WASHINGTON (CN) - The U.S. Defense Department is so far refusing to produce a report that discusses nuclear technology issues in Israel, in response to a researcher's request for information. The report at issue is called "Critical Technology Issues in Israel and NATO Countries," written nearly three decades ago. It is not classified. Grant Smith, founder of the Washington-based Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, Inc., filed a request for the report under the Freedom of Information Act three years ago. When the government failed to produce the document, he followed up with a pro se complaint in September. More

PR Newswire - 12/17/2014 - Washington - Register online for "The Israel Lobby: Is It Good for the US?" today at http://IsraelLobbyUS.org

"The Israel Lobby: Is It Good for the US?" is an all-day conference which will take place April 10 in the National Press Club ballroom in Washington, DC.  Questions will be addressed by experts of all ages and backgrounds from academia, government, independent research organizations and alternative news media shut out of public discourse.  The conference is co-sponsored by the American Educational Trust's publication Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA) and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, Inc (IRmep).

Hundreds of organizations lobbying for Israel behind the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) continue to push for U.S. economic warfare and military actions against Iran. Most Americans support negotiations to resolve questions over Iran's civilian nuclear program and oppose efforts to torpedo diplomacy.  Americans also overwhelmingly (63.9%) believe Israel is a Middle East nation with nuclear weapons.

Recent passage of the US-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014 gives Israel expanded rights to U.S. weapons stockpiles, diplomatic support, additional foreign aid and future visa-free entry, despite Israel's long history of espionage against the United States.  Yet six in ten Americans, advised that the U.S. gives Israel over $3 billion annually (9% of the foreign aid budget and more than any other country), believe such aid is "too much."

Pro-Israel donors and political action committees are working hard to ensure that when Americans head to the polls to choose a president in 2016, both candidates will be Zionists.  Delegates who oppose special pro-Israel planks in conventions are shut down by rigged votes.

More

Itzhak (aka Yitzhak) Vardi's intelligence operations for Israel in England put him on an FBI watch list as he traveled throughout New York. As he worked at high levels within the Palestine Economic Corporation and United Jewish Appeal, the FBI tried to determine his status as an intelligence agent.

An operation in Argentina suggests Vardi never retired.

Under a file titled "Espionage - Israeli, New York File #65-15961" the FBI compiled intercepts of Vardi's correspondence with Canadian philanthropist Jacob M. Lowy about the launch of Israel bonds and Alexander Sacks about gold transactions and convertibility of foreign currencies. J. Edgar Hoover notes, "Jacoby Lowy, a British subject who formerly lived in Czechoslovakia, was operating a black market on materials shipped from the United States to the Austrian government under the Marshall Plan...to be used in the manufacture of tanks...it is possible that subject and Lowy were acquainted in Austria in 1949."

Complete FOIA release at the Israel Lobby Archive.

Espionage Allegations Intensify Battle for Israel's Technion Nuke File

Israel's oldest university—Technion—is under an intensifying legal spotlight over stunning new allegations of espionage and a transparency-law fight to reveal its clandestine role in nuclear weapons development. According to information made public in a civil harassment suit filed on November 13, 2014 in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles an Israeli scientist transferred information to Technion—Israel Institute of Technology in violation of the Arms Export Control Act from the Jet Propulsion Lab at the University of California Los Angeles.

According to court filings, Dr. Amir Gat—an Israeli national—executed a Technology Control Plan (TCP) under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) registration in order to participate in the U.S. taxpayer-funded JPL —Electrospray—space propulsion project at UCLA. The TCP obligates signers not to disclose ITAR—restricted technical data to foreign persons or countries without prior approval from the US State Department. Failure to comply is supposed to trigger criminal fines and penalties....

Adding insult to the—failure to prosecute—injury, the Justice Department is also vigorously fighting a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in September in the District of Columbia Federal Court aimed at publicly releasing that "Current Technology Issues in Israel" report on Technion and other Israeli nuclear proliferators. Since 2003, Technion has received tax-exempt funding from US donors averaging $87 million annually, despite the fact that overseas nuclear weapons programs and espionage against US facilities do not fit any IRS definition of a "social welfare" charity. Under the Symington and Glenn Amendments to the US Foreign Aid Act, Israel should have been ineligible to receive any of the $82 billion in US taxpayer-funded foreign aid delivered since 1987 when it was found to be operating a clandestine weapons program outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

