Martin Sandler talks about the life of JFK documented by the letters he wrote.
@51:22 Martin says that he believes the Mossad killed Kennedy for opposing their nuclear program.
Israel started the construction work at the Dimona site sometimes in ea…
Martin Sandler talks about the life of JFK documented by the letters he wrote.
@51:22 Martin says that he believes the Mossad killed Kennedy for opposing their nuclear program.
Israel started the construction work at the Dimona site sometimes in early 1958, but it took the United States intelligence community almost three long years to "discover" the site for what it was, namely, a nuclear site under construction. The final "proof" was a testimony came from a human source, Professor Henry Gomberg of the University of Michigan, a nuclear physicist who visited Israel as a consultant to the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC). In his conversations with Israeli officials and scientists he came to the conclusion that Israel was engaged in a vast classified nuclear project, in addition to the Soreq peaceful project. He reported his conclusion to American Ambassador in Tel Aviv, Ogden Reid, to the representative of the AEC in Paris, and was debriefed by representatives of the intelligence community upon his return to Washington. In the wake of his testimony, other pieces of information concerning that site added to his findings. In early December 1960 the CIA distributed its findings to other government agencies, including the White House, State Department and congress. Dimona was revealed.
On December 7, 1960, an action on the matter was taken. The State Department summoned Israeli Ambassador and asked Israel for explanation. For the first time Dimona was placed on the table.
The late discovery of Dimona was clearly a major blunder of the American intelligence community. In comparative terms, that failure was more severe than the 1998 failure of the CIA to identify the Indian test because of both the length of time involved and because it involved the misreading of many pieces of available information.
From an Israeli perspective, however, this failure was crucial for the survival of the nuclear project. Had the U.S. discovered Dimona soon after launching, and exerted political pressure on both France and Israel, the Dimona project might have never been completed.
