- Israeli authorities want Mordechai Vanunu back in jail
again for talking openly to the foreign press after the nuclear whistle
blower already spent 18 years behind bars 11 in solitary confinement
for trumped-up crimes he says he never committed.
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- Vanunu, 51, was hauled before an Israeli court last week
on charges he violated his release agreement, including violations of speaking
to the press and leaving occupied Israel.
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- The state last Wednesday began introducing evidence of
video recordings, printed articles and radio audio recordings where Vanunu
granted interviews to the foreign press in what prosecutors are alleging
is in a blatant violation of his release terms.
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- If found guilty, Vanunu could be sentenced to six months
in jail and/or fined. The trial was continued until Feb. 9.
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- "I have done nothing wrong and I will not let the
Israeli government take away my God-given freedom of speech rights,"
said Vanunu last Friday on Greg Szymanski's Radio show, The Investigative
Journal, making his comments from Israel where he stays in a Christian
halfway house.
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- Vanunu added that Israel's nuclear stockpile has at least
doubled in size from 200 nuclear war heads in 1986 to more than 400.
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- "All I ever wanted to do was stop nuclear proliferation
for the betterment of mankind. Now they are trying to unjustly punish me
again for things said more than 20 years ago and are on the public record,"
he said.
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- For talking openly since his release, Israel wants to
again punish Vanunu for what authorities claim is another violation of
divulging national security secrets regarding Israel's nuclear weapons
program.
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- However, Vanunu and other observers in Israel, including
former President Jimmy Carter, who met him in an impromptu meeting in Jerusalem
last week, hope the former whistle blower beats the charges and can leave
Israel once and for all.
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- For rest of story go to www.arcticbeacon.com
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