This is an object lesson in how to get WMD. Don’t worry, you won’t get in trouble or anything. Well, this chap didn’t.
\nPublic records, released under FOI for a 2006 BBC TV Newsnight programme and discussed in a New Statesman article, showed how the ~1960 Israeli government managed to get its hands on nuclear weapons materials.
\nThe BBC<\/a> reported that the programme has shown “Secret sale of UK plutonium to Israel “<\/em> Secret indeed. Even secret from government ministers and quite probably the sitting Prime Ministers, and over the objections of Defence Intelligence, the MOD and – sometimes – the Foreign Office.
\nThe New Statesman<\/a> has the fullest account. Read it.<\/p>\n

Kelly and his colleagues .. (i.e. the Defence Intelligence staff who mounted a pretty spirited attempt to uncover what was going on and try to block it)<\/em> .. however, found their views were being challenged. Chief of the challengers was Michael Israel Michaels .. who was a senior official at the science ministry under Lord Hailsham during the Macmillan government, and went on to serve at the technology ministry under Benn. He was also Britain’s representative at the IAEA<\/strong>.(my emphasis) quotation is from New Statesman<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Michaels was in fact so keen on the idea of supplying Israel with bomb-making materials that he just carried on doing it, even after Tony Benn became Energy Secretary. Michaels just didn’t think to bother ministers with the knowledge.<\/p>\n

Mr Benn told the programme that civil servants in his department kept the deals secret from him and his predecessor, Frank Cousins.
\nHe had always suspected that civil servants were doing deals behind his back, but he never thought they would sell plutonium to Israel. He told Newsnight: “I’m not only surprised, I’m shocked. It never occurred to me they would authorise something so totally against the policy of the government. (From the BBC<\/a>) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Michaels lied to me, I learned by bitter experience that the nuclear industry lied to me again and again.” He thought Wilson may not have known that Britain was helping Israel to get the bomb. (From the Guardian)<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Astonishingly, Michaels had the effrontery to complain to the BBC Trust about the programme, rather than to give disbelieving thanks that he hadn’t been arrested for treason.
\nFrom the Trusts’s ruling on his complaint about Newsnight<\/a><\/p>\n

Summary of the finding
\nThe complaints concerned an investigation carried out by Newsnight, and presented by Michael Crick, that looked into the British government\u2019s involvement in assisting Israel with its development of nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s. The item was based on recently released government papers suggesting that Michael Michaels, a senior civil servant and the British government\u2019s representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency, had acted with dual loyalties when he had ensured the supply of plutonium and other radioactive materials to Israel without the knowledge of the Minister responsible, and possibly without the Prime Minister\u2019s knowledge.
\nBoth complainants felt that the inclusion and repetition of Mr Michaels\u2019 middle name (Israel) was unnecessary and, therefore, anti-Semitic.
\nThey also objected to the suggestion that he had dual loyalties, which they felt implied disloyalty……..
\nThe Committee concluded as follows:
\nThe use of Mr Michaels\u2019 middle name did not breach the guidelines on harm and offence.
\nIt was satisfied that there was no intention to endorse a stereotype, and it was not anti-Semitic. In general, the use of the name had been as a form of shorthand to highlight Mr Michaels\u2019 association with Israel.
\nWith regard to \u201cdual loyalties\u201d, the Committee was satisfied that there was sufficient evidence put forward to suggest that Mr Michaels might indeed have had dual loyalties in his dealings with Israel. However, the Committee concluded that this was not the same as suggesting that Mr Michaels had been disloyal.
\nThe Committee also felt that the report had raised the possibility that the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, might have known about the shipment to Israel. The item therefore did not breach guidelines on impartiality…
\nThe Committee did not uphold the complaints.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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    This is an object lesson in how to get WMD. Don’t worry, you won’t get in trouble or anything. Well, this chap didn’t. Public records, released under FOI for a 2006 BBC TV Newsnight programme and discussed in a New … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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