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=> Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Speaks Out

Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Speaks Out

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Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Speaks Out Sun May 30, 8:38 PM ET Add World - AP to My Yahoo! By MICHAEL McDONOUGH, Associated Press Writer LONDON - Israel's nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 influenced his decision to tell the world about his country's secret nuclear military program. AP Photo Slideshow: Mideast Conflict "It was not a real war. It was an invasion and they give us a lot of propaganda to justify it," Vanunu told British Broadcasting Corp. TV in his first reported interview since being released from Israel's Ashkelon prison in April. "It wasn't a war, it was just an assault on the Palestinians and Lebanon, just radicalism to invade Lebanon and to fight the Palestinians," Vanunu said in accented English. "And I find myself, I am identifying, accepting the Arabs' side. Slowly, slowly I find myself in the left side." He said he was also influenced by the fear of nuclear contamination shared by many people following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and his conversion from Judaism to Christianity. "I was at the time of breaking barriers, opening a new way of my life," he said. In 1986, Vanunu gave British journalist Peter Hounam photographs of Israel's nuclear reactor that were published in The Sunday Times of London. Based on those pictures, experts said at the time that Israel had the world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. A Mossad agent lured Vanunu to Rome, where he was seized and brought to Israel. He was convicted of treason for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets and was imprisoned there for 18 years. As a condition of his release in April, Vanunu was barred from speaking to foreigners, including foreign journalists. The BBC interview was conducted by Yael Lotan, an Israeli journalist and anti-nuclear activist who said she discussed it with Hounam beforehand. In the interview, Vanunu described how he felt when an Israeli investigator showed him The Sunday Times article based on his revelations and which was published after his capture. "I was glad and very happy to see that I succeed, that The Sunday Times had at last published it, so that my mission was accomplished," he said. "On the other side I saw, now I am in their hands, they can take revenge." Vanunu said he wasn't allowed to testify during his trial for treason. "I was very disappoint and very angry that they blame me of traitor and high espionage. ... I didn't went to any enemy. ... I didn't receive orders from any spy organization, I didn't work as a spy. "So I felt that they just want to take revenge and punish me as much as they can," he said. But he added that he didn't regret his actions. "Despite that I pay heavy punishment, large price, I think it was worth it. ... I don't think I deserved that punishment." In previously released excerpts from the BBC interview, Vanunu defended his decision to reveal Israel's nuclear secrets. "It's not about betraying, it's about saving Israel from a new holocaust," he said. "What I did is to inform the world what is going in secret. "I didn't come and say we should destroy Israel, we should destroy (the) Dimona (reactor). I said look what they have and make your judgment. My view is you should not have this stuff, these nuclear weapons. "It's not about betraying, it's about reporting." --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

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