- How did Mordechai Vanunu become the nuclear whistleblower
jailed for 18 years for treason and espionage? In his first interview since
his release from prison, he tells Yael Lotan what made him a rebel.
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- I was born in Marrakesh on October 13, 1954. I used to
have a very strong memory of my life in Morocco; since prison my memory
is not as strong as before. My parents used to move from house to house
and street to street. My father had a store selling food, a grocery store,
and I used to go there and sit with him, see people and listen to them.
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- In June 1963 we moved to Israel. We knew nothing about
Israel. We just knew what was written in the Bible, and we expected a very
nice place with mountains and water, green and trees; (but) they sent us
to the south, Beersheba. It was a desert. It was too hot and it wasn't
what we expected. After three months we were given a much better house.
Then my father started working in a job, we started going to school, and
we started to become Israeli people.
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- I went into the army in 1971. I expected to have an interesting
job but they put me in an engineering unit. After the army I applied to
study engineering, but they only let me study physics. I tried to study
but I did not do well, and I found an advertisement in the newspaper to
work at Dimona (the secret nuclear weapons centre in the Negev desert).
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- YL: Did you know what sort of place it was?
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- We knew from the news that Dimona was involved in nuclear
secrets but no-one said about the production of nuclear weapons. I was
aware Israel must have some nuclear weapons; I believed they might have
one, two, three.
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- They appointed me to work in Machon 2 (a plutonium reprocessing
plant) at Dimona. After a year I realised it was a routine job, doing the
same thing every day. This was not a future career for me.
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- I decided that maybe I could work and study at the same
time, keep working at Dimona as a place to earn money but (also) return
to university. I chose economics, geography and philosophy. I used to work
at night, or afternoon, and come to the university every morning like every
student.
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- With the studies opening my mind, I used to think a lot
and try to decide what was my own way, not the way my parents had chosen
for me. I had to make my own decisions. That is part of the philosophy
of existentialism, that you choose your way, your target for life.
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- When the Lebanon war began in 1982, they called me to
serve (as an army reservist). I tried to avoid this but they continued
to call me until I went to Lebanon. I was only there one week and then
told the senior officer I was willing to serve as a "serviceman"
not as a fighter. I would serve in the kitchens, in garbage, anything.
So after another week he said: "We do not need you. Go home."
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- My private way started with the Lebanese war, thinking
it was not a real war, it was an invasion, and they had given us a lot
of propaganda to justify it.
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- In 1983 I took part in a student election and I became
involved in the politics of the student union at university. I found myself
identifying with the Arab side.
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- In April-May 1984, the head of security at Dimona called
me. He said: "We want you to stop this activity and be careful."
I said: "Oh, don't worry." Then next year the elections came
again and I was elected. And again he called me and said: "We are
warning you to stop."
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- He took me in his car to the Kirya (the defence ministry
compound in Tel Aviv). There they have some Shabak (Shin Beth, the internal
security service) place. In the room there were two men, one a lawyer.
They said: we are warning you not to continue these activities and we are
worried that if you continue these activities you will be breaking the
law and you can receive 15 years.
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- They gave me a paper and said: "Sign this paper
that we have warned you." I said I am not signing. I said maybe you
want to use it for dismissing me from my job. He said no, if we want to
dismiss you it is not a problem. I said I am not signing any paper, and
I left them.
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- (In 1985, Vanunu was included in a list of compulsory
redundancies at Dimona. He protested but, after the list was withdrawn,
accepted voluntary redundancy. Before leaving, he took photographs inside
the underground nuclear plant, intending to publicise its secrets.)
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- I used to come to work every day with the bag I used
to take to university. It was full of books so it wasn't such a big problem
to put the camera in there. They checked but they trusted you were a good
worker and you are trusted not to take a camera.
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- I took (photos) when I was alone. There were times when
you were alone there in the control room, when others went to take showers,
or go to eat, you could stay there for a few minutes or half an hour. That's
when I took them. At the same time I entered other places that I wasn't
allowed to enter. I didn't work there but I knew they were very important
and could prove what they were producing there. So I took photos there.
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- I also went to the roof of the building and took photos
around the building, and saw there was a tower with a guard there. I was
afraid maybe they were watching me but nobody watched me.
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- When I took the pictures I was worried someone would
see me and ask me some questions. In fact someone watched me walk in to
some of the places I should not go and I gave him some explanation.
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- YL: When you took those pictures and you took that film
home, you didn't feel you were betraying Israel?
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- I believed I was going to serve the human people, the
Israelis, and the Arabs, and the Palestinians. Because nuclear weapons
kill everyone; they do not take regard of nationality or religion or state.
Nuclear weapons destroy boundaries.
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- After leaving the job in October 1985, I was ready to
act. It was clear I could not do it in Israel. If I was to speak to anyone
about Israel's nuclear secrets, I would be arrested. So I should go abroad
and see what I could publish there. I decided to see the Far East, because
I had been to the United States and Europe; now I was interested to see
Asian people: to see their religion, their food.
