Laden. According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth, it recruits a female confidante of his and assigns her the mission of killing him. Mossad has been trailing bin Laden while assisting the US and Egypt in investigating a failed assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (see June 1995). But the plan is aborted due to tensions between Israel and the woman’s country. [Associated Press, 1/27/2006]

Entity Tags: Osama bin Laden, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks

January 2000: Israeli Spy Ring Begins Penetrating US

A DEA government document later leaked to the press [Drug Enforcement Agency, 6/2001] suggests that a large Israeli spy ring starts penetrating the US from at least this time, if not earlier. This ring, which will later become popularly known as the “art student spy ring,” is later shown to have strange connections to the events of 9/11. [Insight, 3/11/2002]

Entity Tags: "Israeli art students", Drug Enforcement Agency, United States

February 6, 2000: Apparent Mossad Attempt to Infiltrate al-Qaeda Thwarted

India’s largest Newsweekly reports that it appears a recent Mossad attempt to infiltrate al-Qaeda failed when undercover agents were stopped on their way to Bangladesh by Indian customs officials. These 11 men appeared to be from Afghanistan, but had Israeli passports. One expert states, “It is not unlikely for Mossad to recruit 11 Afghans in Iran and grant them Israeli citizenship to penetrate a network such as bin Laden’s. They would begin by infiltrating them into an Islamic radical group in an unlikely place like Bangladesh.” [Week, 2/6/2000]

Entity Tags: Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks, al-Qaeda

April 19, 2000: Reports Indicate Israeli Organized Crime Units Dominate Ecstasy Distribution

USA Today reports that “Israeli crime groups ... dominate distribution” of Ecstasy. [USA Today, 4/19/2000] The DEA also states that most of the Ecstasy sold in the US is “controlled by organized crime figures in Western Europe, Russia, and Israel.” [United Press International, 10/25/2001] According to DEA documents, the Israeli “art student spy ring” “has been linked to several ongoing DEA [Ecstasy] investigations in Florida, California, Texas, and New York now being closely coordinated by DEA headquarters.” [Insight, 3/11/2002]

Entity Tags: "Israeli art students", Drug Enforcement Agency

December 2000-April 2001: Israeli Investigators Deported After Identifying Two Hijackers

According to later German reports, “a whole horde of Israeli counter-terror investigators, posing as students, [follow] the trails of Arab terrorists and their cells in the United States. ... In the town of Hollywood, Florida, they [identify] ... Atta and Marwan Alshehhi as possible terrorists. Agents [live] in the vicinity of the apartment of the two seemingly normal flight school students, observing them around the clock.” Supposedly, around April, the Israeli agents are discovered and deported, terminating the investigation. [Der Spiegel (Hamburg), 10/1/2002]

Entity Tags: Marwan Alshehhi, Mohamed Atta, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks

March 23, 2001: DEA Issues Alert to Look Out for Israeli Spies

The Office of National Drug Control Policy issues a National Security Alert describing “apparent attempts by Israeli nationals to learn about government personnel and office layouts.” This later becomes known through a leaked DEA document called “Suspicious Activities Involving Israeli Art Students at DEA Facilities.” A crackdown ensues and by June, around 120 Israelis are apprehended. More are apprehended later. [Drug Enforcement Agency, 6/2001]

Entity Tags: "Israeli art students", Office of National Drug Control Policy

Summer 2001: Israel Warns US of ‘Big Attack’

The Associated Press will report in May 2002, “Israeli intelligence services were aware several months before Sept. 11 that bin Laden was planning a large-scale terror attack but did not know what his targets would be, Israeli officials have said. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, tells the Associated Press shortly after the attacks that ‘everybody knew about a heightened alert and knew that bin Laden was preparing a big attack.’ He said information was passed on to Washington but denied Israel had any concrete intelligence that could have been used to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks.” [Associated Press, 5/19/2002] The claim that Israel lacks concrete intelligence is contradicted by other media reports (see August 8-15, 2001) (see August 23, 2001) (see September 4, 2001).

Entity Tags: Israel, Osama bin Laden, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks

June 2001: DEA Draws Up Report on Israeli Spies

The DEA’s Office of Security Programs prepares a 60-page internal memo on the Israeli “art student spy ring.” [Drug Enforcement Agency, 6/2001] The Memo is a compilation of dozens of field reports, and was meant only for the eyes of senior officials at the Justice Department (of which the DEA is adjunct), but it is leaked to the press around December 2001. The report connects the spies to efforts to foil investigations into Israeli organized crime activity involving the importation of the drug Ecstasy. The spies also appear to be snooping on top-secret military bases. For instance, on April 30, 2001, an Air Force alert was issued from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City concerning “possible intelligence collection being conducted by Israeli art students.” Tinker AFB houses AWACS surveillance craft and Stealth bombers. By the time of the report, the US has “apprehended or expelled close to 120 Israeli nationals” but many remain at large. [Le Monde (Paris), 3/5/2002; Salon, 5/7/2002] An additional 20 or so Israeli spies are apprehended between June and 9/11. [Fox News, 12/12/2001]

Entity Tags: Office of Security Programs, "Israeli art students", US Department of Justice

August 8-15, 2001: Israel Reportedly Warns of Major Assault on the US

At some point between these dates, Israel warns the US that an al-Qaeda attack is imminent. [Fox News, 5/17/2002] Reportedly, two high-ranking agents from the Mossad come to Washington and warn the FBI and CIA that from 50 to 200 terrorists have slipped into the US and are planning “a major assault on the United States.” They say indications point to a “large scale target,” and that Americans would be “very vulnerable.” They add there could be Iraqi connections to the al-Qaeda attack. [Daily Telegraph, 9/16/2001; Los Angeles Times, 9/20/2001; Ottawa Citizen, 9/17/2001] The Los Angeles Times later retracts its story after a CIA spokesperson says, “There was no such warning. Allegations that there was are complete and utter nonsense.” [Los Angeles Times, 9/21/2001] Other newspapers do not retract it.

