Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel

by Roger Mattson

  272 Seaborg, 1993, p. 197-198, 208; “December 10 Hendrie Letter,” Notes from Henry Myers to Morris K. Udall, December 16, 1977, University of Arizona Library, Udall Papers, Box 272, Item 13; Weissman and Krosney, p. 123.

  273 Notes from telephone conversation with General Delmar Crowson concerning an article in June 13 issue of the Wall Street Journal, James Lovett, NUMEC, June 17, 1968.

  274 FBI Memorandum from Director to SAC Pittsburgh, June 6, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 46, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release.

  275 FBI Memorandum from Director to SAC Pittsburgh,” Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro, IS – Israel, Atomic Energy act,” September 17, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 75, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release.

  276 “Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights Of Americans,” Book III, Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate, Warrantless FBI Electronic Surveillance, April 23 (Under Authority of the Order of April 14), 1976. Medsger, Chapter 27.

  277 Riebling, p. 336-338.

  278 FBI Letter from Director to Attorney General, “Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro: Internal Security – Israel, Atomic Energy Act,” February 10, 1969. “Mystery of Israel’s Bomb,” Newsweek, January 9, 1978. In 1978, Congress tightened the rules on surreptitious surveillance by passing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The law known as FISA required that warrants be obtained from a special court, whose judges were sworn to secrecy, before an American suspected of being a foreign agent could be monitored. The FBI had to show “probable cause” in order to get such a warrant, a Catch-22 that gave suspects the benefit of the doubt, not law enforcement. Until the laws were changed again (the Patriot Act) in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, it was easier in some cases for the media and Congress to gather information about suspected spies than it was for the FBI. (See Riebling, p. 149 and 223 and Medsger, Chapter 27.)

  279 FBI Memorandum, SAC, Pittsburgh to Director, “Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro: IS – Israel, Atomic Energy Act,” June 13, 1968, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.

  280 FBI Memorandum from SAC, WFO (redacted) to Director, FBI, June 28, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 75, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release. It enclosed AEC Memorandum to Howard C. Brown, Jr., Assistant General Manager for Administration, from Anson M. Bartlett, Division of Inspection, Earl F. Lane, Division of Security, and Samuel C. T. McDowell Division of Nuclear Materials Management, “NUMEC Interviews of Former and Present Employees,” April 6, 1966, labeled OFFICIAL USE ONLY when released by the FBI.

  281 “The Relevance of Mordechai Vanunu Disclosures to Israel’s National Security,” Thomas B. Cochran, Natural Resources Defense Council, October 14, 1996. “The American Connection: How Israel Got the Bomb,” Washington Monthly, p. 50-58, January 1, 1979, Transmitted by Director, FBI to SAC, Newark and Washington Field Office, May 17, 1979, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 692, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release. Hersh, p. 139. “The Third Temple’s Holy of Holies: Israel’s Nuclear Weapons,” Warner D. Farr, LTC, U.S. Army, Counter Proliferation Paper No. 2, USAF Counter Proliferation Center, Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, September 1999.

  282 Karpin, p. 305.

  283 Hersh, p. 191; “The Sampson Option: The story behind one of the world’s worst-kept secrets: the Jewish state’s atomic arsenal,” George Perkovich, Washington Post Book Review, February 19, 2006; Karpin, p. 299-301.

  284 Karpin, p. 302.

  285 Reed and Stillman, p. 143.

  286 Reed and Stillman, p. 323-324; “Model Protocol Additional to Agreement(s) between State(s) and the International Atomic Energy Agency for Application of Safeguards” IAEA, September 1997, accessed October 23, 2015 at www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/1998/infcirc540corrected.pd

  287 “The Likelihood of Further Nuclear Proliferation,” Richard Helms, Director of Central Intelligence, National Intelligence Estimate 4-66, January 20, 1966, classified as SECRET before redaction and release by CIA.

  288 Valley News Dispatch, a publication of Trib Total Media, August 26, 2002.

  289 Weiner, p. 329.

  290 Goodwin, Kindle location 4967.

  291 Cohen 1998, p. 298.

  292 “LBJ’s Secret Israel Tapes,” Johnson, Robert David, The New York Sun, May 28,2008.

