- Mordechai Vanunu, released last month after spending
18 years in prison for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets, says he acted
to stop a "new Holocaust".
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- In the first interview since his release, Mr Vanunu said
he did not regret his actions, even though he believed he had been made
to pay a heavy price.
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- "I felt it was not about betraying; it was about
reporting," the former nuclear technician told BBC2's This World programme,
to be broadcast tomorrow. "It was about saving Israel from a new Holocaust.
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- "What I did was to inform the world what is going
on in secret; I didn't say, we should destroy Israel, we should destroy
[the] Dimona [nuclear reactor]. I said, look what they have and make your
judgement."
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- Mr Vanunu, 50, was jailed for espionage and treason after
giving documents and photographs on the secret reactor to The Sunday Times
in 1986. In the programme - which was made by Peter Hounam, the journalist
to whom he passed the original information, and who was detained by Israeli
authorities last week - Mr Vanunu added: "I have no regrets ... I
think it was worth it. I don't think I deserved this punishment."
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- Mr Vanunu said he wanted to leave Israel, although he
is currently banned from leaving the country. He said: "I want to
start my new life in the United States, or somewhere in Europe, and to
start living as a human being."
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- Israel's Minister of Justice, Joseph Lapid, told the
BBC: "We think [Vanunu] still knows secrets and we don't want him
to sell them again."
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=526056
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