Entity Tags: al-Qaeda, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks

August 23, 2001: Mossad Reportedly Gives CIA List of Terrorist Living in US; at Least Four 9/11 Hijackers Named

According to German newspapers, the Mossad gives the CIA a list of 19 terrorists living in the US and say that they appear to be planning to carry out an attack in the near future. It is unknown if these are the 19 9/11 hijackers or if the number is a coincidence. However, four names on the list are known, and these four will be 9/11 hijackers: Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar, Marwan Alshehhi, and Mohamed Atta. [Die Zeit (Hamburg), 10/1/2002; Der Spiegel (Hamburg), 10/1/2002; BBC, 10/2/2002; Ha'aretz, 10/3/2002] The Mossad appears to have learned about this through its “art student spy ring.” Yet apparently, this warning and list are not treated as particularly urgent by the CIA and the information is not passed on to the FBI. It is unclear whether this warning influenced the decision to add Alhazmi and Almihdhar to a terrorism watch list on this same day, and if so, why only those two. [Der Spiegel (Hamburg), 10/1/2002] Israel has denied that there were any Mossad agents in the US. [Ha'aretz, 10/3/2002]

Entity Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks, Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Israeli art students", Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar, Marwan Alshehhi, Mohamed Atta

September 4, 2001: Mossad Gives Another Warning of Major, Imminent Attack

“On or around” this day, the Mossad give their “latest” warning to the US of a major, imminent attack by al-Qaeda, according to sources close to Mossad. One former Mossad agent says, “My understanding is that the warning was not specific. No target was identified. But it should have resulted in an increased state of security.” US intelligence claims this never happened. [Sunday Mail, 9/16/2001]

Entity Tags: United States, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks

September 4, 2001: Israeli Company Moves Out of WTC

The Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co. moves their North American headquarters from the 16th floor of the WTC to Norfolk, Virginia, one week before the 9/11 attacks. The Israeli government owns 49 percent of the company. [Virginian-Pilot, 9/4/2001] Zim announced the move and its date six months earlier. [Virginian-Pilot, 4/3/2001] More than 200 workers had just been moved out; about ten are still in the building making final moving arrangements on 9/11, but escape. [Jerusalem Post, 9/13/2001; Journal of Commerce, 10/18/2001] The move leaves only one Israeli company, ClearForest, with 18 employees, in the WTC on 9/11. The four or five employees in the building at the time manage to escape. [Jerusalem Post, 9/13/2001] One year later, a Zim ship is impounded while attempting to ship Israeli military equipment to Iran; it is speculated that this is done with the knowledge of Israel. [Agence France-Presse, 3/29/2002]

Entity Tags: Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co., World Trade Center, ClearForest

September 11, 2001: Two Hours Before Attacks, Israeli Company Employees Receive Warnings

Odigo's logo. [Source: Odigo]

Two employees of Odigo, Inc., an Israeli company, receive warnings of an imminent attack in New York City about two hours before the first plane hits the WTC. Odigo, one of the world’s largest instant messaging companies, has its headquarters two blocks from the WTC. The Odigo Research and Development offices where the warnings were received are located in Herzliyya, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Israeli security and the FBI were notified immediately after the 9/11 attacks began. The two employees claim not to know who sent the warnings. “Odigo service includes a feature called People Finder that allows users to seek out and contact others based on certain interests or demographics. [Alex] Diamandis [Odigo vice president of sales and marketing] said it was possible that the attack warning was broadcast to other Odigo members, but the company has not received reports of other recipients of the message.” [Ha'aretz, 9/26/2001; Washington Post, 9/27/2001] Odigo claims the warning did not specifically mention the WTC, but the company refuses to divulge what was specified, claiming, “Providing more details would only lead to more conjecture.” [Washington Post, 9/28/2001] However, a later newspaper report claims that the message declared “that some sort of attack was about to take place. The notes ended with an anti-Semitic slur. ‘The messages said something big was going to happen in a certain amount of time, and it did—almost to the minute,’ said Alex Diamandis, vice president of sales for the high-tech company... He said the employees did not know the person who sent the message, but they traced it to a computer address and have given that information to the FBI.” [Washington Post, 10/4/2001] Odigo gave the FBI the Internet address of the message’s sender so the name of the sender could be found. [Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Hamburg), 9/26/2001] Two months later, it is reported that the FBI is still investigating the matter, but there have been no reports since. [Courier Mail, 11/20/2001]

Entity Tags: Odigo Inc., World Trade Center, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Israel

September 11, 2001: The 9/11 Attack: 3,000 Die in New York City and Washington, D.C.

The September 11, 2001 attacks. From left to right: The World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Flight 93 crash. [Source: unknown]

The 9/11 attack: Four planes are hijacked, two crash into the WTC, one into the Pentagon, and one crashes into the Pennsylvania countryside. Nearly 3,000 people are killed.

Entity Tags: World Trade Center, Pentagon, al-Qaeda, United Airlines, American Airlines

September 11, 2001: Israeli Special-Ops Passenger Shot or Stabbed by Hijackers?

