- Two years ago, the United States Senate passed a bill
to grant, in exchange for information about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction,
safe haven for up to five-hundred of Saddam Hussein's weapons scientists
and their families. The bill, introduced in January as the Iraqi Scientists
Immigration Act of 2003, was passed by the Senate two months later, the
day after Iraq was invaded. Understandably, this legislation was never
acted upon by the House.
-
- That effort should not be confused with the smoke-and-mirrors
act of the previous year, The Iraqi Scientists Immigration Act of 2002.
This earlier legislation, having been sent over from the Senate with equally
poor timing (within days of the kickoff of the holiday shopping season)
was also, understandably, never acted upon by the House.
-
- Aside from its commitment to political theater, in feigning
support for the spirit of this legislation the Senate also acknowledged
its awareness of the near universal respect and gratitude the peace-loving
world holds for weapons scientists working outside the law who, when given
an opportunity, put conscience before country. That is not to suggest that
the Senators themselves value such traits, but instead to affirm that,
as politicians, they understand the popularity of such concepts amongst
people who really do have moral values.
-
- How fitting that the Senate, in its quest to secure world
peace, set its sights on the Iraqi scientists, men who-to the surprise
of no one with any credibility-had no weapons information to offer. That's
why the poor timing of these efforts was a critical element in the strategy
behind them. Face it, it would have been a disaster for America's warmongers
had Iraq's best and brightest actually had a chance to accept a genuine
offer, only to arrive in America and share the truth that our government
already knew: that no weapons existed.
-
- Is there another country besides America where politicians
are so insulated from accountability that they brazenly go through the
motions of doing something extraordinary without even bothering to target
the right nation? Perhaps next year Congress will extend an invitation
to the much-oppressed rocket scientists of Zimbabwe, and then congratulate
themselves for taking a bold step at a cost of not even a single airplane
ticket.
-
- One whistle-blowing scientist that you can bet Congress
won't extend an invitation to is Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear lab
technician who bravely revealed to the world the existence of his oft-warring
nation's ultra-secret Weapons of Mass Destruction facility. But Congress
has no interest at all in this man of conscience nor in the secret facilities
he uncovered, despite the fact that the lab exists in one of the few countries
which, like Cuba, has refused to sign on to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty. However, unlike lowly Cuba, Vanunu's country has a powerful and
generous lobbying presence in Washington, D.C., one that has no tolerance
for criticism; one that has demonstrated the ability to make or break a
political career.
-
- Vanunu's country is, of course, Israel. It could be no
other.
-
- In 1976, Israeli army veteran Mordechai Vanunu went to
work at Negev, a nuclear reactor center just southeast of the city of Dimona.
During the course of his nine-year employment there Vanunu learned the
secret that would haunt his conscience and, ultimately, his life. For it
was there that Vanunu discovered that his country was covertly building
and stockpiling the nuclear weapons it would forever deny it had; nuclear
weapons that could only be interpreted as offensive; weapons that would
put the entire region into the WMD business.
-
- Mordechai Vanunu had a story to tell, a story he took
to the London Times, an exclusive that was described by its then-editor
as "the most important scoop" of his tenure. It was a headline
that was reprinted throughout the world, even in Israel, despite that governments
threats against the editors. It was a story that Vanunu thought would propel
the international community into action; the first step in getting those
nukes out of that already volatile, hate-filled region.
-
- Mordechai Vanunu overestimated the courage of the international
community. . .
-
- and underestimated the chutzpah of the Israeli government.
-
- Consistent with its disregard for the sovereignty of
other states, Israel sent its Mossad into Italy where, utilizing agent
Cheryl Ben-Tov and a kosher Mickey Finn, Vanunu was swooned, kidnapped,
and smuggled across sovereign borders and back to Israel-where he would
tell no more stories.
-
- For the high crime of exposing Israel's nuclear secret
to his fellow countrymen and the world, Vanunu was sentenced to eighteen
years in prison. He was destined to serve his full sentence, the majority
spent in solitary confinement.