On November 19 Justice Department lawyer Laura Jennings revealed defendants will use all available tactics to delay (PDF) and possibly thwart public disclosure including claiming "perpetual non-disclosure agreements" were signed during development of the 1987 report. The legal tactic has been recently employed to prohibit open government law attempts to obtain public release of information about law enforcement agency use of so-called "stingrays" and "dirt boxes" to mass intercept cell phone transmissions. More

The first IRmep question was phrased: "The U.S. gives Israel over $3 billion annually (9 percent of the foreign aid budget and more than any other country). The amount is:" Respondents could then select from five options: "much too much," "too much," "about right," "too little," and "much too little." To reduce selection bias, the order of response choices was randomly reversed. According to 60.7 percent of Americans polled, the U.S. was giving Israel excessive foreign aid. More than a third, 33.9 percent (the majority response), said Israel received �much too much� U.S. foreign aid, while 26.8 percent felt it was "too much." This result directly contradicts the Chicago Council on Global Affairs findings based on questions that provided no dollar amounts or shares of U.S. foreign aid.

According to the IRmep survey, those under the age of 35 tended to be more in favor of reducing aid to Israel. However an overall majority across age categories scored current aid as "too much."

When cross-tabulated by income, only those Americans earning $150,000 or more per year stated such aid was "about right" (47.6 percent), although within that income category, 42.9 percent thought aid was "too much," while only 9.5 percent scored it as "too little."

Since aid to Israel is premised on defense—allegedly keeping Israel from being "pushed into the sea" by surrounding hostile states—how can the majority of Americans believe the U.S. provides too much aid? American presidents and politicians are heavily invested in Israel's "ambiguity" policy of never discussing its arsenal of nuclear weapons. However, most Americans (63.9 percent, according to the IRmep survey) openly state they believe Israel possesses an arsenal of nuclear weapons. It is plausible that Americans believe the huge flows of aid purportedly maintaining Israel's "qualitative military edge" are unnecessary since it has already long possessed the ultimate deterrent. More.

WASHINGTON, October 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A federal lawsuit seeks immediate release of a closely held government report about how American branches of Israeli charitable and educational institutes fund secret nuclear weapons research and development programs.

An unclassified 1987 study conducted for the Department of Defense titled "Current Technology Issues in Israel" discovered Technion University technicians developing nuclear missile re-entry vehicles and working at the Dimona nuclear weapons production facility. Hebrew University computer scientists working at the Soreq nuclear facilities were "developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs." Israel's Weizmann Institute "studied high energy physics and hydrodynamics needed for nuclear bomb design, and worked on lasers to enrich uranium, the most advanced method for making the material dropped on Hiroshima in 1945" say sources attributed to the report cited in the lawsuit.

IRmep filed suit for the report in the DC District Court as part of a public-interest drive to obtain long overdue enforcement of the Symington and Glenn Amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act. The laws prohibit U.S. foreign aid to nuclear weapons states such as Israel that are not signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

A recent Google Consumer Survey (PDF) reveals that despite longstanding Israeli and US government gag orders on publicly discussing the arsenal, 63.9 percent of Americans now believe Israel possesses nuclear weapons. 60.7 percent of Americans oppose sending the largest share (9 percent) of the U.S. foreign aid budget to Israel.

Israel's Weizmann Institute, Technion, and Hebrew University raise substantial tax-exempt charitable funding through affiliates in the United States creating a "tax gap" that must be financed by individual American taxpayers. According to their most recent IRS filings, American branches of the three organizations raise a combined $172 million in annual U.S. tax-exempt funding. IRmep's "request for determination" filings with the IRS reveal that secret foreign nuclear weapons development has no recognized U.S. tax-deductible "social welfare" purpose.

Defendants Department of Defense, the DC US Attorney Office and Attorney General have until October 30 to respond to IRmep's public interest lawsuit demanding release of the explosive report. The Center for Policy and Law Enforcement is a unit of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington. Inquiries about the lawsuit or opinion poll results may be directed to Grant F. Smith at info@IRmep.org or 202-342-7325.