An FAA memo written on the evening of 9/11, and later leaked, suggests that a man on Flight 11 was shot and killed by a gun before the plane crashed into the WTC. The “Executive Summary,” based on information relayed by a flight attendant to the American Airlines Operation Center, stated “that a passenger located in seat 10B [Satam Al Suqami] shot and killed a passenger in seat 9B [Daniel Lewin] at 9:20 am.” (Note that since Flight 11 crashed at 8:46, the time must be a typo, probably meaning 8:20). A report in Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz on September 17 identifies Lewin as a former member of the Israel Defense Force Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s most successful special-operations unit. [United Press International, 3/6/2002] Sayeret Matkal is a deep-penetration unit that has been involved in assassinations, the theft of foreign signals-intelligence materials, and the theft and destruction of foreign nuclear weaponry. Sayeret Matkal is best known for the 1976 rescue of 106 passengers at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. [New Yorker, 10/29/2001] Lewin founded Akamai, a successful computer company, and his connections to Sayeret Matkal remained hidden until the gun story became known. [Guardian, 9/15/2001] FAA and American Airline officials later deny the gun story and suggest that Lewin was probably stabbed to death instead. [United Press International, 3/6/2002; Washington Post, 3/2/2002] Officials assert that the leaked document was a “first draft,” and subsequently corrected, but declines to release the final draft, calling it “protected information.” However, an FAA official present when the memo was drafted will dispute the FAA’s claim, asserting that “[t]he document was reviewed for accuracy by a number of people in the room, including myself and a couple of managers of the operations center.” [WorldNetDaily, 3/7/2002]

Entity Tags: Daniel Lewin, Federal Aviation Administration, Satam Al Suqami, American Airlines, Sayeret Matkal

September 11, 2001: Former Israeli Prime Minister: 9/11 Very Good for Israeli-US Relations

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when asked what the 9/11 attacks means for relations between the US and Israel, replies, “It’s very good.” Then he edits himself: “Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.” [New York Times, 9/12/2001] A week later, the Village Voice states, “From national networks to small-town newspapers, the view that America’s terrible taste of terrorism will finally do away with even modest calls for the restraint of Israel’s military attacks on Palestinian towns has become an instant, unshakable axiom. ... Now, support for Israel in America is officially absolute, and Palestinians are cast once again as players in a global terrorist conspiracy.” [Village Voice, 9/19/2001]

Entity Tags: Israel, Palestinians, United States, Benjamin Netanyahu

September 11, 2001: Five Israelis Arrested for Puzzling Behavior near WTC

Five Israelis are arrested around 4:30 pm for “puzzling behavior” related to the WTC attacks: filming the burning WTC from the roof of their company’s building near Liberty State Park, New Jersey, then shouting in what was interpreted as cries of joy and mockery. A neighbor spotted them and called the police and the FBI. The police tracked them down in a van with the words “Urban Moving Systems” written on the side. [Bergen Record, 9/12/2001; Ha'aretz, 9/17/2001] One man was found with $4,700 in cash hidden in his sock, another had two passports on him, and a box cutter was found in the van. [ABC News, 6/21/2002] Investigators say that “[t]here are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted... It looked like they’re hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen.” [Bergen Record, 9/12/2001] One of these Israelis later says, “our purpose was to document the event.” [ABC News, 6/21/2002] The FBI later concludes at least two are Mossad agents and that all were on a Mossad surveillance mission. The FBI interrogates them for weeks. [Forward, 3/15/2002] They are held on immigration violation charges, but are released 71 days later. [ABC News, 6/21/2002] Their names are later identified as Sivan and Paul Kurzberg, Oded Ellner, Omer Marmari, and Yaron Shmuel. [Forward, 3/15/2002]

Entity Tags: World Trade Center, Paul Kurzberg, Omer Marmari, Oded Ellner, Yaron Shmuel, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks, Federal Bureau of Investigation

September 14, 2001: Head of Shadowy Company Flees US

Dominick Suter, owner of the company Urban Moving Systems, flees the country to Israel. The FBI later tells ABC News, “Urban Moving may have been providing cover for an Israeli intelligence operation.” Suter has been tied to the five Israeli agents caught filming the WTC attack. The FBI had questioned Suter around September 12, removing boxes of documents and a dozen computer hard drives. However, when the FBI returns a few days later, he is gone. [Forward, 3/15/2002; New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, 12/13/2001; ABC News, 6/21/2002]

Entity Tags: Dominick Suter, Federal Bureau of Investigation

September 29-30, 2001: Suspected Mossad Agents Detained, Released

Police in the Midwest stop six men carrying suspicious documents. They possess photos and descriptions of a nuclear power plant in Florida and the Trans-Alaska pipeline, and have “box cutters and other equipment.” All six have Israeli passports. They are released the same day after their passports are shown to be valid, but before anyone interviews them. The FBI is reportedly furious about their release. [Miami Herald, 10/3/2001; Knight Ridder, 10/31/2001; London Times, 11/2/2001] The six men may have been Mossad agents. In addition to snooping on the DEA and Islamic militants, some Mossad agents in the “art student spy ring” have been caught trying to break into military bases and other top-secret facilities (see March 23, 2001). [Salon, 5/7/2002]

Entity Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation

October 10, 2001: Two Israelis Are Detained in Mexican Legislature Building after Behaving Suspiciously and Found To Be Carrying Arms

Two Israelis, Salvador Gersson Smike, 34, and Sar Ben Zui, 27, are arrested in the Mexican Congress Building in Mexico City. Smike is carrying a plastic 9 mm sophisticated Glock 9 mm pistol tucked into his underwear in his lower back. Glock pistols are made with a special plastic material and are very easy to smuggle. [Correo, 10/11/2001; El Heraldo de Mexico (Mexico City), 10/11/2001; Cronica de Hoy (Mexico City), 10/12/2001] He also has with him a briefcase reported to contain 58 bullets, bomb-making materials, three detonators, and nine grenades. [El Heraldo de Mexico (Mexico City), 10/11/2001] The two were apprehended after ex-sugarcane workers, who were waiting for a congressional hearing, saw the two Israelis behaving strangely at around 4:00 p.m. They were reportedly photographing the workers below the belt. When the workers demanded that the two men identify themselves, the Israelis said they were press photographers. The workers dismissed their claims, overcame them, and then discovered they were armed with pistols and other high caliber arms. The two men had apparently also been seen the day before taking pictures. [Cronica de Hoy (Mexico City), 10/12/2001] Security guards soon arrived, disarmed the men, and took them to the security office. At around 6:00 p.m., it is learned that the two men are Israelis and that one of them, Salvador Gersson, is a former colonel of the Israeli Special Forces. [Correo, 10/11/2001; Diario de Mexico (Mexico City), 10/11/2001 ] Soon after, a man claiming to be a supervisor from the company, Desarrollo de Sistemas de Seguridad Privada (Private Security Systems Development), says the two men are employees at the firm and that they were taking pictures because they are “vacationing.” The journalists who are present scoff at the claim. [Correo, 10/11/2001; El Heraldo de Mexico (Mexico City), 10/11/2001] After October 13, no additional information is reported about the incident.

