It's Official: The Pentagon Finally Admitted That Israel Has Nuclear Weapons, Too

[KamaAina]

http://m.thenation.com/blog/202129-its-official-pentagon-finally-admitted-israel-has-nuclear-weapons-too

While the Washington press corps obsessed over Hillary Clinton's e-mails at the State Department, reporters were missing a far more important story about government secrets. After five decades of pretending otherwise, the Pentagon has reluctantly confirmed that Israel does indeed possess nuclear bombs, as well as awesome weapons technology similar to America's.

Early last month the Department of Defense released a secret report done in 1987 by the Pentagon-funded Institute for Defense Analysis that essentially confirms the existence of Israel's nukes. DOD was responding to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by Grant Smith, an investigative reporter and author who heads the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy. Smith said he thinks this is the first time the US government has ever provided official recognition of the long-standing reality.

It's not exactly news. Policy elites and every president from LBJ to Obama have known that Israel has the bomb. But American authorities have cooperated in the secrecy and prohibited federal employees from sharing the truth with the people. When the White House reporter Helen Thomas asked the question of Barack Obama back in 2009, the president ducked. "With respect to nuclear weapons, you know, I don't want to speculate," Obama said. That was an awkward fib. Obama certainly knows better, and so do nearly two-thirds of the American people, according to opinion polls....

Yet the confirmation of this poorly kept secret opens a troublesome can of worms for both the US government and our closest ally in the Middle East. Official acknowledgement poses questions and contradictions that cry out for closer inspection. For many years, the United States collaborated with Israel's development of critical technology needed for advanced armaments. Yet Washington pushed other nations to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires international inspections to discourage the spread of nuclear arms. Israel has never signed the NPT and therefore does not have to submit to inspections.

Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag.

[MADem]

1. That cat is more like a tired old lion!

Everyone's known this, I don't know what took them so long!

Hell, we've known this since students were protesting apartheid in South Africa...!

And speaking of South Africa, they used to have nuclear weapons, too! They thought it best, in the grand scheme, though, to give 'em up....

http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/south-africa/nuclear/

South Africa is the only country to have built nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantled them. In the 1980s, South Africa constructed six gun-type nuclear weapons and had started building a seventh. Less than a decade after assembling its first nuclear weapon, South Africa abandoned its nuclear weapons program, joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapon state, and allowed international inspections of its former nuclear weapons program. In 1993, South African President F. W. de Klerk announced publicly that South African had pursued a nuclear weapons program from 1974 through 1990 as a deterrent to counter a perceived Soviet threat in the region. Since abandoning its nuclear weapons program, South Africa has emerged as a champion of both global nuclear nonproliferation and equal access to peaceful nuclear energy. However, South Africa's remaining dual-use nuclear capabilities have made it both a possible exporter of nuclear technology and know-how, and a target for state and non-state actors seeking nuclear materials.

[hunter]

8. White South Africa was terrified of Soviet supported black communist opposition...

...but they were even more terrified of a democratically elected majority black government having nukes.

U.S. government was equally terrified, for exactly the same reasons, which is why they looked the other way while the apartheid whites were in control and building bombs, and were supportive when South Africa dismantled their bombs.

Many anti-Soviet interests, national and private, including white apartheid South Africa, contributed to Israel's nuclear weapons program, and helped keep it secret too, not from the Soviet Union and it's on-again-off-again Middle Eastern partners, but from the public at large, especially the growing Israeli, Western European, and U.S. antinuclear movements.

[MADem]

12. I seem to recall that Israel and SA were working together on the whole nuke thing for a bit...

Maybe I'm disremembering, but I thought there was a nexus there...!

Those Krugerrands spoke loudly back in the day.

[hunter]

14. There's lot's of speculation they collaborated on testing...

... including the infamous 1979 "Vela Incident" which may have been an actual weapons test in the Indian Ocean between South Africa and Antarctica.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_Incident

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Safrica/Vela.html

[MADem]

15. Ah yes...but wait...there's more!

The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret....The existence of Israel's nuclear weapons programme was revealed by Mordechai Vanunu to the Sunday Times in 1986. He provided photographs taken inside the Dimona nuclear site and gave detailed descriptions of the processes involved in producing part of the nuclear material but provided no written documentation.