Download lawsuit (PDF)
Lawsuit news release
Scott Horton Show interview on what's at stake in the lawsuit. New

DOJ demands immunity for Anti-Iran Group UANI

The U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal judge on Friday to throw out a lawsuit against the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc.  More popularly known as United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), Greek shipping magnate Victor Restis sued UANI last year claiming the group's false public allegations he aided Iran's nuclear program had cost him billions in lost revenue.  Mystery surrounds precisely how the U.S. Department of Justice decided to become involved in the civil suit.  Clues may be found in its most court recent filing (PDF) demanding the lawsuit be shut down.  On February 14, 2014 "the Government informed the Court that the United States wished to have an opportunity to determine whether the Government had an interest in this action."   According to the court docket (PDF) through that time UANI was losing a series of key battles to dismiss the Restis lawsuit and evade standard discovery motions that would have revealed its secret sources of funding and clandestine operations to obtain sensitive information.  It is likely UANI called in the government to help get the case dismissed.

UANI clearly has a lot to hide.  Its board of advisors includes the former head of a country's foreign intelligence services in the top tier targeting the United States for economic and military secrets� Israeli Mossad's former General Director Meir Dagan.  The thinly-funded organization has premium office space in Rockefeller Center in New York.  With a budget of only $1.8 million per year, UANI somehow manages to target timely satellite imaging while intercepting internal corporate communications it uses to launch private and public shakedowns of corporations it claims are not sufficiently adhering to the Israel-lobby driven Iran boycott.  UANI resembles yet another in a long line of thinly-veiled Israeli cover entities than a bona fide charity. More  Radio interview

...The evidence suggested that "something did transpire," said Zbigniew Brzezinski, Mr. Carter's national-security adviser, in a recent interview. "But until you have conclusive evidence you don't want to make an international incident. This is a potentially very explosive, controversial issue." Besides, he added, even if a theft was proved, "What are we going to say to the Israelis, 'Give it back?' "

Israel hasn't ever said whether it has nuclear weapons. A spokeswoman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., declined to comment for this article.

So did a spokeswoman for the Obama administration, which like past U.S. administrations has declined to say whether it believes Israel has an atomic arsenal. A CIA spokesman also declined to comment.

Mr. Carter, who said at a 2008 gathering in Britain that he believes Israel has nuclear weapons, declined through a spokeswoman to be interviewed.

His diplomatic efforts as president, which helped produce a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979, likely wouldn't have been possible "if there was some huge scandal at the time about this," said John Marcum, the staffer who wrote the July 28, 1977, memo, in a recent interview.

The theft suspicions surround events at a now-dismantled facility in Apollo, Pa., owned by a company called Nuclear Materials & Equipment Corp., or Numec. In the mid-1960s, some 200 pounds of bomb-grade uranium--enough possibly for several Hiroshima-sized bombs--couldn't be accounted for there....

Potentially crucial sections of the recently released documents--obtained by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, an organization that has been critical of Israel--remain classified.  More

...UANI's charges that Restis is a "front-man" for Iran are thinly based on UANI's possession of a proposal letter for Restis to meet Iranian officials in Greece and a second "consultancy engagement agreement letter." UANI has refused to publicly release to the public either of the two letters which Restis claims are crude forgeries. On July 3, 2013 lawyers for Restis issued their own "cease and desist" letter to UANI managers which triggered more UANI accusations and adverse publicity, scuttling a planned initial public offering and other large business deals.

Restis has received many death threats as a result of UANI's unrelenting campaign, being called "an evil, greasy, greedy bastard," a "Greek fuck," "animal," "crook" and "Christian pig." Restis is Jewish and claims he supports Israel and is opposed to Iran ever developing nuclear weapons. Visitor comments on UANI's Facebook page urge "hang him,"  "just shoot him" and "lock and load torpedoes."  Mr. Restis was approached by Rami Ungar, an Israeli shipping executive with no visible public connection to UANI according to court filings. Restis claims Ungar was a fixer who mysteriously knew all the details about the UANI situation. Ungar claimed that on behalf of the group's supporters he was �authorized to try to resolve the issues.� Restis is having none of it.  In an April letter to the presiding judge, the Restis legal team claimed they uncovered information that UANI �is being funded by foreign interests� that like Ungar, were presumably also from Israel. Restis filed court documents to compel not only Rami Ungar's sworn testimony but also that of UANI advisor Meir Dagan, the Israeli former Mossad intelligence chief. Restis claims it was Mossad that served as the conduit between the source and UANI... More