Entity Tags: Salvador Gersson Smike, Sar Ben Zui, Private Security Systems Development

October 16, 2001: Several Arrested for Curious Sears Tower Surveillance

Two men, Moshe Elmakias and Ron Katar, are arrested after being found with a detailed video of the Sears Tower in Chicago. In addition, a woman named Ayelet Reisler is found with them, carrying conflicting identification information. They are arrested for illegal dumping, using a van with the name Moving Systems Incorporated. The video contains extensive zoom in shots of the Sears Tower; it is not known when the video was filmed. [Mercury (Philadelphia), 10/17/2001]

Entity Tags: Ayelet Reisler, Sears Tower, Ron Katar, Moshe Elmakias

November 20, 2001: Israelis Who Videotaped WTC Attack Are Released, Deported

The five Israelis arrested on 9/11 for videotaping the WTC attack and then cheering about it (see September 11, 2001) are released and deported to Israel. Some of the men’s names had appeared in a US national intelligence database, and the FBI has concluded that at least two of the men were working for the Mossad, according to ABC News. However, the FBI says that none of the Israelis had any advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, and they were released as part of a deal between the US and the Israeli government. After their release, they claim to have been tortured. [Forward, 3/15/2002; ABC News, 6/21/2002]

Entity Tags: Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks, Paul Kurzberg, Yaron Shmuel, Omer Marmari, Oded Ellner, Israel, Federal Bureau of Investigation

November 23, 2001: More Israelis Arrested in Wake of 9/11

The Washington Post reports that “[a]t least 60 young Israeli Jews have been arrested and detained around the country on immigration charges since the September 11 attacks, many of them held on US government officials’ invocation of national security.” An INS official who requested anonymity says the use of the term “special interest” for Israelis being held in Cleveland, St. Louis, and other places means the case in question is “related to the investigation of September 11th.” [Washington Post, 11/23/2001] Most of them are deported. However, Intelligence Online claims that “For the overwhelming majority of the ring’s members expelled, there was no problem at all with visas, and in the lists we only found a few minor cases of expired visas."” [Agence France-Presse, 3/6/2002]

Entity Tags: Immigration and Naturalization Service

December 12-15, 2001: News Reports Raises Israeli Spying Questions

Fox News reports, “Investigators within the DEA, INS, and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying ... is considered career suicide.” “A highly placed investigator says there are ‘tie-ins’ between the spy ring and 9/11. However, when asked for details, he flatly refuses to describe them, saying, ‘evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It’s classified information.’” The report also reveals that Amdocs, an Israeli company, is recording virtually every phone call in the US and could be passing information on to the Israeli government (similar claims were first raised in 2000 [Insight, 5/29/2000] ). Fox News suggests that the position of this company might impede the 9/11 investigation. [Fox News, 12/12/2001]

Entity Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Agency, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Israel, Amdocs

December 16, 2001: Fox News Removes Controversial Story from Website, but Story Nonetheless Makes an Impact

Fox News removes its series on the “art student spy ring” from its website after only two days, in response to pressure from The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) and others. CAMERA suggests the reporter “has something, personally, about Israel. ... Maybe he’s very sympathetic to the Arab side.” [Salon, 5/7/2002] The head of the ADL calls the report “sinister dangerous innuendo which fuels anti-Semitism.” [Forward, 12/21/2001] Yet there does not appear to be any substance to these personal attacks (and Forward later reverses its stance on the spy ring (see March 15, 2002)). Fox News also never makes a formal repudiation or correction about the series. The contents of the series continues to be generally ignored by the mainstream media, but it makes a big impact inside the US government: An internal DEA communiqué from December 18 mentions the Fox report by name, and warns of security breaches in telecommunications as described in the Fox report. [Salon, 5/7/2002]

Entity Tags: "Israeli art students", Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Drug Enforcement Agency, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Fox News

March 5, 2002: Israeli Spies Reportedly Tracked 9/11 Hijackers

It is reported that many spies in the uncovered Israeli spy ring seemed to have been trailing the 9/11 hijackers. At the very least, they were in close proximity. For instance, five Israeli spies are intercepted in the tiny town of Hollywood, Florida, and four 9/11 hijackers are known to have spent time in Hollywood, Florida. [Le Monde (Paris), 3/5/2002; Reuters, 3/5/2002; Jane's Intelligence Digest, 3/15/2002] In one case, some Israeli spies lived at 4220 Sheridan Street, only a few hundred feet from where Mohamed Atta was living at 3389 Sheridan Street. Israeli spies appear to have been close to at least ten of the 19 9/11 hijackers. [Salon, 5/7/2002]

Entity Tags: Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks, Mohamed Atta

March 6, 2002: US Officials Deny and Media Downplay Existence of Israeli Spy Ring