  293 Raviv and Melman 1990, p. 3, Blitzer, p. 162.

  294 Raviv and Melman 1990, p. 114-115.

  295 Raviv and Melman 1990, p. 70-71.

  296 Blitzer, p. 10.

  297 Raviv and Melman 1990, p. 74; Hersh, p. 130-131; Reed and Stillman, p. 115,118.

  298 Raviv and Melman 1990, p. 74.

  299 CIA letter from Director Richard Helms to The Honorable Ramsey Clark, Attorney General, April 2, 1968.

  300 Riebling, p. 246.

  301 “Yuval Ne’eman, Dean of Israeli Scientists, Dies at 80,” Jerusalem Post, April 27, 2006. Davenport, Eddy and Gillman, Chapter 20. Riebling, p. 247.

  302 FBI Memorandum, “Atomic Energy Act,” from SAC Washington Field Office to Director, FBI, September 11, 1968, labeled SECRET before redaction and release. AEC Letter from Harry R. Walsh, Director of Security Division in AEC’s New York Operations Office, to Bruce D. Rice, Manager of NUMEC Security Division, September 20, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 134, unclassified. FBI Memorandum, from SAC Pittsburgh to Director, September 20, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 135, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release. NUMEC letter to Harry R. Walsh, AEC Director of Security and Property Management Division from Bruce D. Rice, NUMEC Manager of Security, September 12, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 144. FBI Memorandum from SAC Pittsburgh to Director, October 17, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 164, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.

  303 Riebling, p. 245.

  304 Peter Stockton interview, February 23, 2009.

  305 “Zalman Mordecai Shapiro: Attachment: Security Statement,” Memorandum from Director, FBI, to John F. Doherty, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Internal Security Division, U.S. Department of Justice, October 29, 1970, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 164, labeled SECRET before redaction and release. Cohen 2010, p. 178. Summary of Interview with Avraham Hermoni by Avner Cohen, September 2, 1992, Wilson Center Digital Archive, accessed October 23, 2015 at http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/117849. Raviv and Melman 2012, p. 146-147.

  306 Cockburn, p. 92. Thomas, p. 94. Valley News Dispatch, a publication of Trib Total Media, August 25, 2002. Raviv and Melman, p. 198. Smith, p. 116.

  307 “Transcript of Proceedings: Hearing Held before Executive Session of Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Informal Meeting between Interior Committee Representatives and Dr. Zalman M. Shapiro,” December 21, 1978.

  308 Sokolski, p. 53.

  309 Biography of Avraham Hermoni and Interview Notes, Avner Cohen, September 2, 1992, Wilson Center Digital Archive, accessed January 20, 2016 at https://www.wilsoncenter.org/avraham-hermoni#hermonibio.

  310 “The Technical Genius of the Israeli Secret Service,” Translation of an obituary in Hebrew by Uri Dromi, Haaretz Daily Newspaper. Corrections and additions approved by Froike’s son, Amos Biegun, June 2007.

  311 Raviv and Melman, p. 199.

  312 “Avraham (Shalom) Ben-Dor,” Website of Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) http://www.shabak.gov.il/English/History/heads/Pages/Avraham(Shalom)Ben-Dor.aspx accessed on October 23, 2015; Jerusalem Post, 1995.

  313 Cockburn, p. 12, 13, 92; Valley News Dispatch, a publication of Trib Total Media, August 25, 2002; Raviv and Melman, photo and p. 288-291; Black and Morris, p. 357.

  314 “Black Market of Horror: The Phantom of Dimona,” Spiegel, Eric Follath, May 2004. “The spymaster’s tale,” Patricia Golan, Jerusalem Post, October 3, 2015.

  315
Schweizer, p. 221; Blitzer, p. 12.

  316 “Israel’s 40-year History of Espionage Against the United States,” Green, Stephen, The Christian Science Monitor, May 22, 1989.

  317 Blitzer, p. 92, 198.

  318 Blitzer, p. 10-13, 88-89, 97, 198, 203, 214-215, 313-314.

  319 Statement by Richard Sale of United Press International, quoting an interview of Rafi Eitan by the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot in 1997, according to Jeffrey Steinberg, Executive Intelligence Review, August 16, 2003, accessed on October 23, 2015 at http://rense.com/general40/plotting.htm.

  320 Raviv and Melman, p. xi, xii, 253-255, 322; Cockburn, p. 85; Hersh, p. 180-181; Thomas, 2007, p. 73-87; “Black Market of Horror: The Phantom of Dimona,” Spiegel, Eric Follath, May 2004; Valley News Dispatch, a publication of Trib Total Media, August 25, 2002.

