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"I want to leave this country," nuclear whistleblower says. Mordechai Vanunu, the man who spent 18 years in jail after being convicted of treason and espionage was released from Ayalon Prison in Ramle Sunday after serving a further three months. Upon his release, Vanunu stated that he held no nuclear secrets and maintained that the Israeli government should leave him alone. "I am not a scientist...my knowledge is not of nuclear weapons," said Vanunu. "I want to be free and leave this country," he added. Vanunu was returned to jail in May after being found guilty of violating restrictions imposed...

<p>OSLO, Norway (AP) — The Nobel Peace Prize Committee has received 150 nominations for the 2003 award, with a majority of nominations coming from North America, committee secretary Geir Lundestad said Tuesday.</p> <p>Nominations, which had to be postmarked by Feb. 1, are made by past laureates, committee members, university professors and select organizations. They're kept secret for 50 years, although those making them often announce their choice.</p>

Dear Sir, I would like to protest against your use of the pronoun "we" in reference to the coalition forces fighting to liberate Iraq.... Zionists are not part of the "we" of the freedom-loving English-speaking world. They are a curse on it, who bribe and morally blackmail our politicians and media. The vicarious glee at the defeat of the Arabs in The Jerusalem Post reads like medieval bigotry. Please move into the twenty-first century, and start advocating democracy and self determination for all. It behooves Israel, from its position of strength, to magnanimously offer a generous peace, as the Americans...

Reported on Swedish Radio News 5.45 PM (GMT+1): After a two day search among the countless graves outside the Abu Greb prison 75 km west of Baghdad the headless body of the former Iraqi airforce general Ali Hussein Habib was found in a shallow grave. The body was identified by Habib's widow and brother in-law, Abu Haldoun. Habib was a retired air-force general who had been one of the persons in charge of the Iraqi chemical weapons program. General Habib was one of the few Iraqis who eventually agreed to be interviewed by UN weapons inspectors without any Iraqi government...

OSLO, Norway -- The Nobel Peace Prize awards committee reported a record 173 nominations for 2004, with known candidates including President Bush, jailed Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu and the pope. Committee secretary Geir Lundestad said the preliminary list includes 129 individuals and 44 organizations, and is likely to be expanded when awards committee members forward their own nominations at their first meeting of the year on March 2. Last year, there were 165 nominations, and the award went to lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win. The committee accepts...

Bush, Pope Among Nobel Peace Nominees By DOUG MELLGREN OSLO, Norway (AP) - The Nobel Peace Prize awards committee reported a record 173 nominations for 2004, with known candidates including President Bush, jailed Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu and the pope. Committee secretary Geir Lundestad said the preliminary list includes 129 individuals and 44 organizations, and is likely to be expanded when awards committee members forward their own nominations at their first meeting of the year on March 2. Last year, there were 165 nominations, and the award went to lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian...

President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Pope John Paul II are among the 144 individuals and 50 organizations nominated for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Today was the deadline for nominations. The winner of the $1.3 million award will be announced in mid-October. The prize has lost some of its luster since disastrous ex-president Jimmy Carter was handed it, and some of this year's nominees have a Carteresque flair: French President Jacques Chirac, the European Union and, reportedly, International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian activist group. Others include: Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, former chief...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA has created a paramilitary unit to deal specifically with terrorists overseas, U.S. officials said Monday. The unit ``is taking the fight to terrorists in sanctuaries such as Afghanistan,'' one official said, declining to identify what other countries it is operating in. The official said the unit is drawing personnel from the CIA's existing paramilitary force, which is a part of the agency's Special Activities Division, which conducts covert operations. Johnny ``Mike'' Spann, the CIA officer killed in November in Afghanistan, was a member of that force. The size of the new unit is classified. The...

Deal reached to end Bethlehem siege Israel and the Palestinians have reached an agreement to end the standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Details have not yet been published, but it is understood that some of the Palestinians whose arrest Israel has been demanding will go to Gaza and others will be exiled, perhaps to Italy. The deal comes as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon heads for the United States where he is scheduled to meet President George W Bush on Tuesday. More than 200 Palestinians, including about 30 gunmen, fled into the church 2 April. Israeli...

I once enjoyed an hour-long debate with Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz – with whom I often disagree. But I thoroughly agree with his April 22 statement that killing terrorists is legal. He writes: I challenge Jack Straw to distinguish Israel's killing of Rantisi from the targeting of Al-Sadr, Saddam's sons, or Osama bin Laden. The United States Army was recently given a highly specific military order. According to the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the mission is to kill radical Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. This order to target al-Sadr for extrajudicial killing is perfectly...

