Classification bulletin WNP-136, which took effect on September 6, 2012, forbids covered persons from making any comment on U.S. government information or information in the public domain about Israel’s nuclear weapons program. The classification bulletin was first used against former Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear policy specialist James Doyle after he wrote the following sentence in an article titled “Why Eliminate Nuclear Weapons?” which had been security cleared by his employer and published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“Nuclear weapons did not deter Egypt and Syria from attacking Israel in 1973, Argentina from attacking British territory in the 1982 Falklands War or Iraq from attacking Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.”
After an unknown congressional staffer read the article and demanded a review, it was referred to classification officials for a second review. Doyle’s pay was then cut, his home computer searched, and he was fired.
IRmep alleges in the lawsuit that the American public has been harmed by being kept in the dark about U.S. policy toward the Israeli nuclear weapons program. Important questions include:
- Should Israel’s nuclear weapons facilities be inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency?
- Where does Israel dispose of the toxic waste its program generates?
- Is the U.S. still vigorously investigating (though not prosecuting) diversions of materials and technologies to Israel, as it did in the past over nuclear triggers (The Milchan-Netanyahu krytron smuggling ring), weapons grade uranium (NUMEC), oscilloscopes and other weapons development technology diversions (Telogy LLC)?
- Are Israel’s nuclear weapons used to coerce the U.S. into making adverse policy decisions?
- Besides apartheid South Africa, has Israel offered any of its nuclear weapons for sale to other foreign countries?
- Has Israel mounted nuclear weapons onto its German-supplied Dolphin-class submarines?
Get more information about this lawsuit at IRmep’s Center for Policy & Law