-
- In locking-up the truth-teller, Israel deluded itself
into thinking it had also imprisoned the truth. Instead, it magnified it.
Mordechai Vanunu became a living, breathing, suffering symbol of Israel's
duplicity and, subsequently, another example of the international community's
serial impotence when dealing with Israel. And though its cash cow in Washington,
D.C. agreed not to notice its dangerous deception, Israel discovered its
Arab neighbors would not be so obliging. Once its nuclear genie was out
of the bottle, Israel was to learn, there would be no right to return.
-
- As Vanunu suffered alone in his cell, Israel was faced
with a choice: disarm and recommit to a conventional defense or continue
to deny the truth and risk raising the terror bar in the region. Israel
chose wrong and almost overnight the race for Weapons of Mass Destruction
in the Middle East was on.
-
- American soldiers are now dying for it.
-
- As his sentence neared its end, the stoic Vanunu was
no doubt aware that history had proved him correct: his country's Islamic
neighbors, desperate to deter the nuclear threat, had all gotten into the
WMD business, as least to a degree sufficient to give pause to any Israeli
thoughts of aggression. The entire region had become substantially more
dangerous, and nightmarish terrorism-a regional staple since Israel's own
beginnings-now included visions of mushroom clouds.
-
- Upon his release from prison, Vanunu found that in every
direction and at every turn there were those familiar cell walls. The steel
and concrete of Ashkelon Prison was gone, replaced by Draconian restrictions,
but the effect was the same. His movements were so severely limited and
his personal contacts so absurdly controlled that he was allowed to speak
with others only if he knew things about them that he simply could not
know. Israel's treatment of him, denying him even the right to leave the
country, is reminiscent of totalitarianism at its worst, and violates the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, an agreement signed
and ratified by the Israeli state.
-
- Vanunu was set-up to fail at this Orwellian brand of
freedom, and fail he did. He is currently facing three years back in prison,
all so the Israeli government can rest easy knowing that Vanunu's outdated,
eighteen-year old knowledge will not-once again-seep out of the darkness
and remind the world what it is really up against with this most duplicitous
state.
-
- Mordechai Vanunu, a man of peace who remains ensnared
in a predator's web, has been the recipient of many awards and honors,
and twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
-
- And it is the Peace Prize he deserves.
-
- In his Last Will and Testament, Alfred Nobel directed
that the Peace Prize be awarded to those who had done the most or the best
work for fraternity between peoples, the abolition or reduction of standing
armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.
-
- In light of these qualifications, examine the saga of
Mordechai Vanunu:
-
- A proud Israeli Army veteran goes to work at a power
plant and discovers its secret purpose. He recognizes the danger in his
misguided government's unlawful pursuit of nuclear weapons and knows he
must take a stand. He alerts the Israeli public and the world to this new
danger, this escalation of weaponry, hoping that his efforts will prevent
the spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the region and lead to Israel's
nuclear disarmament. And in doing what he did, and paying so dear a price
for his courage, Mordechai Vanunu demonstrated to every Arab, Christian,
and Jew in the Middle East that it is the people themselves who must lead
their stubborn, myopic governments to the peace table. Mordechai Vanunu
is not merely a martyr for peace in the Middle East, he is its beacon.
-
- Should it award Vanunu the Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee
would not only honor and inform the world of the efforts of this brave,
incredible man, but it would send a message to every potential whistleblower
that no government-no matter its authority, military might, or influence-can
silence the truth of the courageous.
-
- And oh, how loud would be the silence in the halls of
government in Israel, should its leaders find themselves burdened with
so great an honor going to one they so despise; an Israeli patriot not
even free enough to travel to Stockholm to accept the award. It would be
a silence so loud that the whole world would hear it, and learn from it.
A silence loud enough to penetrate the walls of the Congress of the United
States and expose the disgrace that belongs to those who have power to
make peace, but simply lack the courage or the will to do it.
-
- It would be a truly Nobel outcome.
-
- http://www.collateralduty.com/
|
