60 MINUTES, Mossad, AEROSMITH and Stupid is as Stupid Does

by Eileen Fleming

Last Sunday’s “60 Minutes”, featured a Lesley Stahl interview with Meir Dagan, who admitted that bombing Iran now is “the stupidest idea” he’d ever heard.

A few other ‘stupid ideas’ this little muckraker would have asked the former Mossad chief and “60 Minutes” to address follow; because ‘stupid is as stupid does’ and failures of intelligence are always rooted in failures of imagination.

At the top of that list is Israel’s failure to imagine that the vacuum left by a Media who failed to report on Israel’s WMD and Israel’s Administrative Torture and Lawless Captivity of Vanunu Mordechai could be silenced on the World Wide Web. Cases in Point are as I reported in Dubai and “Stupid Israeli Spies”  and regarding what the Whistler Blower of Israel’s WMD Program informed me of on March 26, 2006:

“Many journalists come here to the American Colony, from CNN and NY Times. They all want to cover my story, but their EDITORS say no.

“CNN wants to interview me; but they say they can’t do it because they don’t want problems with the Israeli censor. BBC is doing the same thing.

“Sixty Minutes from the United States from the beginning they wanted to do a program, but because of the censor situation they decide not to do it. Also big media from Germany, France, Italy, Japan. None of them wants problems with the Israelis.”

What followed that conversation was the taping of “30 MINUTES WITH VANUNU”

A DVD copy of that interview was mailed to “60 MINUTES” in 2006. LEARN MORE about that at The “Big Get” Don Hewitt and “60 Minutes” Didn’t Get Read more…

When I last saw Vanunu in June 2009, he told me, “The Central Commander of the General Army testified in court that it is OK if I speak in public as long as I do not talk about nuclear weapons.”

However, on July 6, 2009, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish continued to deny Vanunu the right to leave Israel, claiming his “case is still generating great interest, like any other security-related case. The media’s attention he gets is proof of that.”

IF ONLY that were true Vanunu would now be free and Insha’Allah [God willing] America would also hold Israel to the same standards it demands of Iran: open up all nuclear facilities to IAEA inspections and establish a Nuclear Free Middle East.

A Little Important History:

In 1963, Shimon Peres was Israel’s Deputy Minister of Defense when he met with President John F. Kennedy at the White House.

Kennedy told Peres, “You know that we follow very closely the discovery of any nuclear development in the region. This could create a very dangerous situation. For this reason we monitor your nuclear effort. What could you tell me about this?”

Peres replied, “I can tell you most clearly that we will not introduce nuclear weapons to the region, and certainly we will not be the first.”

By September of 1986, Peres was convulsing over Mordechai Vanunu, who had been employed as a lowly tech in Peres’ progeny; Israel’s clandestine underground nuclear weapons center in the Negev called the Dimona.

Peres ordered the Mossad, to “Bring the son of a bitch back here.”

Vanunu’s kidnapping included a clubbing, drugging and being flung upon an Israeli cargo boat and shipped back to Israel for a closed-door trial.

After 18 years in prison, nearly 8 more under 24/7 surveillance by Mossad on top of 78 days back in solitary confinement in 2010 because he spoke to foreigners [who happened to be media] in 2004; I ask, how stupid can stupid be to continue to deny Vanunu the right to fade into the world instead of continuing to make headlines in light of what Vanunu wrote in 2009:

“THE ISRAEL STUPID SPIES WILL NOT GET ANY THING FROM HERE.”

And so, I wonder how stupid can stupid be in light of what Israeli media also reported in 2004:

“This is the secret that hasn’t yet been told in the affair: the story of the security fiasco that made it possible for Vanunu to do what he did, and the story of the subsequent attempts at cover-up, whitewashing and protection of senior figures in the defense establishment, who were bent on divesting themselves of responsibility for the failure. The 18-year prison term to which Vanunu was sentenced is almost exactly the same period as that in which Yehiel Horev has served as chief of internal security in the defense establishment [who has been] involved in the affair as deputy chief of security at the Defense Ministry, and also after Vanunu’s abduction and arrest, as a member of an investigative commission.

“Shortly after taking office as chief of security at the Defense Ministry, Horev began to take punitive measures to hobble Vanunu. He is responsible for the harsh conditions in which Vanunu was held, which included years in solitary confinement, and the sharp limitations on the number of visitors he could have…[and has fought] a rearguard battle to prevent Vanunu from leaving Israel and to place him under supervision and restrictions that will be tantamount to house arrest.

