DN: how Britain Secretly Helped Israel Build Its Nuclear Arsenal

Former Labour MP Tony Benn on how Britain Secretly Helped Israel Build Its Nuclear Arsenal
Democracy Now
Friday, March 10th, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/10/1451237

BBC News revealed Thursday the British government secretly supplied Israel with hundreds of chemical shipments in the 1960’s, despite fears the chemicals could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Analysts say the shipments, which included plutonium, helped speed up Israel’s acquisition of an atomic bomb. All told, the BBC reported the British chemicals could have been used to produce bombs 20 times as powerful as those dropped on Hiroshima.

The deals were made in violation of strict government policy. According to de-classified government documents, a British government official named Michael Michaels oversaw the shipments behind the backs of his superiors. One of these superiors is our guest today. Tony Benn was Britain’s Minister of Technology at the time. That post was one of many that have come in the career of one of Britain’s most distinguished politicians.

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TONY BENN: This came out of the availability of papers that have previously been secret. I knew Michael Michaels very well. I went through my diary, which is about 17 million words long, and picked out every reference to him. And I had good grounds for not trusting him. But I had no idea of this, of course, at all. And he was doing it behind the back of ministers, and he undoubtedly did assist Israel and was intended to assist Israel, because I believe after he retired, he was given a job by the Israeli government. So there could be little doubt that that was what it was about.

<snip>

TONY BENN: Well, of course, Mordechai Vanunu, who was arrested by -- he was kidnapped in London by the Israelis -- he was telling the Sunday Times what was going on -- in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, recently released with restrictions. But he warned us about Dimona. And I did know later about Dimona, as an Israeli military establishment, but I never knew until yesterday, or until it came out a few days ago, that we had helped to assist the Israelis in building it.

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related:
Mordechai Vanunu
http://www.vanunu.freeserve.co.uk/