A Washington Post article, relying on US officials, denies the existence of any Israeli spy ring. A “wide array of US officials” supposedly deny it, and Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden says: “This seems to be an urban myth that has been circulating for months. The department has no information at this time to substantiate these widespread reports about Israeli art students involved in espionage.” [Washington Post, 3/6/2002] The New York Times fails to cover the story at all, even months later. [Salon, 5/7/2002] By mid-March, Jane’s Intelligence Digest, the respected British intelligence and military analysis service, notes: “It is rather strange that the US media seems to be ignoring what may well be the most explosive story since the 11 September attacks—the alleged breakup of a major Israeli espionage operation in the USA.” [Jane's Intelligence Digest, 3/15/2002]

Entity Tags: US Department of Justice, Susan Dryden, "Israeli art students"

March 11, 2002: Suspected Israeli Students Reportedly Served in Military

A newspaper reports that the DEA study on Israeli “art students” determined the “students” all had “recently served in the Israeli military, the majority in intelligence, electronic signal intercept, or explosive ordnance units.” [Palm Beach Post, 3/11/2002]

Entity Tags: Drug Enforcement Agency, "Israeli art students"

March 15, 2002: Jewish Magazine Says Israelis Spied in US on Radical Muslims

Forward, a US publication with a large Jewish audience, admits that there has been an Israeli spy ring in the US. [Forward, 3/15/2002] This is a reversal of their earlier stance. [Forward, 12/21/2001] But, “far from pointing to Israeli spying against US government and military facilities, as reported in Europe last week, the incidents in question appear to represent a case of Israelis in the United States spying on a common enemy, radical Islamic networks suspected of links to Middle East terrorism.” [Forward, 3/15/2002]

Entity Tags: "Israeli art students"

May 7, 2002: Explosives Detected on Illegal Israelis

A moving truck is pulled over for speeding in the middle of the night in Oak Harbor, Washington, near the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. The base is the home of the advanced electronic warfare Prowler jets. A bomb-sniffing dog detects explosives on one of the men and inside the truck. High-tech equipment is then used to confirm the presence of TNT on the gearshift and RDX plastic explosive on the steering wheel. Both men turn out to be Israeli (one with an altered passport) and in the country illegally. [Fox News, 5/13/2002] However, the FBI later clears the two men, saying both the dog and the tests just detected false positives from “residue left by a cigarette lighter.” [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 5/14/2002; Jerusalem Post, 5/14/2002] The “art student spy ring” frequently uses moving vans as cover, and has been caught spying on the most top secret military bases. [Salon, 5/7/2002] In a possibly related story, the Seattle FBI office that handled this case will be broken into a few weeks later, and even a room containing evidence will be penetrated. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 7/29/2002]

Entity Tags: "Oak Harbor Israelis", Federal Bureau of Investigation

May 7, 2002: Sloppy Israeli Spy Ring Could Have Been Smoke Screen

Salon reports on the Israeli “art student spy ring.” All the “students” claim to have come from either Bezalel Academy or the University of Jerusalem. A look in the Bezalel database shows that not a single “art student” appears to have attended school there. There is no such thing as the University of Jerusalem. In fact, the article points out that the sheer sloppiness and brazenness of the spy operation appears to be a great mystery, especially since the Mossad is renowned as one of the best spy agencies in the world. One government source suggests a theory to Salon that the “art students” were actually a smoke screen. They were meant to be caught and connected to DEA surveillance so that a smaller number of spies also posing as art students could complete other missions. One such mission could have been the monitoring of al-Qaeda operatives. [Salon, 5/7/2002] Shortly afterwards, a major Israeli newspaper publishes a story about the spy ring, but does not come to any conclusions. [Ha'aretz, 5/14/2002]

Entity Tags: "Israeli art students", Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks, Drug Enforcement Agency, al-Qaeda

November 2002: Saudi Interior Minister Blames Jews for 9/11 Attacks

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef blames Zionists and Jews for the 9/11 attacks. He tells journalists, “Who has benefited from September 11 attacks? I think [the Jews] were the protagonists of such attacks.” Nayef is in charge of the Saudi investigation into the attacks, and some US congresspeople respond to the comments by questioning how strongly Saudi Arabia is investigating the involvement of the 15 Saudi 9/11 hijackers. [Associated Press, 12/5/2002]

Entity Tags: Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, Israel

May 2004: More Israelis Are Arrested in Suspicious Circumstances, Again Traveling in Moving Vans

On May 9, two Israelis are arrested after a high-speed chase in Tennessee. They are found with false documents. [WCYB 5 (Bristol, Va), 5/9/2004] On May 27, two others are arrested after trying to enter an Atlanta military base. Explosives are possibly discovered in their van. [Kings Bay Periscope, 5/27/2004]

September 16, 2004: Israelis Arrested on 9/11 Sue the US, Claiming Mistreatment and Torture

Four of the five Israelis arrested on 9/11 (see September 11, 2001), Paul and Sylvian Kurcheil, Omer Marmari, and Vyron Shmuel, file a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the US Justice Department. They claim they were arrested illegally, then held without charge and interrogated and tortured for months. Their lawyer claims the case will serve as a venue to debunk theories that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks. [Ha'aretz, 9/16/2004; Jerusalem Post, 9/16/2004] Forward, a publication geared towards the Jewish population in the US, reported in 2002 that the FBI concluded at least two of the five were Mossad agents and that all were on a Mossad surveillance mission. [Forward, 3/15/2002]

Entity Tags: Omer Marmari, Vyron Shmuel, Paul Kurcheil, Sylvian Kurcheil, "Israeli art students", Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks, Federal Bureau of Investigation

September 16, 2004: New Israeli Art Student Ring in Canada Has Unexplained Link to Islamic Fundamentalist Fundraising

In a curious echo of reports of an Israeli “art student spy ring” in the US before 9/11, it is reported that numerous young Israelis claiming to be from non-existent art schools in Israel are being arrested and deported for selling art in Canada. Unlike the earlier events in the US, there are no reports of government offices and workers being targeted. Rather, it appears to be a money making scam to sell cheap Asian art for vastly inflated prices in numerous Canadian cities. However, it is reported these Israelis “may be linked to a group fronting for Islamic fundamentalist fundraisers.” The nature and detail of the connection between the Israelis and Islamic fundamentalists is not explained in the newspaper accounts of this scam. [Ha'aretz, 9/16/2004; Jerusalem Post, 9/16/2004]

Oh, and by the way. Watch this:

The Israeli Nuclear Arsenal (4): Inside Dimona's Video

 

 

The Israeli Nuclear Arsenal (1)

The Israeli Nuclear Arsenal (2)

The Israeli Nuclear Arsenal (3)

The Israeli Nuclear Arsenal (3): The Photos

Some photos taken by Mordechai Vanunu from the "Israeli" Dimona nuclear reactor site (Source: http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/photos.html).