“Horev has always been considered the strictest of all the security chiefs in Israel, especially in regard to the protection of institutions such as the Dimona facility and the Biological Institute. He is apprehensive that if Vanunu goes abroad, he will continue to be a nuisance by stimulating the public debate over Israel’s nuclear policy and the nuclear weapons he says Israel possesses…all the hyperactivity being displayed by Horev and those who support his approach is intended only to divert attention from what has not yet been revealed: the security blunders and their cover-ups.”-Yossi Melman, for Haaretz.

“Everybody understands that Vanunu has no more secrets. What can a technician know after 18 years in jail, during which technology has advanced with giant steps?

“But gradually it becomes clear what the security establishment is really afraid of. Vanunu is in a position to expose the close partnership with the United States in the development of Israel’s nuclear armaments.

“This worries Washington so much, that the man responsible in the State Department for ‘arms control’, Under-Secretary John Bolton, has come to Israel in person for the occasion. Vanunu, it appears, can cause severe damage to the mighty super-power.

“The Americans, it seems, are very worried. The Israeli security services have to dance to their tune. The world must be prevented by all available means from hearing, from the lips of a credible witness, that the Americans are full partners in Israel’s nuclear arms program, while pretending to be the world’s sheriff for the prevention of nuclear proliferation.”– Uri Avnery, April 24, 2004.

And how stupid can stupid be, not to imagine a little one such as me- who happened to be writing my first historical novel in 2005 and researching in Israel Palestine- when I met Vanunu for the first time, would as a matter of CONSCIENCE become a reporter because Vanunu told me:

“President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons. Kennedy insisted on an open internal inspection.

“When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to ’69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them.

“Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year.” [1]

And I wonder how stupid can a Government, SECURITY Establishment and a Supreme Court be in light of what Vanunu wrote on November 24, 2006:

“My lawyer succeeded to reveal a few very important facts: This General of the Army was not allowed to see all the secrets that he is required to protect by these restrictions that they claim I know them. So, he gave orders of restrictions without knowing what he is protecting or that he is also following orders blindly, and Mossad Sheen Bet using its authority for just punishing me.

“He testified that it is not a crime for me to talk with foreigners in general anywhere. He testified that I can speak freely to any Israeli citizens about anything; it is not his concern what I am saying to them. These Israelis can give this information to any foreigners. It was difficult for the Judge to understand why this dichotomy exits between foreigners and Israelis. It means that it is not about secrecy but about something else.” [IBID]
That something else is of utmost import for all who believe freedom of conscience and speech is a right that no government or any corporate interest has any ‘right’ to impinge upon and was revealed on February 22, 2006, during Vanunu’s court appearance as he wrote:

“Microsoft obeyed the orders and gave them all the details…three months before I was arrested and my computers were confiscated. It is strange to ask Microsoft to give this information before obtaining the court order to listen to my private conversations. It means they wanted to go through my emails in secret, or maybe, with the help of the secret services, the Shaback, Mossad.

“The State came to the court with two special secret Government orders; Hisaion [documents or information that are deemed confidential by the government and kept from the court, the defendant, and lawyers.] This allows the prosecution to keep documents related to my court hearing secret. One was from the Minister for Interior Security and one from the Minister of Defense.

“The policeman did not have any answers and said that he brought all the evidence to the court. When Sfard asked him again about any material related to the espionage [charge] Peterburg had no answers.

“Sfard proved that the police had misled the judges who gave the orders to arrest me: to search my room, to go through my email, to confiscate my computers and [that they] misled Microsoft to believe they are helping in a case of espionage.”

And how stupid can stupid be in light of what Vanunu wrote on May 5, 2011 to:

MK Mr. Eli Yishai

Minister of Interior

The State of Israel

Re: Revoking my Israeli Citizenship

I am Mordechai Vanunu that was kidnapped from Rome on September 30, 1986 by The Israeli Secret Services.

I was tried by The Jerusalem District Court and convicted of Aggravated Espionage, High Treason and Assisting the Enemy and I was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. This followed an interview I gave to The London Sunday Times regarding the secret production of nuclear weapons materials in Israel.

I fulfilled the democratic principal of the right of the public to know.

I have served 18 years in Ashkelon Prison, mostly in solitary confinement.

I was released on 21 April 2004 with severe restrictions imposed by the Israeli Government.

