Iran: Who is the real threat?

Get informed, get involved, and take action

Upcoming Events

More events

Having trouble reading details?
Click here for enlarged calendar.

Cheers!

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2011, the United States delegation obstructed any meaningful negotiations over the growing climate change crisis, not only refusing to act but preventing other countries from taking steps to save the planet.

As Todd Stern, the top US negotiator, began to speak at the U.N. summit for first time, Middlebury College student Abigail Borah interrupted the proceedings, saying, "The US government does not speak on my behalf."

Read the transcript:

WikiLeaks

Discover the truth

of the unjust, illegitimate war in Iraq and Afghanistan: WikiLeaks releases hundreds of thousands of military records revealing thousands of civilian deaths, execution squads,
other war crimes.

The Guantánamo Files

documenting torture, abuse, and years of unjust imprisonment.

Watch "Collateral Murder"

The military's own video documenting the killing of 12 Iraqis from a helicopter circling above

Help Stop these Crimes: Collateral Murder Video Showings and more...

Support Bradley Manning

The young soldier accused of releasing the US military records.
Find out more.

NATO Summit Protests

Chicago Spring:
Protest the War Criminal (NATO) Summit!

The "North Atlantic Treaty Organization" (NATO) promotes its mission as “security, cooperation among nations, and peace keeping.”
In fact,it is an organization led and dominated by the world's best-armed war criminals, led by the United States.
Join us in protesting NATO
in Chicago May 20/21!

Stop the Drones

Drone Wars

The use of Predator drones (unmanned flying vehicles
that are often armed with video-guided missiles) by the
US military and CIA is a largely untold story of the "Global
War on Terror / Global Contingency Operation" - yet has caused thousands of deaths in Pakistan and Afghanistan, many of whom are women and children.
Find out more and take action to stop the drones.

Israeli Negotiations to Supply Nukes to Apartheid South Africa Revealed

Tuesday, 25 May 2010 20:41

By Kenneth J. Theisen

The British newspaper, The Guardian, ran a story on Monday, May 24^th that reveals that in 1975 Israel offered to sell nukes to the apartheid South African regime. The article also provided copies of documents displaying the evidence that Israel possessed nuclear weapons.

In 1975, the apartheid regime’s Defense Minister, P.W. Botha requested Israel to supply South Africa with nuclear warheads.

Current Israeli president Shimon Peres, who was then Israel’s Defense Minister, offered warheads “in three sizes.” The two nations also agreed to broaden military ties between the two apartheid regimes and inserted a clause in the agreement which declared “It is hereby expressly agreed that the very existence of this agreement... shall be secret and shall not be disclosed by either party”.

Israel obviously wanted to keep this secret from the world, since at the time it not only denied that it possessed nukes, but it also did not wish to become closely associated in the minds of the world’s people with the despised racist South African government. Such an association would also have reminded people of the similarities between the two apartheid regimes. To this day, Israel still maintains the fiction that it does not possess nuclear weapons.

The Guardian story reveals that the documents were “uncovered by an American academic, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in research for a book on the close relationship between the two countries…” It was also revealed that Israel attempted to persuade the present South African government not to release the declassified documents, as Polakow-Suransky's requested. The persuasion obviously failed and is now proving to be a huge embarrassment to Israel.

Through a spokesperson Peres claimed there were "never any negotiations" between the two nations. Israel released a written statement that claims, “There exists no basis in reality for the claims published this morning by The Guardian that in 1975 Israel negotiated with South Africa the exchange of nuclear weapons.”

But according to the documents cited by the Guardian, representatives of the two regimes met on March 31, 1975. In “The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Alliance with Apartheid South Africa,” Polakow-Suransky writes that in the negotiations, Israel "formally offered to sell South Africa some of the nuclear-capable Jericho missiles in its arsenal".

