- WASHINGTON - A rare court
appearance by Israeli whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu yesterday rekindled
the worldwide debate over Israel's secret nuclear-weapons program, at a
time of heightened tension in the Middle East.
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- Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who is serving an
18-year prison term for treason for giving a London newspaper pictures
of Israel's nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert in 1988, appeared in court
to seek permission to meet with his British lawyers and make public documents
from his trial.
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- But the seemingly benign courtroom procedure, coming
at a time of intense conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, once
again kicked off the global controversy over Israel's long-standing policy
of "nuclear ambiguity" and its continuing refusal to admit that
it is the world's sixth-biggest nuclear power.
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- The CIA and the Pentagon believe that Israel now has
between 200 and 400 enhanced radiation and hydrogen weapons.
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- "They are the only nuclear power in the Middle East
and if you are sitting in Damascus or Baghdad you know that Israel is holding
all the cards," said Tim Brown of Globalsecurity.org, a Virginia defense
think tank.
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- "The U.S. has always made it a policy of actively
looking the other way," Brown added.
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- Israel, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, refuses to formally acknowledge the existence of these weapons
because it would trigger a series of U.S. laws that would result in the
cutoff of U.S. military and economic aid to the Jewish state.
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