Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel

by Roger Mattson

  ***

  In early 2009, former Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) urged the formation of a Truth Commission to address the abuses of national security policy that occurred under President George W. Bush.753 Leahy likened the benefits of such a commission to the benefits derived from the Church committee’s investigation of abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies in the 1960s and 1970s. Truth Commissions promoted healing in South Africa at the end of apartheid. A Truth Commission on nuclear opacity, including America’s 50 years of secret support for Israeli weapons, would do much to restore American and Israeli credibility in matters of nuclear nonproliferation. This could happen only if the so-called Israel Lobby were to stand down so the truth would come out.

  Such a Truth Commission on nuclear opacity would be consistent with the aforementioned advice of Avner Cohen who has studied and written more than anyone about Israel’s nuclear history and its policy of nuclear opacity. Writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 2006, he said, “Set against contemporary values of transparency and accountability, the Nixon-Meir deal of 1969 is now a striking and burdensome anomaly. . . . It is time for a new deal to replace the old Nixon-Meir understandings of 1969, with Israel telling the truth and in doing so normalizing its nuclear affairs.”754

  * * *

  47 Vanunu was a technician at the Dimona site who told the British press in 1986 about the nuclear weapons work being carried out there. Intelligence agents returned him to Israel where he served 18 years in prison and is still subject to restrictions on his freedoms.

  Acronyms

  ADDO

  CIA’s Associate Deputy Director for Operations

  AEC

  Atomic Energy Commission

  ARCO

  Atlantic Richfield Company

  B&W

  Babcock and Wilcox Company

  CIA

  Central Intelligence Agency

  DCI

  Director of Central Intelligence

  DDO

  CIA’s Deputy Director for Operations

  DDS&T

  CIA’s Deputy Director for Science and Technology

  DOE

  Department of Energy

  ERDA

  Energy Research and Development Administration

  FBI

  Federal Bureau of Investigation

  FMSAC

  Foreign Missile and Space Analysis Center

  FOIA

  Freedom of Information Act

  GAO

  General Accounting (Accountability after 1974) Office

  ID

  Inventory difference

  IG

  Inspector General

  HEU

  Highly enriched uranium

  IAEA

  International Atomic Energy Agency

  IAEC

  Israeli Atomic Energy Commission

  ISCAP

  Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel

  ISORAD

  Israel NUMEC Isotopes and Radiation Enterprises

  JCAE

  Joint Committee on Atomic Energy

  LAKAM

  Hebrew acronym for Israeli Bureau of Scientific Relations

  MDR

  Mandatory declassification review

  MUF

  Material unaccounted for = ID

  NPT

  Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

  NRC

  Nuclear Regulatory Commission

  NRDC

  Natural Resources Defense Council

  NSA

  National Security Agency

  NSC

  National Security Council

  NSI

  National Security Information

  NUMEC

  Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation

  ORNL/OROO

  Oak Ridge National Laboratory/Oak Ridge Operations Office

  RAFAEL

  Hebrew for Weapons Development Authority

  SAC

  Special Agent in Charge (an FBI staff position)

  SNM

  Special Nuclear Material

  WANL

  Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory

  About the Author

  Roger J. Mattson was born in Central City, Nebraska a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. In high school he excelled at playing trumpet and piano. A career in music was close at hand. But in the year of Sputnik 1, inspired by a math teacher, he opted instead for a career in engineering. He graduated with honors from the University of Nebraska and then received advanced degrees from the University of New Mexico and the University of Michigan where he earned a PhD in Mechanical Engineering.

  His first job was at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque where he designed reactors for testing nuclear weapon components. He soon accepted an assignment with AEC’s regulatory staff in Washington, DC, specializing in safety systems for power reactors. He served as an assistant to AEC Commissioner William 0. Doub.

  He joined the new NRC in 1975 and developed standards for environmental and radiation protection and safeguards for nuclear materials and facilities. At the time of the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island he was leading the technical review of nuclear power plants for NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. He took a significant role in the response to the accident and the reforms that followed.

  Dr. Mattson left NRC in 1984 and led two private companies that provided safety and security services for U.S. nuclear power plants, DOE’s nuclear facilities, and several foreign users of nuclear power.

  Following the Chernobyl accident in 1986, he helped develop IAEA’s guidance on safety principles for the world’s nuclear power plants. He oversaw nuclear safety consultancies in five foreign countries. He also served on the offsite safety committees for five nuclear power plants, DOE’s Rocky Flats Site, a Los Alamos test program and DOE’s Advanced Test Reactor. In 2012, he was part of a team formed by the president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers to forge a new safety construct for nuclear power plants after the tragedy at Fukushima.

  As an engineer with extensive experience in nuclear technology, Mattson understands the design, construction, operation, safety and security of facilities that produce electric power and nuclear weapons. He continues to consult on nuclear power. He and his wife enjoy living in Colorado where they savor the seasons and the mountains. He still plays the piano.