Saddam Hussein almost certainly has a nuclear weapons capability, in addition to extensive chemical and biological arsenals, say former intelligence experts familiar with Iraqi weapons programs. The question, they say, is whether that capability is limited to small ``dirty bombs,'' in which conventional explosives are packed into something compact like a suitcase and detonated to spread toxic radioactive debris over a relatively small area, or whether Iraq has a full-fledged atomic bomb. The experts were interviewed by The Tampa Tribune as U.N. weapons inspectors returned to Iraq in a new effort to root out weapons of mass destruction. Among them...

OSLO, Norway – Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who emptied the state's death row because he found the imposition of capital punishment unfair, is among those nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. The nominating deadline – entries had to be postmarked Friday – brought a flood of last-minute names to the committee charged with selecting the winner of the prestigious award. It is presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Swedish creator Alfred Nobel's death in 1896. The winner, announced in mid-October, takes home approximately $1 million. "There is a lot of mail and many new proposals, but beyond...

Israel's ambassador in London Zvi Stauber boasted this week that his embassy has been "maintaining close relations with the BBC." What is the value of such "close relations" if the result is that this great radio and TV network displays unceasing hostility toward Israel and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon? Ambassador Stauber's strange claim - directed to the Foreign Ministry - was intended to protest Jerusalem's justified official censure of the BBC, which came after a repeat broadcast on the British World Service of a program about the danger Israel ostensibly poses because of nuclear weapons supposedly produced in the Dimona...

The US media still largley ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.” Most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East. There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. I began these daily threads June 10th 2003. On that date Iranians once again began taking to the streets to express their...

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movment in Iran from being reported. From jamming satellite broadcasts, to prohibiting news reporters from covering any demonstrations to shutting down all cell phones and even hiring foreign security to control the population, the regime is doing everything in its power to keep the popular movement from expressing its demand for an end of the regime. These efforts by the regime, while successful in the short term, do not resolve the fundamental reasons why this regime is crumbling from within. Iran is a country ready for a regime...

NICOSIA: Iraq is said to have reinforced its troops in the north and west of the country in preperation for a US-led attack on the regime of President Saddam Hussein. Opposition sources said Saddam ordered fresh troops to reinforce positions near the Kurdish autonomous zone in the north. The sources also said that the military has also brought artillery, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers into the areas of Mosul and Kirkuk in a redeployment that appeared to have been launched last month. Iraq has also shut down oil operations in the area of northern Iraq to prepare for...

JAFFA , 14 July — In 1923, a Russian poet, Carney Chukovsky wrote a delightful short tale for children, Tarakan the Giant Beetle, an all-time favorite nursery rhyme for Russian kids. It is a story of the animal kingdom intimidated by Tarakan. The Beetle threatened to devour the disobedient animals, and the awed lions and tigers have holed up in their lairs. True, a beetle has no fangs or horns, but the menacing Tarakan would brandish his great long mustachio, and no beast would dare to challenge the little monster, until a small sparrow flew in and ate up the...

<p>March 3, 2004 -- An infamous Israeli traitor has told for the first time how a beautiful female agent lured him into a Mossad "honey trap," and he is vowing not to be silenced. Mordechai Vanunu will leave an Israeli prison next month after serving 18 years in the slammer for treason and espionage for leaking secrets about Israel's nuclear arsenal to a British newspaper.</p>

Israel said yesterday that it would not abandon its "no show, no tell" nuclear policy, because the long-standing strategy of deliberate ambiguity had paid off. As Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Israel, officials from the Israeli prime minister down said there was no need for a change which could only set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Ariel Sharon told army radio: "I don't know what he is coming to see. Israel has to keep in its hand all the components of power necessary to protect itself." The prime minister...

GEORGE Galloway has enjoyed considerable success in the courts during his political career, winning an estimated total of £250,000 in libel damages. In some cases, the disputes have been settled before they reach the courts, but the Labour MP has proved time and again he will call on expensive lawyers when crossed. Mr Galloway’s biggest libel win was against the Daily Mirror and its sister paper in Scotland, the Daily Record, in December 1992. It followed the so-called "Mirrorgate" affair in which a US journalist claimed the Daily Mirror’s then foreign editor, Nick Davies, had been involved in arms dealing...