Documents seized by Iranian students from the US embassy in Tehran after the 1979 revolution revealed the Shah expressed an interest to Israel in developing nuclear arms. But the South African documents offer confirmation Israel was in a position to arm Jericho missiles with nuclear warheads.

Israel pressured the present South African government not to declassify documents obtained by Polakow-Suransky. "The Israeli defence ministry tried to block my access to the Secment agreement on the grounds it was sensitive material, especially the signature and the date," he said. "The South Africans didn't seem to care; they blacked out a few lines and handed it over to me. The ANC government is not so worried about protecting the dirty laundry of the apartheid regime's old allies."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons

[freshwest]

18. Everyone knew and acted accordingly, like Pakistan as unofficial members of the nuke club

Last edited Wed Mar 25, 2015, 01:09 AM - Edit history (1)

But Pakistan's government has doesn't seem to want to bring Kingdom Come. The Iranian Ayatollahs, like ISIS appear to want it, along with Christian Dominionists. Everyone is walking a tightrope around all of these guys.

Only Putin brags about his manly nuke bits.

Obama is letting the truth out for world peace, which will not be necessarily be pretty to some. Bringing the Kingdom of Heaven by force has been a big no-no for most people:

It's Armageddon's Wet Dream!

By Pablo - March 6, 2012

Unleash Hell?

“This is not a game,” Mr. Obama said during a news conference at the White House timed to coincide with Super Tuesday voting in the Republican primaries in a number of crucial states.

Mr. Obama gave a staunch defense of his administration's actions to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions and said tough sanctions put in place by the United States and Europe were starting to work and were part of the reason Iran had returned to the negotiation table.

“The one thing we have not done is we have not launched a war,” Mr. Obama said. “If some of these folks think we should launch a war, let them say so, and explain to the American people.”

http://pavlovianobeisance.com/

The cat is out of the bag:



They heard it from the dog:

[MADem]

25. Ain't that the truth...!

Those pics are hilarious, btw!

[freshwest]

35. Decided to combine laughing and going crazy. *maniacal laughter*

[joeybee12]

2. Wordt kept secret in the world...

What a cute kitteh!

[peacebird]

3. Interesting timing....

I like it.

[libodem]

4. Well, duh

It makes all the warmongering look even more absurd. And how scared they they claim they are. It's all political theater. Tiresome.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. I'm sure we'll demand inspections and slap sanctions on Israel if it refuses.

[malaise]

13. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Not holding my breath

[treestar]

6. Then what are they worried about

Even if Iran had them, it would be deterrence and mutually assured destruction.

[seveneyes]

9. MAD only works when all parties are not suicidal

THE main factor in the equation of MADness.

[hunter]

16. Iran is not suicidal.

Israel and the U.S.A., I sometimes worry about...

[MADem]

26. Oh, they're nationalistic in Iran, make no mistake--as are many nations.

Over a million died on both sides in the Iran-Iraq War--the graveyards are packed with young men and teen-agers. There is a whole subculture of fatherless adults with widowed moms that form a substantial segment of the population. There are also a load of grievously wounded individuals who survived and many rely on their families for care day-to-day.

Many mothers of the Ayatollah's cannon fodder have to keep telling themselves that there was a point to it, but they'd be hard pressed to come up with one if challenged.

[hunter]

29. On a much smaller scale, the Protestants and Catholics had the same sort of conflict in N. Ireland

Nevertheless, that's not what I'm talking about.

Iran has a strong national identity. Iran is not going to nuke Tel Aviv for crazy suicidal religious reasons knowing full well they'd get ten-fold back and cease to exist as a nation, or even as a habitable landscape.

That's what I meant by suicidal. There are many nations willing to send their children into battle for even the flimsiest ideological or religious reasons, and the U.S.A. is one of those nations.

But the most powerful people of these nations are insulated from their crimes, and thus far tend to back away and reach some sort of agreement when there's a realistic danger of nuclear fire raining down on their own personal heads and properties.

If the U.S.A. is in any danger from nuclear weapons, the greatest threat is probably one of our home grown religious crazies. The breakdown of Air Force nuclear weapons security and the infiltration of right wing Christians into that branch of the military is scary, so much so that I think the U.S. Air Force should be shut down and it's "assets" redistributed among the Army and the Navy.

[MADem]

31. If either Iran or Iraq had possessed a suitcase nuke during the I/I War, I've no doubt

that they would have used it. That war ground on forEVER, because neither side wanted to give in.

