West Coast Connection Forum
Lifestyle => Train of Thought => Topic started by: Don Rizzle on April 21, 2004, 04:54:10 AM
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'Proud' Vanunu vows to fight on
Mordechai Vanunu has been freed after an 18-year jail sentence for leaking Israel's atomic weapons secrets.
To jeers and cheers from a crowd at the southern Israeli prison, he said he was proud of his actions but had suffered "very cruel and barbaric treatment".
He said: "Israel doesn't need nuclear arms. My message today to the world is: Open Dimona reactor for inspections."
A Christian convert, Mr Vanunu's first stop was St George's Anglican cathedral in Jerusalem where he went to pray.
Mr Vanunu had emerged from Shikma prison in Askhelon shortly after 1200 (0900GMT) looking happy and waving to hundreds of Israeli and foreign supporters gathered outside the gates.
To those who are calling me a traitor, I say I am proud and happy to do what I did
Mordechai Vanunu
A smaller counter-demonstration by Israelis shouted abuse as he made Victory-V signs with both hands.
Answering questions in English from reporters, Mr Vanunu said he was "not totally free" because of the restrictions Israel had placed on him, including a ban on travel outside the country.
But he said he wanted to go to the United States, get married and start a family.
He said he had been treated harshly because of his conversion to Christianity and he no longer had any secrets to publish.
HAVE YOUR SAY
It's a citizen's duty to reveal the wrong doings of his country
Marc, Quebec, Canada
Restrictions
Despite his protestations, the authorities say Mr Vanunu still possesses information that could jeopardise Israel's security.
"He is a man sentenced to prison for treason and he has repeatedly said he will go back to his old behaviour... [Israel] has to take precautions to prevent that from happening," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled.
Mr Vanunu is not allowed to have a passport, is forbidden to approach ports and airports, and has been told not to talk to foreigners without permission.
Mr Peled told the BBC that he was allowed to talk to the international media, as long as he did not talk about his work at the Dimona plant.
"We have to strike the correct balance between safeguarding his personal liberty and looking after Israel's national security interests," Mr Peled said.
On the basis of the information he gave to the UK's Sunday Times newspaper in 1986, analysts concluded Israel had scores of nuclear warheads.
Israel maintains a policy of "strategic ambiguity" about its supposed nuclear arsenal and it has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which would open Dimona up to international al scrutiny.
Supporters had gathered outside the jail, waving banners and calling Vanunu a "hero of peace". But many in Israel see him as a traitor who has endangered the country.
Israel said it could have placed much tougher post-release restrictions on Mr Vanunu - and the length of time the current regime will remain in force depends on his behaviour.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/3645225.stm
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this fuckin trader should've rot in jail for the rest of his life...
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oh so ur in favour of israels illegal nuclear weapons program then?
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lol...man , Israel's nuclear program is not less legal than USA's nuclear program...or any other country's nuclear program, just imagine USA having a traitor of this calliber, man Bush would've fuckin hung him ....Here in Israel this guy is considered a traitor, and I bet in any other country an analogical situation would cause the same public reaction....there is a thin line between a left wing idealogy and revealing secrets of national security...
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I hope he gets killed by a Palestinian.
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Man, I got a lot of respect for dude. He didnt reveal his secrets to another country, he did it to the press because personal convictions couldnt stand Israel's bullshit. There are no need for those weapons, and the fact that the most common known fact in the world is not spoken on at least once by the US shows how fuckin corrupt the whole system is. Have Iraq destroy 150 scud missles, but let Israel sit on 200 nuclear warheads.
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it's a question of hostillity....how many nuclear war heads the united states sit on?...what about russia...shit I ain't even talking bout the rest of the countries, revealing secrets of national security to anyone is a crime...as I said if something like this was to happen in the USA Bush would fuckin execute the the traitor.
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i am against all nuclear weapons programmes whatever country they are in, and this man should be jailed for speaking out against it? israel does not need nuclear weapons to protect its self.
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this man should be in jail for revealing metters of national security, he is an Israeli citizent and there are laws here that imply to cases like these.
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rite ok sure ur obviously only interested in the law and have no sense of ethics or morals, the reason they put him in jail is to silence him about the shady stuff israel does but i guess as your main concern is israel's security rather the insecurity israel wants to inflict on the middle east or anywhere else. your not even israeli why are you so in favour of them covering up their secrets, america has their back anyway.
