sunday times Report confirms Israel's nuclear arsenal

Report confirms Israel's nuclear arsenal
Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:54:44 GMT
Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor
The Sunday Times has revealed that an Israeli factory beneath the Negev desert is manufacturing thermo-nuclear weapons for atomic bombs.

The secrets of the subterranean factory have been uncovered by The Sunday Times Insight team.

Hidden beneath the Negev desert, the factory has been producing atomic warheads for the past 20 years. Now it has almost certainly begun manufacturing thermo-nuclear weapons, with yields big enough to destroy entire cities, the report says.

Information about Israel's capacity to manufacture the bomb comes from the testimony of a former Dimona employee, nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu.

Vanunu's testimony and pictures, confirm that Israel has the world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, including hundreds of nuclear warheads.

Israel has possessed its secret weapons factory for more than two decades, and its nuclear facility is equipped with French plutonium extracting technology, which transformed Dimona from a research establishment to a bomb production facility.

The nuclear scientists consulted by The Sunday Times calculate that at least 100 and as many as 200 nuclear weapons of varying destructive power have been assembled - 10 times the previously estimated strength of Israel's nuclear arsenal.

The scientists include Theodore Taylor, who was taught by Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, and who went on to head the Pentagon's atomic weapons test program.

Taylor studied the photographs taken by Vanunu inside Dimona and a transcript of his evidence near Washington last week.

"There should no longer be any doubt that Israel is, and for at least a decade has been, a fully-fledged nuclear weapons state. The Israeli nuclear weapons program is considerably more advanced than indicated by any previous report or conjectures of which I am aware," Taylor said.

Taylor's assessments have been confirmed by other top nuclear scientists who were shown the pictures and evidence provided by Vanunu.

MSH/WY

Didn't we know this already? Or did people just want physical evidence?

Yea I thought we knew they had 150 of them?

The Samson Option is a term used to describe Israelâ??s alleged deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a â??last resortâ?� against nations whose military attacks threaten its existence, and possibly against other targets as well. Israel refuses to admit it has nuclear weapons or to describe how it would use them, an official policy of nuclear ambiguity, also known as "nuclear opacity." This has made it difficult for anyone outside the Israeli government to definitively describe its true nuclear policy, while still allowing Israel to influence the perceptions, strategies and actions of other governments.

As early as 1976, the CIA believed that Israel possessed 10 to 20 nuclear weapons. By 2002 it was estimated that the number had increased to between 75 and 200 nuclear weapons. Kenneth S. Brower has estimated as many as 400 nuclear weapons. These can be launched from land, sea and air. This gives Israel a second strike option even if much of the country is destroyed.
Samson Option - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Old news.

Have a good one!:jointsmile:

Well I don't blame 'em!

History has shown, time and time again - the Israelis are not a bunch of people to fuck with :thumbsup:

I think every country should be allowed to have nukes ... Iran & North Korea included. Level the playing field.