Newly declassified postwar Naval Intelligence files shine new light on a little-known chapter of U.S.-Israel relations. Massive supplies of American WWII military surplus under liquidation by the War Assets Administration were an irresistible target for Israel's government-in-waiting the Jewish Agency and nascent military the Haganah in the years immediately preceding Israel's declaration of statehood in 1948. The Jewish Agency was an organization contemplated as a vital actor for achieving that statehood in Theodore Herzl's original Zionist vision. Explosives, advanced fighter, bomber and transport aircraft, and Jewish veterans culled from a list stolen from the U.S. Chaplain all entered a Jewish Agency pipeline stretching from the US to Mexico, Panama, Italy and Czechoslovakia to Palestine. The stories these newly declassified files tell not only foreshadow the institutionalized immunity of crimes committed in the name of Israel, but major challenges the US would later have to confront beyond displaced Palestinian refugees and simmering conflict � ongoing money laundering into US politics and Israel's early desire to build nuclear weapons. More  Declassified Files

Newsweek reporter Jeff Stein's "double-tap" expos� of Israeli espionage in the United States has put Israel and its American lobby on red alert.  Stein's initial salvo "Israel Won't Stop Spying on the U.S." generated howls of outrage over veteran CIA analyst Paul Pillar's accurate assessment that Zionists had been sending spies to appropriate U.S. resources and weapons even before the state was founded.  Pressed for details, Stein's second piece "Israel's Aggressive Spying in the US Mostly Hushed Up" exposed a bumbling Israeli spy's unsuccessful attempt to enter Al Gore's hotel room through an air duct.  According to Stein, the dwindling number of U.S. criminal prosecutions is because the FBI has been directed by the Justice Department to privately chastise, but not expose, Israel's spy networks.  The most recent criminal espionage prosecution, that of former NASA official Stewart Nozette, carefully sealed off his handlers at Israel Aerospace Industries from any consequences.  Nozette had received $225,000 and admitted to passing secrets to Israel, but rather than go after his paymasters, the FBI set up an elaborate sting operation.  According to Stein, other American counterintelligence officials felt instant push-back whenever they tried to warn U.S. elected officials about Israeli espionage.

The new spying allegations come at an inconvenient time since Israel and its U.S. lobby have been ramping up efforts to obtain visa-free Israeli entry to the United States.  Israel's poor record of visa overstays, thousands of young people entering under tourist visas to work in the U.S. and the growing espionage flap appear to make Israel unlikely to enter the visa waiver program any time soon.  But three strategies have proven extremely successful in the past for dampening fallout.  Flood American influencers with cash, send in Israeli government officials to quietly lobby key policymakers and charge opponents with anti-Semitism. More

Despite the fact that there is a large pro-Israeli lobby in the United States --which would make it politically dangerous to talk about condemnation of Israel, particularly in states with a large evangelical Christian base--pushing aside allegations of theft and espionage would further weaken the United States' international credibility, according to many.

"[If] President Obama releases Pollard, it should be preceded by the belated return of the massive trove of classified documents he stole for Israel as well as all purloined nuclear materials and technologies," said Grant Smith, the director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy.

Finally, realizations that this theft has been covered up and denied by the federal government for fifty years belies any allusions to transparency in the federal government. More

...Grant W. [F.] Smith, Director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) followed up Gilinsky and Matson's 2011 disclosures with a report based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other documentary evidence including corporate filings, office diaries and unguarded interviews. The report was published in January 2012 as a book titled, Divert! NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro and the diversion of US weapons grade uranium into the Israeli nuclear weapons Program. According to Smith, former CIA Tel Aviv station chief John Hadden claimed that NUMEC was "an Israeli operation from the beginning." More

...The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is celebrating President Barack Obama's decision to deny a visa to Iran's ambassador to the United Nations. AIPAC declared �The very fact that Iranian leaders would even select such a person to represent them at the United Nations underscores the importance of maintaining vigilance against the duplicitous behavior of this regime � particularly in regard to its nuclear program.� Iran's UN ambassador nominee, Hamid Abutalebi, has been accused of playing a role in the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Rushed legislation crafted and promoted by Israel's supporters to block Abutalebi easily passed the House and Senate and await the president's signature. Until now, the United States has automatically granted visas to heads of state and diplomats from around the world to conduct business at the UN headquarters in New York City. That the new policy is yet another targeted measure to derail current negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program is obvious in how the US treats Israeli diplomats and citizens engaged in nuclear-weapons-related espionage against America.

If President Obama signs the Cruz legislation into law, it would allow him to block Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from ever addressing the United Nations again...More

Video, audio and segment transcripts at http:NATSummit.org

An FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles would not tell Under the Radar if the bureau planned to interview Milchan or DeNiro in connection with what they said in the Israeli interview.