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  Endnotes

  ____________________

  1 Jisheng Yang, Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962, Firrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2008

  2 Rizzo, p. 47.

  3 Helms and Hood, p. 66.

  4 Helms and Hood, p. 61-62.

  5 Thomas, p. 23. Riebling, p. 64-69

  6 Weiner, p. 18-19.

  7 Riebling, p. 76. Weiner, p. 27.

  8 Weiner, p. 27.

  9 Weiner, p. 3 and 29.

  10 Weiner, p. 28 and 206.

  11 Rizzo, p. 71.

  12 Riebling, p. 73.

  13 “Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws, 2010,” Harry A. Hammitt, et al, p.70.

  14 Weiner, p. 33-35.

  15 “Factbook on Intelligence,” Central Intelligence Agency, December 1992, pages 4-5.

  16 Helms and Hood, p. 234-235.

  17 Weiner, p. 59.

  18 Helms and Hood, p. 159; Wright, p. 184.

  19 Movie Review, “The Good Shepherd,” New York Times, Manohla Dargis, December 22, 2006.

  20 Wright, p. 147.

  21 Helms and Hood, p. 152-159; Christopher and Gordievsky, p. 401-402. Thomas, Chapters 1 and 4, p. 315; Macintyre, Kindle location 3782.

  22 Macintyre, Kindle location 2748.

  23 Wright, p. 373.

  24 Le Carré, p. 246.

  25 Riebling, p. 94. “Cartha D. ‘Deke’ DeLoach Oral History Interview I,” January 11, 1991, Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library.

  26 “FBI Veteran Sam Papich Was at Cold War’s Center,” Mike Gallagher, Albuquerque Journal, December 24, 2004.

  27 Riebling, p. 113 and 134-138.

  28 James B. Adams, special agent, 1951 to 1973, deputy associate director for investigations, 1973 to 1977, associate director, 1978 to 1979; D. J. Brennan, Jr., special agent in intelligence division, 1966 to 1969; Nicholas P. Callahan, assistant director for administration, 1962, associate director 1973 to 1976; Richard Cotter, chief of research section in intelligence division, influential in maintaining the Security Index on which FBI placed Shapiro’s name; William 0. Cregar, FBI liaison to CIA, 1970 to 1974, assistant director for counterintelligence; Cartha (Deke) DeLoach, FBI liaison to CIA, 1948-1952, liaison to the White House under presidents Johnson and Nixon, deputy director, 1965 to 1970; J. Edgar Hoover, director of FBI and its predecessor, 1924 to 1972; Clarence M. Kelly, director of FBI, 1973 to 1977; T. W. Leavitt, intelligence division, 1976; S. S. Mignosa, investigations division, 1976; John A. Mintz, assistant director and general counsel, 1973 to 1986; Donald W. Moore, Jr., assistant director, criminal division, 1977 to 1979, executive assistant director for law enforcement, 1979 to 1980; Samuel “Sam” J. Papich, FBI liaison to CIA, 1952 to 1970; Oliver Buck Revell, deputy assistant director for criminal investigations, 1979, assistant director for administrative services, 1981; William C. Sullivan, director of intelligence division, 1961 to 1970 and deputy director of FBI, 1970 to 1971; Clyde Tolson, associate director of FBI, 1947 to 1972, Hoover’s companion and heir; J. F. Wacks, supervisor, intelligence division; and William H. Webster, director of FBI, 1978 to 1987.

  29 Helms and Hood, p. 275.

  30 Talbot, Chapter 5.

  31 Hersh, p. 144-147. Raviv and Melman, p. 78-80.

  32 Weiner, p. 142-144.

  33 Riebling, p. 139.

  34 Talbot, Parts I and II.

  35 Weiner, p. 106-119.

  36 Weiner, p. 182-185. Riebling, p. 155. Thomas, p. 73-74.

  37 Weiner, p. 182, 194.

  38 Weiner, p. 199-203; Douglass p. 13-14.

  39 Weiner, p. 208-2
09.

  40 Weiner, p. 220.

  41 Riebling, p. 227. Garthoff, p. 48-49. Helms and Hood, p. 248-249. Weiner, p. 287-291.

  42 Helms and Hood, p. 269. Riebling, p. 231.

  43 Helms and Hood, p. 109.

  44 Mazuzan and Walker, p. 3-8

  45 “9/11 Commission Recommendations: Joint Committee on Atomic Energy– A Model for Congressional Oversight?” Congressional Research Service, August 20, 2004.

  46 Hewlett and Duncan, Appendix 6

  47 Mazuzan and Walker, p. 7

  48 Walker 1992, p. 4

  49 Mazuzan and Walker, p. 24

  50 Address by Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, to the 470th Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, December 8, 1953.

  51 “A Guidebook for U.S. Citizens Going to Work at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Safeguards,” L. G. Epel, A. M. Labowitz and E. V. Weinstock, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Eighth Edition, January 2003. Cohen 1998, p. 50. “Commission Policy on the Control of Special Nuclear Materials, 1946-1964,” Office of Secretary, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, October 1, 1965.

  52 “New Evidence of a Soviet Spy in the U.S. Nuclear Program,” Justin Ewers, U.S. News and World Report, January 2, 2009.

  53 Mazuzan and Walker, p. 11

  54 “Commission Policy on the Control of Special Nuclear Materials,” Office of the Secretary, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, October 1, 1965, classified as CONFIDENTIAL before release.