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- At that time, I wasn't religious. I was out of Israeli
Judaism. I decided it was not for me any more. But I was interested to
learn more of other religions, to understand what Christianity meant, what
they are doing, what they are practising, how they are praying.
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- I was also very close to Christianity, because in the
1980s I started listening to classical music, hearing Bach and opera. I
visited many churches during my visits in Europe so I became very close
to Christianity. I also used to hear the BBC. So I was very open to the
possibility in the future that I might become a Christian.
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- I decided I was going to the United States by the Far
East for about six months. I travelled by sea from Haifa to Greece. On
the way I met a Canadian who told me he was writing a book about nuclear
weapons tests by the United States in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific
Ocean. I told him about my job. I told him I worked in the Dimona reactor
and that I was ready to talk and speak to anyone. He said that when we
got to Athens we would find Newsweek magazine or Time magazine and get
them to publish. But we could not find them.
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- He gave me the name of the Newsweek man in Bangkok. I
tried to find him but I also hesitated. I wanted to enjoy my trip, to see
the Thai people, to explore Buddhist places. Sitting in cars and buses,
I was thinking what I was going to do: what is good for me, what is good
for them? Am I serving myself by publishing this or saving the world a
lot of questions? And most important, am I ready to sacrifice my freedom,
my life? Because I knew it was going to cause me a big problem if it was
published.
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- I met some Israeli tourists in Nepal - a young couple.
We were sitting in a restaurant and I told them I was working in Dimona
and was producing plutonium. Then after Nepal we returned to Bangkok and
that week was the Chernobyl event in Europe. We met many people flying
from Europe afraid of the radioactive fallout. That made me more aware
and ready to speak about the Dimona reactor.
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- Then I decided I should go to Australia. I landed in
Sydney and enjoyed it, and I decided to stay for a few months. One reason
was to improve my English, second was to enjoy seeing Australian people.
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- After two days in Sydney - it was Friday night - I was
walking in the street and there was a church with the door open. I heard
classical music coming out. I entered and I enjoyed it. I found good people
there, like a young priest, David Smith. We sat and talked. He was studying
philosophy and interested in existentialism, Kirkegaard and Nietzsche,
who I was also interested in learning about. We became friends, and I started
coming every Sunday, and I liked it.
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- It was part of my new life to become a Christian. I was
not interested in Judaism any more. I had set myself free from the faith
of the Jewish people and my family. And I was enough of an educated man
to decide what was good for me.
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- (Vanunu met Oscar Guerrero, a Colombian, at the church.
He told him about Dimona and had his photographs processed. They approached
local journalists, including Newsweek's correspondent, but Guerrero's highly
exaggerated version of Vanunu's story was unconvincing. Guerrero took the
photos to Europe, hoping to sell them.)
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- When I developed the photos I knew the story had begun.
I thought we should (act) very quickly; otherwise it would be leaked to
Israeli spies and they would find us. So, since the photos were developed,
it was clear I should move very fast to find someone to publish it; otherwise
it could be stopped.
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- I called back the man from Newsweek and went to his home.
I showed him the photos and sat with him for an hour and gave him all the
details about the Dimona reactor. He said: I will send this information
to New York and they will give you the answer. After two weeks I asked
him what was going on and he said we cannot do anything here; when you
get to New York we will review your story.
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- Guerrero rang me from London telling me The Sunday Times
were ready to publish. After a few days he came with Peter Hounam (the
reporter). But later I realised he told them some lies. He told them I
was a very old scientist. When I introduced myself as only a technician
not a scientist, Hounam was surprised but he was glad to see I had not
cheated.
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- I gave him all the details about Dimona. I told him:
I don't need money. It was more important for me to publish the story.
The only thing I was worrying about was my photo appearing. But he said:
we must have the man behind the story, the name and the photo. I was ready
to sacrifice my privacy to help this story go out.
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- He said: we need you in London to answer questions from
nuclear scientists who understand all this.
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- (After three weeks in London he was lured to Italy and
kidnapped by Israeli agents. Vanunu told his interviewer he understood
the risk he was taking.)
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- There was nobody else who could come out of Dimona with
photos and knowledge and ready to speak.
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- I was thinking, I don't want to sacrifice my life. I
don't want to be in prison. I want to enjoy life; but, since there is nobody
in all the world or in Dimona, in Israel, who would do such an act, it
had become my responsibility, my own mission.
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- Copyright ©Mordechai Vanunu and Yael Lotan
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-
- Felice Cohen-Joppa
- Coordinator
- U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu
- POB 43384
- Tucson, AZ 85733
- Phone/Fax 520-323-8697
- freevanunu@mindspring.com
- www.nonviolence.org/vanunu
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