South African military Chief of Staff Lieutenant General RF Armstrong was one of the men present at the meeting and he wrote a “top secret” memo, dated the same day as the meeting, describing the benefits of getting the Jericho missiles. In the memo Armstrong wrote, “In considering the merits of a weapon system such as the one being offered, certain assumptions have been made: a) That the missiles will be armed with nuclear warheads manufactured in RSA (Republic of South Africa) or acquired elsewhere.”

On June 4, 1975 Botha and Peres met. The Jericho project was code named Chalet. The minutes of that meeting state, “Minister Botha expressed interest in a limited number of units of Chalet subject to the correct payload being available." The minutes go on to state “Minister Peres said the correct payload was available in three sizes. Minister Botha expressed his appreciation and said that he would ask for advice." According to the Guardian piece, the "three sizes" refer to conventional, chemical and nuclear weapons. The South African government was already capable of producing conventional and chemical warheads. The only items they needed from Israel were nuclear warheads.

According to the Guardian, the proposed deal did not proceed due to the cost and also because it was not clear that Israel’s Prime Minister Rabin would have given final approval. But South Africa and Israel did continue their collaboration on military technology. South Africa gave yellowcake uranium to Israel for use in its nuclear weapons program. South Africa also developed its own nukes with what many believe to be Israeli assistance. Israel reportedly provided South Africa with 30 grams of tritium which provides thermonuclear weapons with a boost to their explosive power. The Guardian reports that this tritium was enough to build several atomic bombs.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Israel also supplied South Africa with conventional weapons and other goods. Israel also helped the apartheid regime survive international sanctions and kept the regime in power longer than otherwise possible.

While the Guardian story reveals new details, the essence of the story was previously known, but there had previously been no documentary evidence. The Guardian piece states that “The documents confirm accounts by a former South African naval commander, Dieter Gerhardt – jailed in 1983 for spying for the Soviet Union. After his release with the collapse of apartheid, Gerhardt said there was an agreement between Israel and South Africa called Chalet which involved an offer by the Jewish state to arm eight Jericho missiles with ‘special warheads’. Gerhardt said these were atomic bombs.”

The publication of the Guardian piece at this time is not only embarrassing to Israel, but also to the U.S. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference is currently underway in New York. The U.S. has been using this forum and others to attack Iran. The U.S. contends that Iran is using its civilian nuclear enrichment program to hide a clandestine nuclear weapons program. It accuses Iran of possibly unleashing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. In order to deter Iran from enriching uranium, the U.S. has used the U.N. to impose sanctions against Iran and is currently trying to get the U.N. to strengthen these sanctions.

For years, the U.S. has ignored the elephant in the room by officially pretending that Israel does not have nuclear weapons. It accuses Iran of trying to develop nukes while ignoring the vast Israeli arsenal of such weapons.

The latest revelation raises this double standard being applied by the U.S. Underlying this policy is the lie that Israel is a responsible nuclear power. But now there is documentary evidence that Israel was trying to sell nukes to one of the most reactionary regimes of its time. And the current president of Israel was one of the negotiators. How responsible is Israel?

Unlike Iran, Israel has refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran has allowed international inspectors to inspect many of its nuclear facilities. But Israel refuses to allow international surveillance of Dimona, its primary nuclear facility in the southern Negev desert. But despite this, U.S. leaders have not criticized Israel for its nuclear weapons program. No U.S. imperialist leader has ever even mentioned the possibility of international sanctions against Israel for its possession of nukes. No U.S. government has stated that all options, including military options, are on the table regarding Israeli nukes.

Instead the U.S. supplies Israel with $3 billion in weapons each year and also gives it additional billions in economic aid. The U.S. uses its veto power repeatedly to defend Israel at the U.N. U.S. leaders spout political propaganda to defend Israeli military attacks against Lebanon and Gaza, and the Israeli repression of the Palestinian population.

Why the double standard and such hypocrisy if the U.S. is afraid of a Middle Eastern country possessing nukes? I am sure it has nothing to do with Israel being a loyal ally and an outpost of U.S. imperialism in the region. Or does it?