  321 Report of the Central Intelligence Agency, Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, “The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment,” October 30,1987, p. 6-9, 38, 40, 126.

  322 “Sharon was about to leave two-thirds of the West Bank; Clinton chose not to prevent Morsi’s victory; and Obama won’t free Pollard,” Elhanan Miller, The Times of Israel, February 19, 2013.

  323 “Pollard’s Handler: I Ordered to Turn Him Away from Embassy,” Arutz Sheva, December 1, 2014.

  324 “The Truth about Jonathan Pollard’s Escape Plan,” Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Arutz Sheva, December 5, 2014.

  325 “Statement of Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, Attorneys For Jonathan J. Pollard,” Press Release by Curtis, Mallet-Provost, Colt and Mosle LLP, New York, July 28, 2015.

  326 “Jonathan Pollard, American Who Spied for Israel, Released After 30 Years,” Peter Baker and Jodi Rudoren, New York Times, November 20, 2015.

  327 “ZOA Welcomes Release of Jonathan Pollard,” ZOA Press Release, November 23, 2015. Accessed December 8, 2015 at http://zoa.org/2015/11/10304543-zoa-welcomes-release-of-jonathan-pollard/

  328 “Hollywood producer was an Israeli nuclear agent,” Yossi Melman, Haaretz.com, July 18, 2011.

  329 Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan, Joseph Gelman and Meir Doron, Gefen Books, Lynbrook, NY, 2011. Raviv and Melman, Chapter 11.

  330 FBI memorandum, from Los Angeles Special Agent (redacted) to Counter Intelligence, June 17, 2002, classified SECRET before redaction and release. See Website of Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. Accessed November 1, 2015 at http://www.irmep.org/ila/krytons/06272012_milco_mdr.pdf.

  331 “Did Hollywood bigwigs help Israel buy arms in the 1970s and ‘80s? Long-time Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan says they did, in an interview set to air Monday on the Israeli investigative journalism program ‘Uvda’,” Haaretz, November 21. 2013. Doron and Gelman, Kindle location 2018.

  332 “The World’s Billionaires,” Forbes, March 2, 2015.

  333 Report by the Central Intelligence Agency, “Israel: Foreign Intelligence and Security Services,” March 1979, p. 22.

  334 NUMEC letter to Harry R. Walsh, AEC Director, Security and Property Management Division, from Bruce D. Rice, NUMEC Manager of Security, September 27, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 149, not classified.

  335 “Transcript of Proceedings: Hearing Held before Executive Session of Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Informal Meeting between Interior Committee Representatives and Dr. Zalman M. Shapiro,” December 21, 1978. Report of Investigation, FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, February 18, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 304, labeled SECRET before redaction and release. Cockburn, p. 80-81.

  336 Teller, p. 472.

  337 “Israeli Spy Visited A-Plant where Uranium Vanished,” United Press International, June 16, 1986.

  338 “Dr. Zalman Mordechai Shapiro,” FBI Report by [redacted], FBI Pittsburgh Office, May 5, 1969.

  339 Report of Investigation, FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, February 18, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 304, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.

  340 Davenport, Eddy and Gillman, Chapter 20.

  341 “1968 Mystery of a Vanished Ship: Did Its Uranium End Up in Israel?” David Burnham, New York Times, April 29,1977.

  342 Davenport, Eddy and Gillman, chapters 1 and 7; Raviv and Melman, p. 191, 199; “Uranium Loss Fails to Change Security: Government Report Says Agencies Kept Same Safety Measures after ‘68 Fuel Diversion,” David Burnham, New York Times, February 25, 1979; “Israel’s Bomb,” Victor Gilinsky, New York Review of Books, Volume 51, No. 8, May 13, 2004.

  343 “Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro,” FBI Report by [redacted], FBI Pittsburgh Office, May 5, 1969.

  344 FBI Letter, Director to Attorney General, “Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro: Atomic Energy Act,” April 22, 1976, labeled SECRET before redaction and release by FBI.

  345 Hersh, p. 250.

  346 Black and Morris, p. 424.

  347 Blitzer, p. 19-21.

  348 FBI Memorandum from R. D. Cotter to W. C. Sullivan, “Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro, Internal Security – Israel, Atomic Energy Act,” November 5, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.