Israel should get rid of its Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs - its alleged nuclear arsenal - Arab leaders say. Yet as we speak, Iran is working to develop the bomb. Syria has ample supplies of chemical weapons (CW) and missiles to attack with. So does Egypt. In fact, Egypt, like its Arab brother Iraq, has used its chemical weapons in the past. Egypt used CWs in the 1960's in Yemen; Iraq in the 1980's against the Kurds, Iraqi Shiites, and Iranians. India and Pakistan have the bomb, as does North Korea. I won't mention the five permanent members...

May 7, 2003 MAD DOGS OF WARNeocon pit-bulls snarl at Syria: 'You're next!' The mad dogs of war, unleashed by George W. Bush, are baying and barking up a storm. The War Party isn't resting on its laurels. The conquest of Iraq had hardly been celebrated by our President, as he landed on an aircraft carrier in a fighter jet and bounded out to meet his cheering Praetorians, when the cry for an encore was heard: "President Bush is committed, pretty far down the road. The logic of events says you can't go halfway. You can't liberate Iraq, then...

In the ongoing national debate over the appropriate balance between preserving civil liberties and protecting national security, it is generally taken for granted that the government´s invocation of "national security" is made in good faith. Indeed, in the context of combating international terrorism, the need for enhanced protection of national security is without dispute. Yet there have been instances in which United States government officials have invoked "national security" inappropriately, as an excuse for curtailing an individual´s rights even where national security was not at risk. A troubling example of disingenuous government invocation of "national security" occurred recently in the...

New Aussie nuke claim AUSTRALIAN scientists are researching cheaper ways of enriching uranium - possibly a significant step on the road to making nuclear weapons. The revelation comes as the Federal Government considers tough new "Vanunu-style" laws to gag nuclear whistleblowers. Israel jailed former nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu for 18 years in 1988 after he revealed details of Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. Scientists working for Silex Systems Ltd, which leases space at the Commonwealth Government's Lucas Heights reactor near Sydney, are developing techniques to enrich uranium with lasers. The company was funded by the United States Enrichment Corporation -...

Norway is the next coalition country to leave Iraq before June 30. According to Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen, his country sees as priority the peacekeeping mission of its troops in Afghanistan. Since Spain announced that it would pull out its 1,400 troops, Honduras, with 368, and the Dominican Republic, with 302, have also decided to withdraw their soldiers. Meanwhile, Thailand's prime minister said his country would withdraw its non-combat troops from Iraq if they were attacked. US Secretary of State Colin Powell has made phone calls this week to try to hold the rest of the 20-some coalition intact.

When Mordechai Vanunu ends his 18 years of mostly solitary confinement Wednesday morning, he will likely be greeted with complete silence from all four of his parents. Mr. Vanunu, 50, became an international cause célèbre in 1986, when he was kidnapped by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and imprisoned for treason after telling the world about Israel's secret nuclear-weapons program. Israeli officials believe Mr. Vanunu is one of the most dangerous men in the country, and have ordered him not to leave his town in Israel, to speak to foreigners, to use a cellphone or the Internet, or to come within...

Pope mooted for Nobel Peace Prize October 9, 2003 - 12:05PM Speculation is growing in Italy that this year's Nobel Peace Prize will go to Pope John Paul II in recognition of his steadfast opposition to the US-led war on Iraq. The committee has rarely awarded the prize to a religious figure although Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 1979, Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1984 and the 1989 winner, the Dalai Lama, are notable exceptions in the 102-year history of the award. Italy's premier daily Corriere della Sera devoted half a page to an article outlining several reasons why the ailing...

A starving baby in North Korea, victim of a policy of Pyongyang's selective genocide by starvation policy. In Sudan, genocide is taking place. In North Korea people are being murdered at a camp for medical experiments. At the Kissufim roadblock, on the edge of the Gaza Strip, a pregnant woman and her children are slaughtered. Why do the Vanunu supporters not demonstrate on their behalf? In recent days I find myself fantasizing about the British actress Susanna York. Dear friends: My fantasy is in the public, international domain only! I recall Ms. York, who darted into our lives from her...

Remembering Pollard The Committee to Bring Jonathan Home has announced another Torah lecture - the 5th in a series - in honor of Jonathan Pollard. The class will be delivered by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh on May 15 at 8:15 PM at the Yeshurun Synagogue in central Jerusalem. Jonathan Pollard is now in his 17th year of a prison sentence in the U.S. for spying for Israel - a crime that carries an average punishment of 2-4 years. Yehoshua Steinberg of the Committee to Bring Jonathan Home recently explained, "It may seem strange to continue with the struggle for a...