Seven years past and the restrictions had been renewed again and again relying on The Emergency Laws from 1945.

Since my release I have lived 6 years in East Jerusalem and since September 2010 I live in Tel Aviv.

On June 1986 I was baptized to the Anglican Church.

Recently, (28.3.2011), the Knesset passed a new law that revokes the citizenship of anyone who was convicted of espionage or treason.

25 years I am demanding and waiting to have my full freedom restored.

This law should be applied to my case and I am willing for my citizenship to be revoked and canceled.

I am writing to you today asking the state of Israel to cancel my citizenship.

This desire is not new and is not recent, but now it is supported by the new law to revoke citizenship .

I am asking and expecting the enforcement of this law to its letter and revoke my Israeli citizenship.

This law applies to me and I am ready for my citizenship to be canceled.

I don’t have another citizenship but I would be able to get one easily during my forced stay here and for sure at the moment that I am allowed to leave.

In any case I here declare that my wish was and still is to cancel/revoke, in fact, my Israeli citizenship.

After all the ‘treatment’ that I have received from the State of Israel and its citizens, I do not feel, here, as a citizen or how a citizen should feel, I feel as an unwellcome citizen and treated as such by the state of Israel and its citizens.

I am called and shouted at as a spy, ‘The Atom Spy’, and a traitor by the Israeli media and in the streets of Israel.

I am harassed and persecuted as the enemy of the state for 25 years.

I feel I am still imprisoned, still held as a hostage, by the state and its government.

After 25 years of ongoing, many and very hard punishments by the State of Israel, I wish the end to all punishments and my suffering, and wish the realization of the basic human right of freedom.

I would like to exercise my right to freedom of conscience, my right to choose not to be a citizen of Israel.

I have no interest in Israeli citizenship; I do not want to live here. I ask you to cancel/revoke my citizenship here and now. I ask you to let me be free from Israel as our dislike is mutual.

I HAVE NO SECRETS!

EVERYTHING I KNEW THAN, I HAVE PASSED ON TO THE ENGLISH PAPER IN 1986!!

IT IS TIME TO ALLOW ME TO LEAVE ISRAEL AFTER A QUARTER CENTURY OF IMPRISONMENT!

Mordechai Vanunu.

May 5th 2011

Tel-Aviv

Copies to Prime M, Netanyho, Foreign M, Liberman, Defence M Barak, Justice M, Neaman, President Peres.

And how stupid stupid can be when on November 29, 2011, Vanunu also wrote:

“Now the judge decided they will hear the case when? The clerics will tell as very soon. I saw what they wrote, they wrote very short, repeating again and again that this law is new and my case is 20 years ago, so it can not be use for my case.

“I spoke with Feldman my lawyer, I told him it does not matter this Law, I am asking them to revoke my citizenship, with this law or without this Law, as I asked them in 1998.

“At that time they answer I need to have other different citizenship. But with this new law they can take any citizen his citizenship even if he don’t have other citizenship. So it will take more months until the court will decide.”

Vanunu’s next historic trial is scheduled for July 2012, but how stupid can stupid be to not allow Vanunu the right to fade away into the world, instead of continuing to make history?

But because if I can’t laugh and “if I can’t dance it’s not my revolution” [Emma Goldman] I am most grateful to “60 MINUTES” for ending their show with Dagan with an interview with AEROSMITH, because I last danced along with those bad boys from Boston while in Alabama in July 2009, and wrote:

To all the Sharp Dressed Soldiers Shipping Out Read more…

I am Eileen Fleming of US HOUSE of Representatives and I approve of all of my messages; and as I was born and bred in New York City and I am NOT getting off the Nuclear Train until the time’s  a’change and bring in a FREE VANUNU and establish a NUCLEAR FREE MIDDLE EAST; here’s hoping “60 MINUTES” will want to learn more about that at the Facebook Call for Public Action for Vanunu’s FREEDOM 21 April 2012

Call for Public Action for Vanunu’s FREEDOM 21 April 2012

[1] “BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu’s FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker”

Eileen Fleming

Eileen Fleming founded WeAreWideAwake.org. She produced videos “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”.  She has authored many books including; A USS Liberty Remembrance of 50 years USA Government Cover-Up of Israel’s 8 June 1967 Attack on USA Spy-Ship, Wabi Sabi Body ETERNAL SPIRIT, and Heroes, Muses and the Saga of Mordechai Vanunu. Click here to see her latest books. Visit Eileen’s YouTube Channel