So yeah, they were suicidal, both sides. If you remember, Saddam Hussein used gas in the Kurdish regions which led to an accusation that he "gassed his own people." Well, he was a Tikriti, not a Kurd (they have a separate nationalistic identity themselves), and he was aiming (badly, not taking into account the wind) at the IRANIANS who occupied the area in and around Halabja, where those thousands of poor people died. His goal was to kill Persians, not Kurds.

Iran for their part threw young boys at the front lines with nothing but a prayer and a "So long, farewell." Poorly trained, poorly equipped cannon fodder. Khomeini did this even after the geographical borders were "back to normal" and Saddam petitioned for a truce. He just wouldn't stop, wouldn't back down--he wanted to unseat Saddam and as a consequence, he threw thirty thousand or more kids at the front lines to try and realize this ambition. He failed. But he sure as hell did try.

The current leadership of Iran, particularly since Ahmadinejad has shuffled offstage, is certainly slightly less insane than the era of the Ayatollah Khomeini, but really, when you look at the Supreme Leader and the Guardian Council, only just. The right circumstances could raise their ire once again and I wouldn't be comfortable at all saying "Oh, they'd NEVER..." when they just might, if adequately provoked.

[freshwest]

17. True. But TEOTWAWKI isn't TEOTW. People forget the caveat there.

[treestar]

22. I know that's the Israeli argument

but is it really true? Al Qaeda may be suicidal. But a nation with the history and size of Iran - that's probably not really logical. They want to stay on and reveal like the US and USSR did.

[seveneyes]

24. I really don't know for sure

The biggest concern is how big is their desire to see Israel wiped out...based on past official statements.

It's possible Iran may have matured somewhat and no longer lets the nutjob whackomanias speak for it.

[freshwest]

19. Just a few million dead bodies and a radioactive landscape, I suppose. Just sayin'

It's time to put all the cards on table and see who is going to fold. Hopefully they'll come to their senses and walk away from MAD.

[treestar]

20. The whole thing is pointless

We all get to live because the other guy can kill us all including themselves.

Cats understand this and humans don't.

[freshwest]

23. Still gonna be a lot of caterwauling over the fence, though. Let's just keep it there. n/t

[jberryhill]

28. MAD assumes rational actors

I'm not making an assertion applied to the circumstances here. Just stating that it is an assumption.

[sabrina 1]

30. No nation can be trusted with Nukes. Not a single one. Sooner or later someone who has them will

use them.

Which is why the only thing that will ever make any sense is for the world to agree as a whole, that all Nukes need to go no matter who has them.

[hifiguy]

7. Israel's nukes were about as secret

as the mayor parading down Main Street with 10,000 Irishmen and a pipe band last Tuesday.

[hunter]

10. The "Western Bloc" trade in nuclear weapons technology...

...was becoming fairly clear by the time of the Rainbow Warrior's sinking in 1985.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior

I remember people talking about Israel's nuclear weapons program then.

[Fred Sanders]

11. Veils and Pretend Positions are dropping all over..be careful what you wish for.

[Baitball Blogger]

21. Israel's new status:

Official Frenemy of the United States.

[leveymg]

27. OMG! Convene Congress for another AUMF! Scamble the bombers! Bibi has 24 hours to get outa town!

[MADem]

32. No pic....hotlinking notice...

Is this what you were going for...?

[leveymg]

34. Yes. Atomic War for Dummies, 1955 style.

You can sorta tell from the fonts.

[Maeve]

33. Time to bring out the Tom Lehrer records--1964/5

First we got the bomb, and that was good,
'Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that's okay,
'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way.
Who's next?

France got the bomb, but don't you grieve,
'Cause they're on our side (I believe).
China got the bomb, but have no fears,
They can't wipe us out for at least five years.
Who's next?

Then Indonesia claimed that they
Were gonna get one any day.
South Africa wants two, that's right:
One for the black and one for the white.
Who's next?

Egypt's gonna get one too,
Just to use on you know who.
So Israel's getting tense.
Wants one in self defense.
"The Lord's our shepherd," says the psalm,
But just in case, we better get a bomb.
Who's next?

Luxembourg is next to go,
And (who knows?) maybe Monaco.
We'll try to stay serene and calm
When Alabama gets the bomb.
Who's next?