UK helped Israel get nuclear bomb

[struggle4progress]

Britain secretly sold Israel a key ingredient for its nuclear programme in 1958, according to official documents obtained by BBC News.

Papers in the British National Archives show a deal was done to export 20 tonnes of heavy water for about £1.5m.

This was vital for plutonium production at the top-secret Dimona nuclear reactor in Israel's Negev desert.

No "peaceful use only" condition was placed on its use. Officials said imposing one would be "over zealous". <snip>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4743987.stm

[tocqueville]

1. everybody helped, France included

http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/israel/nuke.html

[Jim Sagle]

2. Excellent.

[Lexingtonian]

11. payoff for doing the dirty work in the Suez Canal war

A Light Unto the Nations indeed.

[lvx35]

3. Isreal would have got it no matter what.

They are a high tech country.

[StrafingMoose]

5. Now they are, but in 1958?

[oneold1-4u]

8. 58 and before

One must understand that few jewish people wished to move to such a desolate place, until they were told that with new technology the people could look forward to better lives. One huge part of that new technology was the use of nuclear power for energy so they would not have to depend on the oil from arab countries. The very beginnings of nuclear theory began with the Jewish scientists and we were fortunate as americans to harbor one of them: Dr. Albert Einstein. They could have likely found sources of uranium on their own but the US and GB had a massive stockpiles of rich stuff and began selling it to all buyers. Now you are aware of how all these countries came into possession. These western nations still sell all they can and have closed most uranium mines several years ago!
who do you suppose is selling so much to Iran?

[lvx35]

10. Well said. I was going to mention Einstein.

There was actually a movement to appoint Einstein to be president/prime minister whatever to Israel, but Einstein declined to to his ignorance of politics.

[Gyre]

4. Call it what it was.

Payola for letting millions of Jews die excrutiating deaths before we decided to act. And that action was undertaken only because England was getting threatened with annihilation. They've worked that well-deserved guilt for all it's worth, and a hell of a lot more.

Gyre

[Taxloss]

14. We bombed Auschwitz. And we fought the Nazis with everything we had.

What more could we do?

[Greeby]

6. Who was PM then?

Harold Macmillan, Conservative, whose government was brought down in 63 over the Profumo affair.

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

[emad]

13. MacMillan was deceived by deceptions made by Anthony Eden

previous Tory PM during the Suez Crisis.

[dArKeR]

7. How Britain helped Israel get the bomb

Documents uncovered by Newsnight in the British National Archives show how, in 1958, Britain agreed to sell Israel 20 tonnes of heavy water, a vital ingredient for the production of plutonium at Israel's top secret Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert.

Robert McNamara, President John F Kennedy's defence secretary, has told Newsnight he is "astonished" at the revelation that Britain kept this secret from America.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4743493.stm

[oneold1-4u]

9. Then and now

Old BS isn't a whole lot different than fresh, so why the surprise?

[emad]

12. Robert McNamara interviewed on BBC Newnight yesterday said

JFK would have been 'gobsmacked' about this deception.

How Britain helped Israel to get the bomb

The secret history of how Britain helped Israel develop its nuclear capability. Michael Crick and his producer Meirion Jones have uncovered the story of how Britain decided to supply Israel with the heavy water it needed for its programme. Amazingly, it did so without insisting on safeguards prohibiting its use for weapons - "it would be somewhat overzealous for us to insist on safeguards," a civil servant explained.

Nor, bizarrely, did they inform America, who had already refused to supply heavy water without stringent safeguards. John F Kennedy made it one of the priorities for his defence secretary Robert McNamara to stop Israel getting the bomb. Tonight, we'll be asking Mr McNamara how surprised he is by the revelation and get his views on how we should be dealing with the nuclear proliferation problems we face today.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4743243.stm

EDIT:

U.S. President John F Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, told the BBC he was "astonished" by the cover-up.

"The fact Israel was trying to develop a nuclear bomb should not have come as any surprise. But that Britain should have supplied it with heavy water was indeed a surprise to me."


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3122458,00.html