Nuclear whistleblower unrepentant, says brother

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu believes his disclosure of Israel’s secrets provoked an essential debate on nuclear weapons and has no regrets over the action that sent him to prison for 18 years, his brother said today

Vanunu is due to be released next Wednesday after completing his term for treason and espionage.

He plans to go to court to challenge restrictions on his movement, to be imposed after his release.

Vanunu disclosed details and photos of Israel’s top-secret nuclear plant and the country’s reputed nuclear weapons arsenal to The Sunday Times of London in 1986.

He was subsequently seized in Europe by the Mossad intelligence agency and spirited to Israel for trial.

A day after visiting Vanunu in prison, his brother Meir said Vanunu has no second thoughts. “It is obvious that Mordechai regrets nothing in his action,” he said.

Based partly on photographs that Vanunu provided the Sunday Times, it is widely believed Israel has a large stockpile of nuclear weapons. The CIA recently estimated Israel has 200-400 nuclear weapons.

Israel has an official policy of “nuclear ambiguity,” saying only that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.

Meir Vanunu said his brother’s action put an effective end to the policy. “Nuclear ambiguity – there’s not much left of it,” he said.

Senior Israeli officials have suggested that Vanunu may still have sensitive security information and could divulge it after his release, but Meir Vanunu denied that.

”Mordechai spoke to the Sunday Times in 1986,” he said. ”Everything he had to say he said then.”

Though Israeli military censorship still weighs heavily against specifics about Israel’s nuclear programmes, in recent years members of parliament have spoken out on the issue, and the subject of nuclear weapons has been debated at times in the local media.

Vanunu, who was a technician at the nuclear plant near the desert town of Dimona, served 12 years in solitary confinement in prison after being convicted in an Israeli court.

He has become a hero of anti-nuclear weapons activists around the world.

Vanunu was adopted by a family in Minnesota in the mistaken belief that the adoption would provide him with American citizenship.

On Sunday, Vanunu learned that following his release, Israel’s Shin Bet security agency will impose a series of restrictions on him, including barring him from leaving Israel, approaching border terminals and foreign embassies and communicating with foreigners, including foreign residents of Israel.

Security officials said the restrictions would be re-evaluated after six months and might be eased if Vanunu fulfils the conditions.

Meir Vanunu said his brother will challenge the restrictions.

“There will be an appeal to the appropriate court,” he said. “But our hopes are not high, because for more than 17 years they have gone with the secret services against Mordechai.”

Meir Vanunu said his brother had expressed great frustration about the restrictions when the two met in a southern Israeli prison.

“It is unbelievable what they are doing now after 17 1/2 years of persecution,” Mordechai told his brother. ”I didn’t believe they would do this after all this time.”

Meir Vanunu said that after his release Mordechai wants to live abroad.

“He wants to live as a free man overseas,” he said. “He wants to go to the United States.”