1.1 Terminology A variety of names are used for weapons that release energy through nuclear reactions - atomic bombs (A-bombs), hydrogen bombs (H-bombs), nuclear weapons, fission bombs, fusion bombs, thermonuclear weapons (not to mention &quot;physics package&quot; and &quot;device&quot;). A few comments about terminology is probably in order. The earliest name for such a weapon appears to be &quot;atomic bomb&quot;. This has been criticized as a misnomer since all chemical explosives generate energy from reactions between atoms - that is, between intact atoms consisting of both the atomic nucleus and electron shells. Further the fission weapon to which &quot;atomic bomb&quot; ...

Ariel Sharon has barred the BBC from his meeting with the British press during a visit to London next week amid accusations that the corporation made false allegations against Israel in a report on weapons of mass destruction. The bar follows a decision made by Mr Sharon's office a fortnight ago to "withdraw cooperation" from the BBC in protest at a documentary that looked at the lack of international scrutiny of Israel's nuclear and biological weapons programmes and the double standard compared with Iraq. Although the programme, Israel's Secret Weapon, was broadcast in Britain in March, it was a trailer...

Ariel Sharon has barred the BBC from his meeting with the British press during a visit to London next week amid accusations that the corporation made false allegations against Israel in a report on weapons of mass destruction. The bar follows a decision made by Mr Sharon's office a fortnight ago to "withdraw cooperation" from the BBC in protest at a documentary that looked at the lack of international scrutiny of Israel's nuclear and biological weapons programmes and the double standard compared with Iraq. Although the programme, Israel's Secret Weapon, was broadcast in Britain in March, it was a trailer...

Shirin Ebadi wins Nobel Peace Prize Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi has won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2003. Ebadi is Iran's first female judge and a leading figure in the struggle for women's and children's rights in Iran. She is known for representing the interests of persecuted individuals and has braved reprisals for her beliefs. The Norwegian Nobel Committee was founded in compliance with Alfred Nobel's will, made public in January 1897, a month after his death. The Committee is composed of five members appointed by Norway's parliament, the Storting. The current committee is led by...

GREETINGS, FOLLOWING is a note re todays Alaskan quake. First a comment about this thread. SOME FREEPERS are fascinated with fringe areas of reality. Some of us even think the fringe areas of knowledge, research, anecdotal stories and the like will have very impactful effects on the WAR ON TERROR, WWIII, Biblical end time events etc. WE ALSO FIND FREEPERS FULL OF GREAT CREATIVITY OF THOUGHT, INSIGHT, WORK RELATED EXPERIENCES AND SKILLS ETC. useful in collecting diverse puzzle pieces and in analyzing them. This diversity is priceless and virtually unavailable on any other site. While we are seriously interested in...

<p>September 3, 2003 -- JONATHAN Pollard, convicted spy, would like to be set free. His advocates in the United States also want Pollard to go free. And his one-time paymasters in Israel badly want him to go free. Pollard was in court yesterday asking for a reduction in his sentence. But he should have been executed for his crimes. His life sentence was a mercy he didn't deserve. Releasing him from prison while he's still breathing would be terrible for America - and even worse for Israel.</p>

The treatment of a Jew Jonathan Pollard about 18 years ago held a sensitive position in the United States intelligence community which gave him access to some classified information. Being a Jew, besides being a United States citizen, gave him an extra awareness about the dangers his Jewish people in Israel were facing, Israel being at the time classified as a United States friendly nation - certainly not an enemy state. Besides, there was a commitment during those days by the United States that they would pass on the intelligence information that would be vital for Israel's security to know....

<p>JERUSALEM — The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency says he believes Israel has nuclear weapons and suggests Israel rid itself of any stockpile to promote Mideast peace.</p> <p>In the same interview, Mohamed ElBaradei also revealed that he has toured some of Israel's nuclear plants, although not the reactor in the southern town of Dimona, where it is believed Israel produces arms.</p>

U.N. Nuke Watchdog Chief Visits Israel 31 minutes ago By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel is extremely concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said Wednesday, an indication that the issue is preventing any change in Israel's nuclear policy. AP Photo "They're expressing concern about Iran," Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said after talks with senior officials at Israel's secretive nuclear energy agency. ElBaradei arrived in Israel on Tuesday to pitch for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons. Israel refuses to discuss its...

Thu 22 Apr 2004 Vanunu 'proud' of revealing Israel's nuclear programme BEN LYNFIELD IN ASHKELON EIGHTEEN years after revealing Israel’s nuclear secrets, Mordechai Vanunu walked out of prison yesterday, and said he was proud of his actions. Waving to supporters and flashing a victory sign, Mr Vanunu was greeted by cheers from wellwishers and chants of "traitor" from his detractors. "To all those who are calling me a traitor, I am saying I am proud and happy I did what I did," said the grey-haired former nuclear technician, flanked by two of his brothers in the courtyard of Shikma prison...