 

Looking inside a glove box for tooling nuclear materials

 

Looking from outside into a glove box

 

Control panel

 

Control panel

 

Looking inside a glove box at models of bomb components or containers for nuclear materials

 

Outside of glove box

 

Plutonium separation plant control room

 

Shielded viewing portal for observing nuclear reactions

 

Production model of nuclear weapons core

 

Production model of nuclear weapons core

 

The Israeli Nuclear Arsenal (1)

The Israeli Nuclear Arsenal (2)

The Israeli Nuclear Arsenal: Let's dig up the dirt! (2)

 As I promised in an earlier post, I'm posting the second news story based on Mordechai Vanunu's testimony and published in the Sunday Times on October 5th, 1986.

The Sunday Times
Insight: Inside Dimona, Israel's nuclear bomb factory

Date: October 5, 1986

EVERY day at 7am a fleet of 40 blue and white Volvo buses speeds down the desert highway that cuts through the Negev desert. Nine miles out from the town of Dimona, the buses turn right into a side road and pull up after half a mile at an army checkpoint. Soldiers make a cursory inspection of security passes and the buses are waved through. Two miles further into the desert, they stop at another Halt sign, where security is more severely enforced.

Here an electrified fence extends into the dusty scrubland of the Negev. It surrounds Israel's most secret establishment. The sand within the perimeter is raked by tractor to betray intruder's footprints to the infantry and helicopter patrols. Observation posts are mounted on the hilltops nearby. Missile batteries have orders to shoot down any aircraft that stray into the airspace above, as one Israeli pilot discovered to his cost in 1967.

Officially, Dimona is run by the Israeli Atomic Energy Authority to conduct experiments into nuclear power. Its official title is Kirya-le-Mehekar Gariny or KMG - the Negev Nuclear Research Centre. The world knows it as Dimona, long considered to be Israel's nuclear bomb factory.

Dimona is a palm and concrete oasis reached from the Beersheba to Sodom highway. The road is the closest anyone can get without a security pass. The handful of photographers who have evaded the patrols and succeeded in snatching a hazy shot from a speeding car charge exorbitant reproduction fees for their rare pictures.

The Volvo buses travel the route three times a day to service the 7.30am, 3.30pm and 11.30pm shifts. They carry 2,700 scientists, technicians and administrative staff. Secrecy demands that many people remain unaware of the duties performed within by even long-standing colleagues. The penalty for loose talk is 15 years imprisonment.

Once off the buses, the workforce disperses to various machons, which are self-contained production units.

There are 10 machons in all. Machon 1 is the nuclear reactor itself, a silver-domed building 60ft in diameter. Machon 4 is where radioactive waste is immersed in tar and packed in drums to be sunk in the desert. But only a handful - 150 workers in all - are ever allowed to pass through the doors of the real secret within Dimona - Machon 2.

Outwardly, it is a crudely built and windowless concrete building, two storeys high - 80ft by 200ft - an apparently little-used warehouse and office block. Two details suggest otherwise: the walls are thickened to withstand bombardment and there is an elevator tower on the roof which seems unnecessary for such a small building.

For three decades this innocuous slab of concrete has hidden Israel's secrets from prying satelites and foreign nuclear energy inspectors. Above ground level the entire site is precisely what the Israelis say it is: an experimental nuclear power station. Intelligence agencies, scientists and journalists have attempted for many years to prove otherwise. But all have fallen down on one key question: Where is the technology that can transform the peaceful atomic research into a bomb factory? Machon 2 provides the answer.

False walls on the first floor above ground hide the service lifts that take men and materials to six subterranean levels, where the components of nuclear weapons are produced and machined into warhead parts.

IT WAS to Machon 2 that Mordechai Vanunu was first assigned in 1977. He is a 31-year-old Moroccan Jew, born on October 13, 1954, in Marrakesh, where his parents ran a small shop. In 1963, amidst increasingly anti-Jewish feeling, the family emigrated to Israel and settled in Beersheba. After three years conscription in the Israeli army, reaching the rank of first sergeant in a unit of sappers on the Golan Heights, Vanunu entered Ramat Aviv University in Tel Aviv. But he failed two exams after the first year of his physics degree course and returned home.

In mid-summer of 1976, he saw advertisements for trainee technicians at Dimona and, by chance, met a friend who was already employed by KMG. Vanunu collected an application form from the KMG offices in Beersheba, near the bus station on the main road to Tel Aviv.

His first interview was with security. Vanunu was asked about criminal offences, drug or alcohol problems and his political affiliations. A month later he received a letter of acceptance.

He went on the KMG payroll in November, 1976, by coincidence the same month that 13 American senators on a fact-finding visit to Israel were refused entry to Dimona. Vanunu was not taken out to the desert complex straightaway. Instead he was sent back to school for a crash course in physics, chemistry, maths and English. He sailed through the initial entrance exam along with 39 of his 45 fellow candidates in January, 1977. In early February, Vanunu's intake boarded a Volvo bus for Dimona.