�As a matter of policy, the FBI neither confirms nor denies investigations. I am unaware of any public information relative to this matter,� she said.

Grant Smith, author of Divert, about the decades-long Israeli operation to funnel U.S. nuclear secrets, uranium and parts to Israel, was not surprised that Milchan was �unconcerned and on stage� at the Oscars. Smith said Milchan has dodged prosecution for more than 30 years, even as a colleague in the smuggling of nuclear triggers, Richard Kelley Smyth, ultimately was arrested and jailed.

What has made Milchan untouchable, according to Smith, is his connections. These include long time associations with Israeli leaders including Shimon Peres and current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who worked at Heli Trading, a Milchan front company used for smuggling, according to Smith, who cites Justice Department documents that he acquired through the Freedom of Information Act.

During the interview with Israel's Channel 2, Milchan acknowledged being an arms dealer and that he also used his international connections to advocate for the apartheid government of South Africa in exchange for the regime helping Israel procure uranium. More

Former Congressman Paul Findley is the author of the groundbreaking book They Dare to Speak out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby. Findley will discuss how the lobby shapes important U.S. foreign policies and influences elections.
 
Stephen Walt, co-author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, will deliver an update on what his groundbreaking 2007 book left out.

Historian Geoffrey Wawro will describe surprising findings from his 2010 book Quicksand: America's Pursuit of Power in the Middle East, and how its publication impacted his career.

Lieutenant Colonel Karen U. Kwiatkowski will deliver an insider account about the pre-Iraq invasion environment inside the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans. Kwiatkowski will compare similarities and differences with the current neoconservative and Israel lobby drives to attack Syria and Iran.

Brigadier General James J. David will review how "super-sized" U.S. military aid to Israel affects American allies. Former intelligence officers Philip Giraldi, Raymond McGovern, Paul Pillar and Michael Scheuer will provide their insights about how Israel and its lobby influence America's national security and global standing. More

U.S. financial, military, and diplomatic support for Israel has grown significantly and steadily throughout the past 60 years and now dwarfs annual American foreign assistance to all other nations. Research indicates the U.S.-Israel "special relationship" is a major factor in foreign hostility towards Americans. Some experts suggest that Israel has been central to U.S. wars in the Middle East.

However, the huge public backlash against Israel lobby-generated momentum for U.S. attacks on Syria and Iran indicates that Americans are concerned about the direction of U.S. foreign policy, how it is made, and those trying to make it. This historic summit will provide an in-depth, multifaceted inquiry into this critical subject matter. Panelists will include former military and diplomatic personnel, intelligence officers, scholars, economists, researchers and a variety of other subject-matter experts and authors often shut out of key discussions in public forums and news media outlets. Members of the public will be allowed to ask the key questions and network with other attendees.

Interested members of the public may now register for an early-bird discount online at EventsNow (link). Members of the press may request credentials and currently enrolled university or college students may apply for one of the limited number of donor-funded free student tickets by completing and submitting this registration form (PDF link). A complimentary lunch will be provided during mid-day keynotes and panels. More

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Former Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer is the wrong choice for vice chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board. According to an IRmep research report:

1. Fischer supports extreme anti-Iran policies that harm the U.S. economy. During his 2005-2013 stint as governor of Israel's central bank, Fischer lobbied Europe, Russia, and China to isolate Iran through measures that went far beyond the sanctions adopted by the U.N. Security Council.

The US Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, Coalition for American Trade, National Foreign Trade Council and others rejected such sanctions, provisions they estimated would cost America $25 billion and 210,000 jobs. (PDF) Yet Fischer is on record stating that even sanctions are no longer enough and appears ready to prepare the U.S. financial system for war as he did within Israel's central bank. Americans support 2-1 the current agreement to halt added sanctions during negotiations with Iran.

2. Fischer's fundamental economic aid changes harm U.S. taxpayers. Fischer was appointed by the Reagan administration to the U.S.-Israel Joint Economic Discussion Group formed to deal with Israel's 1984-1985 economic crisis. To the detriment of U.S. taxpayers, Fischer helped permanently transform billions in annual aid packages from repayable loans to direct taxpayer subsidies that in 1985 amounted to over $1,650 per Israeli. Despite lip service, Fischer has never applied the austerity measures he became famous for at the IMF to persuade Israel to obey international law or U.S. demands to vacate occupied territories... More

Continue (Year 2013 Research and Events)