The man who told the world Israel had developed a nuclear bomb said yesterday that Israel had no right to exist and called for the destruction of its secret atomic arsenal. Mordechai Vanunu, who will leave Shekmer prison tomorrow after an 18-year sentence for treason and espionage, also described Judaism as a "backward religion" in his first comments to be heard by Israelis since he was jailed. He also said: "I was neither a spy nor a traitor." Mr Vanunu, 49, spoke to agents from Israel's internal security service. The meeting was recorded and then broadcast on prime-time television last...

The wife of a British reporter held in Israel has accused Israeli authorities of a cover-up over his detention. Hilary Hounam told BBC Radio Scotland she had been "fobbed off" when she enquired about her husband Peter, 60. She believes his arrest is linked to his 1986 interview with Israeli scientist Mordechai Vanunu, who was jailed for exposing Israeli secrets. "The government does not want any publicity for Vanunu - they hope that everything is kept quiet," she said. 'No sympathy' Mr Vanunu, a 50-year-old former nuclear technician, served 18 years in prison after revealing Israel's atomic secrets in an...

(IsraelNN.com) Security forces today lifted a press ban, permitting the publication of a report stating that during the past three months, thirty-three planned terror attacks were averted. Ten attacks were averted in September, fifteen in October and the remainder in November. Among the terrorists in custody are two PA policemen who planned to kidnap an IDF soldier and detonate a car bomb inside pre-1967 Green Line Israel.

Freed Israeli nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu said in an interview published today that Israel was behind the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, prompting some Israeli officials to hope aloud the far-fetched comments will hurt Vanunu's credibility. Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who was recently released from Israeli prison after serving an 18-year sentence for exposing Israel's nuclear program at Dimona to Britain's Sunday Times, has been barred from leaving the country, talking to the media or meeting with foreigners. But the London-based al-Hayat newspaper published an interview yesterday it claims is the first Vanunu has given, in...

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/29886.html

LONDON -- Students at a Scottish university on Wednesday elected Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu their official spokesman. Students at the University of Glasgow chose Vanunu as their rector, a venerable role that has gone to 19th-century prime ministers William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli and anti-apartheid activist Winnie Mandela. Vanunu was nominated by a pro-Palestinian group . . .

Israeli nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu, who was recently released from prison on condition that he doesn't talk to media, said in an interview published yesterday that Israel has as many as 200 atomic bombs. "Israel has between 100 and 200 atom bombs, including neutron bombs and hydrogen bombs which are 10 times more powerful than regular atom bombs," Vanunu told British-based Al-Wasat. SPONSORED LINKS The New York Times - as Low as $2.90 Get world-class reporting and coverage you can't find anywhere else of local, national and world news for as little as $2.90 a week with The New York...

Comments by freed nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu that Israel was behind the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy failed to bring smiles to government officials Sunday. One would expect that such claims would portray Vanunu as a man with a credibility problem, but as far as the defense establishment is concern, the former nuclear technician still has secrets to reveal and a declared goal of ending Israel's nuclear program. He shouldn't be talking to the media and is actually barred from meeting with foreigners. Nevertheless, the London-base al-Hayat published Sunday an interview is claims it had with Vanunu. According...

Mordechai Vanunu, released after nearly 18 years in prison for revealing information about Israel's nuclear program, endured many years of solitary confinement with the help of the Bible and Wagner's music, a British newspaper reported.

Bret Stephens of the Jerusalem Post is shocked at the adulation for Mordechai Vanunu which has been expressed in the media organs of the west. He writes: 'It isn't every ex-con who, after 18 years, walks out of prison into the arms of a small army of supporters, including a Nobel Peace Laureate, an Oscar nominee and a couple of British members of parliament. It isn't every ex-con who gets respectful editorial treatment in newspapers from Sydney to London. It isn't every ex-con for whom a luxury seaside flat is arranged. Ordinarily, this is the sort of treatment given to...

What do local Christians think of the claim made by Mordechai Vanunu on his release from prison that he had been badly treated in jail because of his conversion to Christianity? Said one local evangelical Christian, "I'd hate to compare with Pollard, but lots of spies are held in solitary confinement." The evangelical, who asked to remain anonymous, added his impression that the scenario of Vanunu's widely publicized journey immediately after his release to a reception and communion at St. George's Cathedral in eastern Jerusalem suggested more a political than a religious agenda. "If it was a serious conversion, he...