They were taken to a school on the site where their first duty was to sign the Israeli Official Secrets Act. Then he was given his security pass, number 9657-8, medically assessed to be fit and further schooled, under the auspices of a headmaster called Parahi, in elementary nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry with the emphasis on plutonium, uranium and radioactivity.

Vanunu was then given a further pass number, 320, for entry to Machon 2, and a locker (No. 3). The new intake were given 10 weeks to familiarise themselves with Machon 2. At the end of June, their initial training complete, they celebrated with a party.

There was one hiccup at this point. Vanunu was called up for a month's army-reserve duty with his engineer unit, but this seems to have been a mistake. When the nature of his job was discovered he was quickly released. Within seven days he was back in Machon 2, to be told that, after passing a final test, he would be working on the night shift, 11.30pm to 8am.

Vanunu satisfied a threeman examination board (an independent engineer, one of the Dimona school lecturers, and a specialist in handling radio-active materials). On August 7, 1977, he reported for his first full day's work as a menahil - a controller on the night shift. It was the start of a nine-year stint as a nuclear technician which was to take Vanunu throughout the labyrinthine Machon 2.

DIMONA was secretly built by France between 1957 and 1964. It was originally claimed to be a textiles plant by Israel. When, in 1960, an American U2 spyplane photographed it for the first time, the incoming president, John F Kennedy forced the then Isreli prime minister, David Ben Gurion, to submit to regular inspections by US scientists to ensure that Dimona's true purpose remained peaceful nuclear research. Those visits gave Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B Johnson, sufficient assurance to publicly declare that Dimona really was a civilian reactor.

President de Gaulle added his reassurance, saying that France had stopped short of supplying the technology that could have transformed Dimona into a plant 'from which, one day, atomic weapons could emerge. '

But the official claims have never been accepted. It has long been suspected, but never publicly confirmed, that Israel has been using Dimona to produce materials for a simple atomic weapon. But the many speculative attempts to lift the curtain around Dimona have always foundered. Invariably based on the testimony of unidentified sources, they failed to explain how Israel obtains the fissile material needed for nuclear weapons.

Atomic bombs are made either from Uranium 235 or plutonium. But the production of Uranium 235 requires a huge gaseous diffusion plant or a large number of gas centrifuges. Plutonium, however, can be produced in a compact separation plant.

Plutonium is a by-product of the nuclear process, which in some types of reactor, like the one at Dimona, has to be separated from the uranium fuel rods after they have spent a period in the reactor core. In sophisticated weapons design, just 2 1/2 kilograms of plutonium is enough to build a bomb.

France has always insisted that it had stopped short of supplying Israel with plutonium separation technology, which is thought to be the preserve of the major nuclear powers: America, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and more recently China. So most experts concluded that Israel, through the expertise and innovation of its scientists, had managed to extract only small amounts of plutonium using less efficient processes.

Inspections ended in 1969 after American scientists complained of uncooperative Israeli authorities. But they never saw any evidence to suggest that Dimona housed the plutonium separation plant necessary to turn an ordinary research project into a significant atomic bomb factory.

At best, the CIA and the United Nations have concluded, Israel may have stockpiled enough plutonium in the past 22 years to build perhaps 10 but certainly no more than 20 primitive atomic bombs similar to the 20 kiloton device dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. That estimate is based on the greatest amount of plutonium that can possibly be extracted without the aid of sophisticated separation technology.The general view has been that, while Israel does have an atomic weapons programme, it is still of a rudimentary nature. Similar suspicions are harboured against several other nations, including Argentina, Pakistan, India and South Africa.

However, Mordechai Vanunu's testimony, which has been checked with leading nuclear experts on both sides of the Atlantic, shows that one of the world's worst kept secrets is, in fact, one of the best kept confidences of the century. Far from being a nuclear pigmy, the evidence is that Israel must now be regarded a major nuclear power, ranking sixth in the atomic league table, with a stockpile of at least 100 nuclear weapons and with the components and ability to build atomic, neutron or hydrogen bombs.

WHEN French construction workers first bulldozed the desert scrub in 1957, they began excavating a crater 80ft deep in the sand. In it they buried Machon 2, the six-level concrete bunker, which was topped off with the two innocuous floors above ground. The false walls were built to hide the service lifts to the subterranean floors from the American inspectors. When the shell was complete, French engineers and technicians installed the technology de Gaulle claimed to have denied Israel. Vanunu's older workmates at Dimona fondly related stories of the Frenchmen who worked alongside them.

The six underground floors of Machon 2 are divided into numbered production units. There is also a demonstration room where visiting VIPs, confined only to the prime minister, the defence minister and the military top brass, are briefed on Operation Hump. That is the codename, says Vanunu, that Israel has given its latest bomb design programme.

In this room are boxed models of atomic devices and a wall-mounted floor plan of Machon 2. Workers are generally free to roam the plant during the long, tedious shifts. Vanunu regularly escaped the constant rounds of canasta played by his workmates to see what was going on.

He worked in, or visited, 33 production units in Machon 2. Unit 10, a ground floor, drive-in delivery bay received the trucks carrying the 100 large and 40 smaller fuel rods from the reactor core. A crane lowers the rods in baskets down through Level One which is a service floor, through Level Two which mainly houses the control room for the plant, to Unit 11 on Level Three.

Here the uranium fuel rods containing the plutonium by-product are chemically stripped of their aluminum coating. When stripped the uranium weighs 650 kilograms and is immersed in nitric acid. This is heated to 109 degrees centigrade for 30 hours to dissolve the uranium.

At this point the uranium content is 450 grams per litre and is transferred through pipes by vacuum to Units 12 to 22, the main treatment centre. This is so big that it occupies a huge production hall rising from Level Four to Level Two. During this process the liquid is treated to remove radioactivity and a mix of solvent and water is added. It is at this point that the plutonium, which mixes with the water, is separated from the uranium, which mixes with the solvent. By the time the mixture is pumped out of the main treatment centre it contains 300 miligrams of plutonium per litre.