  349 FBI Memorandum from SAC Washington Field Office to Director, November 12, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 203, labeled SECRET before redaction and release; Seaborg, 1993, p. 198; Hersh, p. 249-250.

  350 Riebling, p. 221.

  351 FBI Memorandum from SAC Pittsburgh to Director, November 20, 1968, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 213, labeled SECRET before redaction and release. FBI Paper, “Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro,” summarizes information gathered from wire tap and trusted sources regarding Shapiro’s activities from October through December 1968, January 20, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.

  352 FBI Memorandum from SAC Pittsburgh to Director, January 20, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 268, labeled SECRET before redaction and release. FBI Paper, “Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro,” summarizes information gathered from wire tap and trusted sources regarding Shapiro’s activities from October through December 1968, January 20, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, labeled SECRET before redaction and release. Memorandum includes verbatim letters from Shapiro to Seaborg of October 8, 1968 and Seaborg to Shapiro on November 20, 1968, both supplied to FBI by AEC’s security office.

  353 FBI Memorandum, SAC Pittsburgh to Director, “Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro: IS- Israel, Atomic Energy Act,” January 20, 1969, Classified SECRET then Confidential before redaction and release by FBI.

  354 FBI Airtel, Pittsburgh SAC to FBI Director, “Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro: IS – Israel, Atomic Energy Act,” January 24, 1969, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.

  355 Helms and Hood, p. 382; Riebling, p. 270.

  356 Cohen 1998, p. 327.

  357 FBI Letter, from Director to Attorney General, February 10, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 284, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.

  358 FBI Memorandum from John Edgar Hoover, Director to Messrs. Tolson, et al., February 10, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 291, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release.

  359 Hersh, p. 209-210.

  360 Reed and Stillman, p. 121.

  361 “Stopping the Introduction of Nuclear Weapons Into the Middle East,” Memorandum from Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird to The Secretary of State, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and Director, Central Intelligence Agency, March 17, 1969, classified SECRET before redaction and release by the National Archives.

  362 FBI Letter from John Edgar Hoover, Director to [redacted], “Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro: Internal Security – Israel, Atomic Energy Act,” February 12, 1969, labeled SECRET before redaction and release.

  363 FBI Memoranda from (redacted), February 14, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, documents 293 to 297, labeled TOP SECRET before redaction and release.

  364 FBI Memorandum from [redacted] to W. C. Sullivan, “[redacted] Internal Security – I
srael,” recommending letters be sent to Secretary of State, Dr. Henry A. Kissinger and Attorney General, February 13, 1969, labeled SECRET before redaction and release. FBI Letter from [redacted] to Honorable William P. Rogers, The Secretary of State, noting attached information had also been furnished to Kissinger and Attorney General, February 14, 1969, labeled SECRET before redaction and release. FBI Letter from John Edgar Hoover to Director, United States Secret Service, February 18,1969.

  365 DOJ Memorandum, from J. Walter Yeagley, Assistant Attorney General, Internal Security Division, to Director, FBI, February 14, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 300, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release.

  366 FBI Letter from Director to Attorney General, February 18, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 301, labeled TOP SECRET before redaction and release.

  367 Letter from John Edgar Hoover (FBI Director), to William T. Riley (AEC Director of Division of Security), February 18, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 305, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release.

  368 Seaborg, 1993, p. 193,199; Seaborg 2001, p. 218.

  369 Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Glenn T. Seaborg autobiography, accessed October 23, 2015 at http://www2.lbl.gov/Publications/Seaborg/bio.htm.

  370 FBI Memorandum from R.D. Cotter to W. C. Sullivan, February 18, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 307, labeled TOP SECRET before redaction and release.

  371 FBI Memorandum from R.D. Cotter to W. C. Sullivan, February 18, 1969, FBI FOIA File No. 117-2564, document 311, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release; “Response to Chronicle Report FBI hasn’t answered questions Senator asked about unlawful activities by Bureau at UC Berkeley in 1950s and 1960s,” San Francisco Chronicle, Seth Rosenfeld, November 17, 2002. Medsger, p. 209, 265, ff.

  372 “The American Connection: How Israel Got the Bomb,” John Fialka, Washington Monthly, January 1, 1979.

  373 FBI letter from SAC, Pittsburgh to Director, “Justification for Continuation of Technical or Microphone Surveillance,” Re: Dr. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro, IS – Israel, AEA, August 28, 1969, labeled CONFIDENTIAL before redaction and release.