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rite ok sure ur obviously only interested in the law and have no sense of ethics or morals, the reason they put him in jail is to silence him about the shady stuff israel does but i guess as your main concern is israel's security rather the insecurity israel wants to inflict on the middle east or anywhere else. your not even israeli why are you so in favour of them covering up their secrets, america has their back anyway.
he IS israeli
anyway.. i think is a good thing the sectret got revealed
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rite ok sure ur obviously only interested in the law and have no sense of ethics or morals, the reason they put him in jail is to silence him about the shady stuff israel does but i guess as your main concern is israel's security rather the insecurity israel wants to inflict on the middle east or anywhere else. your not even israeli why are you so in favour of them covering up their secrets, america has their back anyway.
ethics?....which ethics are u talking about, the double standart inflicted on Israel with almost everything?...this guy sold the information to the foreign press....I wonder what would U say if a citizent of your country was to reveal metters of national security(in the USA even a try to reveal metters of national security is punished with death panalty), we haven't reached world peace yet, there is no reason to reveal secrets that do not concern the rest of the world, Israel is surounded with states that don't recognize it's existance, with constant threats of unconventional atacks, just like the rest of the countries that have nuclear weaponry we need it first and for all for intimidation.
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ok i didn't know your Israeli so i can understand ur point of view however i disagree with how Israel runs its affairs anyway, and in the country i live in (England) we don't have capitol punishment. yes we have secracy laws but we've also had our fair share of whistle blowers and usually its usually when someone is so disgusted they feel the public have a right to know something, thus they to breach the law.
Israel should not seek to intimedate other countries but to work out peaceful solutions with them, but as america vetos any resolutions condemming israel and shows huge amounts of support, Israel thinks its free to do whateva it likes. its funny how america is so anxious to get nuclear inspectors into places like Iran and North Korea but has no interest in inspecting Israels nuclear facilities.
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ok i didn't know your Israeli so i can understand ur point of view however i disagree with how Israel runs its affairs anyway, and in the country i live in (England) we don't have capitol punishment. yes we have secracy laws but we've also had our fair share of whistle blowers and usually its usually when someone is so disgusted they feel the public have a right to know something, thus they to breach the law.
Israel should not seek to intimedate other countries but to work out peaceful solutions with them, but as america vetos any resolutions condemming israel and shows huge amounts of support, Israel thinks its free to do whateva it likes. its funny how america is so anxious to get nuclear inspectors into places like Iran and North Korea but has no interest in inspecting Israels nuclear facilities.
we don't have capitol punishment either, that's why I brought this example, to underline how they would act in a diffrend country in a situation like this....you're saying Israel shouldn't intimedate other countries- and in a happy world it would be true and would aply to every country. Problem is that Israel is surounded with countries that denie it's existance, and want to destroy it, no metter how peacefull Israel is in it's intentions, the reason why the United States are anxious to inspect Iran and North Corea is because they are threatened by them in certain ways, Israel does not threaten the USA or any European country.
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ok i didn't know your Israeli so i can understand ur point of view however i disagree with how Israel runs its affairs anyway, and in the country i live in (England) we don't have capitol punishment. yes we have secracy laws but we've also had our fair share of whistle blowers and usually its usually when someone is so disgusted they feel the public have a right to know something, thus they to breach the law.
Israel should not seek to intimedate other countries but to work out peaceful solutions with them, but as america vetos any resolutions condemming israel and shows huge amounts of support, Israel thinks its free to do whateva it likes. its funny how america is so anxious to get nuclear inspectors into places like Iran and North Korea but has no interest in inspecting Israels nuclear facilities.
we don't have capitol punishment either, that's why I brought this example, to underline how they would act in a diffrend country in a situation like this....you're saying Israel shouldn't intimedate other countries- and in a happy world it would be true and would aply to every country. Problem is that Israel is surounded with countries that denie it's existance, and want to destroy it, no metter how peacefull Israel is in it's intentions, the reason why the United States are anxious to inspect Iran and North Corea is because they are threatened by them in certain ways, Israel does not threaten the USA or any European country.
How people don't get this, I'll never understand.
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but u can't just make up rules just for the countries u don't like and not apply them to everyone else.
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than why the hell it aplies on Israel and does not aply to many european countries or the usa?
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i agree but the cold war played a major part in this
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so u're saying the cold war can be used as a justification for having nuclear weapons but a physical day to day war here in Israel with constant intimidation and a history of wars with many mid eastern countries can't be?
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well they didn't need it until israel got it first.
israel now arrested one of our journalists over this shit, there must be lots more shady shit they are trying to cover up.