In Unit 31 the liquid is further concentrated to two grams per litre and sent to Unit 33, where it is piped into 20-litre tanks and heated with, among other chemicals, hydrogen peroxide for four hours. After an eight-hour cooling period it is mixed with other chemicals which cause the powder to gather in lumps. This is drained and dried, leaving a 'cake' of plutonium, which is baked in Unit 37.

The baking process concentrates the metal into a solid button weighing 130 grams. Nine buttons of plutonium were produced each week, 1.17 kilograms a week for the 34 weeks a year that the process ran (It shut down for four months for repairs and maintenance). The annual net result of this separation process is around 40 kilograms of plutonium a year, or nearly six times the most optimistic assessments of Israel's plutonium making capabilities.
In addition, further units were added between 1980-2, built and installed by the Israelis alongside the plutonium separation plant and monitored from the same control room. One of them, Unit 93 on Level Four, produces tritium. This is of immense significance, for it means Israel has the potential to produce thermonuclear weapons far more powerful than ordinary atomic bombs.

Sticks of lithium and aluminium radiated in the reactor produce the tritium as a by product. Heated in Unit 93 to 625 degrees centigrade, the sticks melt. Tritium is extracted.

In Unit 95, built alongside the three-storey main treatment plant in a disused lift shaft, lithium 6 was separated from commercially available lithium, producing 180 grams a day. Unit 98 is a deuterium production plant.

All of these components, plutonium, lithium 6, tritium and deuterium are taken to another section on Level Four code named MM2, or Metallurgy, Machon 2. It is here that the raw materials are machined into the components of nuclear bombs.

THE processes described above are a simplified precis of the detailed descriptions, flow rates, measures, temperatures and other scientific data that Vanunu, from his position in the control room and work in other units, was able to memorise over nine years and pass on to The Sunday Times Insight team, which in turn checked them out with nuclear scientists.

Vanunu never claimed to have seen a completed bomb and never claimed any special knowledge of precisely what the components were. He says the components were taken out of Dimona at regular intervals in a guarded fleet of trucks and hire cars to an unknown location in Haifa.

Our extensive debriefings of Vanunu, over a period of four weeks, produced estimates that Israel was producing 40 kilograms of plutonium a year, enough to make 10 bombs a year. During the period Vanunu worked there Israel therefore produced enough plutonium for 100 nuclear bombs of at least 20 kilotons, equivalent to the one dropped on Nagasaki. By using sophisticated designs requiring smaller amounts of plutonium, it could have produced enough to make 200 nuclear bombs.

Moreover, the production of lithium 6, tritium and deuterium means that Israel is producing the raw materials to make the components used to boost the yield of primitive atomic weapons to 10 times the 20 kiloton yield.

Two pictures in particular appear to show a lithium deuteride hemisphere which could be used in the construction of the most devastating weapon of all - the thermonuclear bomb - a weapon capable of yielding the equivalent explosive force of hundreds of thousands of tons of TNT. In the chilling jargon of the nuclear bomb makers, Israel has moved beyond the ability to produce small 'suburb-busting' nuclear bombs to 'city-busters'.

THERE was one question that remained unanswered in Mordechai Vanunu's story. France built Israel a 26 megawatt reactor which can produce, at the outside, seven kilograms of plutonium a year. So how could Vanunu possibly report an annual amount of 40 kilograms?

His reference to 100 large and 40 small uranium fuel rods from the core and the subsequent amounts, in litres or grams produced in the separation processes, suggest a reactor of up to 150 megawatts - the right quantity to produce 40 kilograms a year.

Two events in the late 1960s explain the disparity. First, the Israel secret service, Mossad, masterminded the illegal acquisition of 200 tons of yellowcake - the raw material from which 123 tons of uranium fuel can be extracted - in late 1968 in an operation known as the Plumbat Affair.

Nobody has even been able to explain why Israel wanted so much. A 26 megawatt reactor requires only 20 tons of fuel a year. France had supplied the initial charge, Israel's own phosphate industry provided a further 10 tons a year and spent fuel was recycled to make new rods. So Dimona had more than enough uranium to fuel a 26 mw reactor.

A few months later Israel deliberately provoked the American scientists who inspected Dimona at intervals, harassing them to the point where they pulled out altogether. Since then no outside agency has been inside Dimona, thus leaving the Israelis free to upgrade their 26 megawatt core to 150 megawatts. British atomic energy scientists have confirmed that boosting Dimona's French reactor by a factor of five could have been achieved without rebuilding the reactor.

This is supported by evidence from France. Sources quoted in a recent book about French-Israeli nuclear co-operation said that the reactor built in the Negev had been far larger than admitted. THE sophistication and scale of Israel's nuclear weapons-making capabilities revealed by Insight makes it clear that Israel is now a major nuclear power. Its survival in the face of conventional defeat would seem assured, for no Arab nation could match its nuclear muscle.China has approximately 300 warheads, France 500 and Britain as many as 700. Both America and the USSR are in a class of their own with about 27,000 each. Israel's projected arsenal of 100-200 weapons may be dwarfed by comparison but it is enough to make it the sixth most powerful nation on earth.

Ten days ago the outgoing prime minister, Shimon Peres, attended a regular briefing of Israeli newspaper editors. On the agenda was the upcoming Sunday Times Insight investigation.

Though no editor will publicly reveal details of the conversation, it is believed that Peres, having told the editors of the forthcoming report, warned them of their obligations under the Official Secrets Act. He admitted that Insight had gained access to an inside source.

A third news story will follow soon revealing how nuclear weapons experts from all around the world were convinced to work for the Zionists.