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CIA Reveals: We Said
In 1974 That Israel Had Nuclear Weapons
By Amir Oren
11/01/08 "Haaretz" -- -- The Central Intelligence Agency, backed
by bodies including the State Department's Bureau of
Intelligence and Research and the Defense Intelligence Agency,
determined in August 1974 that Israel had nuclear "weapons in
being," a "small number" of which it "produced and stockpiled."
Israel was also suspected of providing nuclear materials,
equipment or technology to Iran, South Africa and other
then-friendly countries.
This top secret document, consigned to the CIA's vaults for
almost 32 years, was suddenly released to the public this week,
during U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Israel and on
the eve of his trip to the Persian Gulf.
A small part of the document was released in early 2006 under a
Freedom of Information Request placed by scholars Avner Cohen
and William Burr, but only as an attachment to a 1975 State
Department paper ostensibly disputing the the portrayal of
Israel's nuclear weapons as a fact.
This served the Department of State's effort to avoid addressing
Israel's nuclear status in response to a query by Congressman
Alan Steelman.
The Department of State, led in this exercise by officials
Joseph Sisco, Alfred (Roy) Atherton and Harold Saunders, tried
to depict the 1974 Special National Intelligence Assesment,
"Prospects for further proliferation of nuclear weapons," as a
CIA project, while in fact it was an agency-wide effort that
included its own intelligence chief, William Hyland, as a senior
member of the board that agreed to the conclusions.
The CIA was asked yesterday via e-mail about the strange
coincidence of the document's release a mere month after the
publication of its awkwardly worded NIE on Iran's nuclear
weapons program. It did not respond by deadline.
The issue of an American double standard regarding the nuclear
activities of Israel and Iran often comes up when senior
American officials visit the Gulf, as Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates did last month.
In both the original 1974 document and the 1975 State Department
paper (in which it was retyped), the entire intelligence
community determined, "Israel already has produced nuclear
weapons." This analysis was based on "Israeli acquisition of
large quantities of uranium," in part covertly; on Israel's
ambiguous efforts to enrich uranium; and on the huge investment
in the "Jericho" surface-to-surface missile "designed to
accommodate nuclear warheads." Short of a grave threat to the
nation's existence, Israel was not expected to confirm its
suspected capability "by nuclear testing or by threats of use."
While Israel's nuclear weapons "cannot be proven beyond a shadow
of doubt," several bodies of information point strongly toward a
program stretching back over a number of years, the document
states.
The 1974 document describes the Jericho project, from its
inception in France through its migration to Israel to the
replacement of the original inertial guidance system by an
Israeli design "based on components produced in Israel under
licenses from U.S. companies."
Israel Aircraft Industries is responsible for the development of
the missile and has constructed a number of facilities for
production and testing north of Tel Aviv, near Haifa, at Ramle
and nearby it "a missile assembly and checkout plant."
On Iran, the 1974 NIE said, "there is no doubt of the Shah's
ambition to make Iran a power to reckon with. If he is alive in
the mid-80's, if Iran has a full-fledged nuclear power industry
and all the facilities necessary for nuclear weapons, and if
other countries have proceeded with weapons development, we have
no doubt that Iran will follow suit."
The Shah's ouster in 1979 (and death a year later) apparently
slowed down Iran's nuclear project.
The authors of the NIE wrote that the U.S. helped France
expedite its nuclear program, France in turn helped Israel, and
much like France and India, Israel, "while unlikely to foster
proliferation as a matter of national policy, probably will
prove susceptible to the hue of economic and political
advantages to be gained from exporting materials, technology and
equipment relevant to nuclear weapons programs."
© Copyright 2008 Haaretz. All rights reserved
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