UK journalist arrested in Israel
Israeli police have arrested a British journalist who interviewed Mordechai Vanunu - the man jailed for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets - in 1986.
The arrest of Peter Hounam, 60, has been confirmed by the Israeli prime minister's office.
Mr Hounam was making a documentary for the BBC, which said it was aware he had been arrested and was "very concerned".
Mr Vanunu, 50, was released from an Israeli prison in April after serving an 18-year jail sentence for spying.
Gagging order
Under the terms of his release, Mr Vanunu was forbidden from giving interviews, meeting foreigners and discussing his work as a technician at Israel's nuclear reactor in Dimona.
We are trying to establish exactly what the situation is, where he is now and why he has been detained
Sean Ryan, The Sunday Times
The BBC has not released any information on the documentary Mr Hounam was making and no details of his arrest have been released because of an Israeli government gagging order.
A UK Foreign Office spokesman said: "We have been informed that a journalist may have been arrested and our consular staff are looking into it."
Mr Hounam exposed Israel's atomic secrets in a Sunday Times article in 1986 which followed his interview with Mr Vanunu.
The nuclear technician was subsequently arrested by Israeli security services in a sting operation.
Currently, he cannot leave Israel as the authorities say he still possesses state secrets but the 50-year-old says he has nothing to reveal.
Sunday Times foreign editor Sean Ryan said Mr Hounam, who lives in Perthshire, Scotland, had been in Israel to cover Mr Vanunu's release for the newspaper.
"I understand he has been arrested and he has been taken away from his hotel.
"We are trying to establish exactly what the situation is, where he is now and why he has been detained," Mr Ryan added.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/3752043.stm
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SHADY?....the guy has no respect for his parole terms, and if that journalist's documentarry was in contrediction with Vanunu's parole terms they both should be arrested.
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its his parole terms not the journalist's, Vanunu maybe subject to ur secrets act but our journalists do not subscribe to that, and yes its obviously shady if u arrested our journalist israel obviously believe he knows something they want to hide from the world like they did all those years ago which was undoubtably shady!
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its his parole terms not the journalist's, Vanunu maybe subject to ur secrets act but our journalists do not subscribe to that, and yes its obviously shady if u arrested our journalist israel obviously believe he knows something they want to hide from the world like they did all those years ago which was undoubtably shady!
SO basiclly what u're saying is this- a criminal that done his time and was released with certain Parole terms can go with some of his buddies to Rob a store get cought and be put back in jail, while the buddies he came along with, will be released since they did not recieve these parole terms, a crime is a crime, if u help out a criminal or co-operate with him on a crime- it is still a crime.....what's your point. Those are still metters of national security and high confedentiallity, why should it be put in some documentry.
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israel does not have the power to censor british media, the parole conditions are for released prisoners. you may want to look up what journalists do you maybe suprised its in there job description to do research, to travel to different places, talk to different ppl and then present their finding thru their medium of communication. they can talk to who they want its up to the other person to stay quiet if they have a gagging order not the journalist. your example was total bullshit too journalists arn't criminals the real criminals are the israel government!
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oh really?....They have it in their Job descibtion,u shittin me, I had no idea that's what journalists do,they go to places they talk to people, no way....lollol..do u think that if a jounalist was to reveal your national securrity metters to the whole world by interveiwing a convicted traitor he would get out clean from the whole situation, it's not bout censouring, there are things that can't be revealed to wide audiances, and people are bound by law to keep them in secracy, if a foreign Journalist has no respect for that, it's his problem, u're saying he's not the one who's responsable?....of course he is, this action has 2 steps, first Vanunu tells him all the details- which is forbidden, and than he is publishing it to the whole world in some documentry- which is also forbidden....simple.
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if israel don't want him to find that stuff its there responsibility to keep Vanunu away from journalists, and yes our media are not afraid of writing stories damaging to the government or yours. dr david kelly spoke to the bbc and revealed he thaught the evidence for going to war with iraq had been 'sexed up', our news papers printed pictures of soldier abusing iraqi's wwhich then turned out to be fake but the story had some truth to it, i could go on. we have the one of the toughest media in the world its like america where they are afraid of critising their government.
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quote from Vanunu himself
"I felt it was not about betraying; it was about reporting. It was about saving Israel from a new holocaust."
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if israel don't want him to find that stuff its there responsibility to keep Vanunu away from journalists,
And his Parole terms are not a good enough way to do that?....the fuckin law is not enough to do that?....man that's bullshit. If your press has a sence for revealing Illegal actions let it fuck with your national security, let's see how shit ends up.... ;D