Report Discloses US Assistance To Israel's Development Of H-Bomb

By R. Siva Kumar - 16 Feb '15 09:24AM

Israel's hydrogen bomb was developed with the assistance of the US, says a declassified report by the US Department of Defense. It violated international laws that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act enacted in 1978, codifying the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty specified, which was signed by the US.

In response to a federal lawsuit, the US government has agreed to release the 1987 Defense Department report that explains in detail the US assistance. It did not conform to international standards, according to rt.com.

The 386-page report that is titled "Critical Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations," shows a similarity between top Israeli nuclear facilities and the Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, which helped to develop US nuclear weaponry.

According to the Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the US foreign aid to countries found to be trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology will not be denied.

The report shows details of Israel's nuclear development sites and how they received the technology needed to create nuclear weapons. These labs were just like the Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, in which most of the investigation was conducted to build up the US nuclear armory, according to sputniknews.com.

The report strengthens earlier suspicions that Israel could not have developed the hydrogen bomb without US help. The report was released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Grant Smith, director of the Washington think tank Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, three years ago.

"It's our basic position that in 1987 the Department of Defense discovered that Israel had a nuclear weapons program, detailed it and then has covered it up for 25 years in violation of the Symington and Glenn amendments, costing taxpayers $86 billion," said Smith during a hearing at DC's US District Court a few months ago, when he tried to get the documentation declassified.

The report is now being released at a time when next month, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address Congress to raise pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear power program, according to sputniknews.com.