Divert!: NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro and the diversion of US weapons grade uranium into the Israeli nuclear weapons program by Smith Grant F

Author:Smith, Grant F. [Smith, Grant F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, Inc.
Published: 2012-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

Congress interviews Zalman Shapiro

On Thursday, December 21, 1978 the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs held a small hearing with Zalman Shapiro in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Committee Chairman Morris K. Udall peppered Zalman Shapiro and his legal counsel with questions about NUMEC. Udall took great pains to emphasize that the Committee was mainly concerned about adequate nuclear safeguards and was only investigating NUMEC because "in early 1977, our Committee was informed that government files contained documents indicating the possibility that a substantial quantity of missing bomb grade uranium had been diverted from a processing plant operated by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation in Apollo, Pennsylvania."[384]

Although the CIA had largely denied GAO access to its files, selected staff members from John Dingell's Subcommittee were allowed limited access under controlled conditions.[385] Recalling a meeting with Carl Duckett on January 25, 1978, Udall staffer Henry Myers recalled that "Duckett believes that the totality of circumstantial evidence supports the conclusion that there is a significant likelihood that Apollo uranium went to Israel."

But Duckett had resigned two years earlier and no longer spoke officially or semi-officially for the CIA. When Myers solicited even more sensitive and authoritative information from the CIA he was informed that director Stansfield Turner would have to decide whether or not to release anything. Turner objected to revealing the agency's espionage operations targeting Israel in a stern February 21, 1978 letter to the NRC. "CIA's findings or conclusions relating to the alleged diversion of nuclear material from the NUMEC facility should be classified SECRET. To do otherwise in an open hearing would be a public official acknowledgement of CIA's intelligence role as it relates to Israel, which could have serious repercussions."[386]

Myers later ruefully relayed to Udall that "We have not been getting a straight story from either the FBI or the CIA." By May of 1978 Myers's grim assessment was that "the further we get into the NUMEC matter, the more we see that either the FBI has not leveled with us or that their investigations have been inexplicably truncated." [387] Assistant Attorney General Patricia Wald only added to Udall's frustration, writing him in June of 1978 that "You will understand the difficulty involved in disseminating information concerning a pending and active investigation." [388]

Udall was about to get his own taste of just how difficult it was to investigate NUMEC by interviewing the principals as he tried to get an evasive and slippery Shapiro to respond to direct questions. Although Shapiro was not placed under oath, he was informed that a transcript of the proceeding would be turned over to the Justice Department.[lxxiii] That remarkable transcript follows.

Chairman Udall: "While the losses in question occurred in the early or mid-1960's, I believe it is important that we explore whether there are lessons that might be derived from the events and circumstances of that period. To the extent possible, the facts should be placed on the table in order that we be able to reach the sound decisions necessary to protect against the hazards and risks of using nuclear power.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.