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Analysis: Mordechai Vanunu Released from Prison After Completing an 18-Year Sentence
Morning Edition: April 21, 2004
Former Israeli Nuclear Technician Released from Prison
BOB EDWARDS, host:
In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu made public information about Israel's alleged nuclear weapons program. The former Israeli nuclear technician was freed from prison today, completing an 18-year sentence. As he was driven away, Vanunu was cheered by anti-nuclear campaigners. He's been decried as a traitor by many Israelis who accuse him of betraying his country. His release comes with restrictions. Vanunu is forbidden from leaving Israel and is barred from contacts with foreign nationals. NPR's Julie McCarthy is outside the prison in Ashkelon, Israel.
What was the scene like at his release today?
JULIE McCARTHY reporting:
Well, Bob, it was angry and jubilant all at once. There were noisy exchanges between his detractors and his supporters with the police crawling the area outside Ashkelon Prison which is about 45 minutes south of Tel Aviv, keeping the sides apart, effectively trying to get Vanunu out without him being attacked.
Vanunu's opponents revile him as a traitor to his country who exposed Israel to unnecessary harm by disclosing sensitive information about the nuclear weapons program at the country's secret Dimona nuclear plant where he worked as a junior technician. He's held in distain across the political spectrum. His supporters, on the other hand, many of them foreign human-rights activists, peace and anti-nuclear campaigners, were here to welcome him out and watch who they regard as Israel's most famous whistle-blower to be released from jail. So angry crowds rushed the car. Police escorted him out and he fled to an apartment complex outside of Tel Aviv to meet his family.
EDWARDS: Has his case settled any questions about Israel's nuclear capability?
McCARTHY: Well, you know, analysts and authors on the subject--some analysts say that biggest issue that Vanunu's case raises is this excessive secrecy of Israel's alleged nuclear weapons program, and that has not changed. Since Vanunu's been in jail, India and Pakistan joined the nuclear club. The US went to war to destroy what it said was Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. His release comes as Libya and Iran have been put under intense scrutiny to dismantle their nuclear capabilities. It's against that backdrop that Israel continues to maintain its decades-long policy of nuclear ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying the existence of nuclear weapons. And successive US administrations haven't demanded anything more. Meanwhile, Vanunu, we're told by associates, says he's going to campaign to the extent he can against the spread of nuclear weapons.
EDWARDS: What did he say when he was released?
McCARTHY: He said an awful lot, Bob. He came out saying, `I am Mordechai Vanunu, the man behind the disclosures published in the British press in 1986 that detailed Israel's nuclear weapons capability.' He said he was proud of what he'd done, that he had succeeded in what he set out to do. He said he had no more secrets to divulge, something the government says it's worried about. And then he said he wanted to start his life over again. He called his treatment in prison `barbaric' and he denounced Israel.
That may be what we hear from him for a while because the government's placed, as you mentioned, extreme restrictions on Vanunu. Unless the court intervenes, he's barred, for example, from leaving the country for at least six months.
EDWARDS: Why so many restrictions for a guy who spent 18 years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement?
McCARTHY: Yeah, well, there's a fear that his release is going to turn the spotlight on an issue that Israel thinks does not serve its purposes to discuss internationally or even nationally. Israel prefers to keep its nuclear programs under wraps and says Vanunu still has secrets that he has yet to disclose. His lawyers, of course, insist he's already disclosed everything, and they are going to court to try to get those restrictions on his travel movements lifted.
EDWARDS: NPR's Julie McCarthy in Ashkelon, Israel.
The time is 21 minutes before the hour.
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