Grant F. Smith - Divert!: Numec, Zalman Shapiro and the Diversion of US Weapons Grade Uranium Into the Israeli Nuclear Weapons Program

Divert!

NUMEC, Zalman Shapiroand the diversion of US weapons grade uranium into the Israeli nuclear weaponsprogram

Published by theInstitute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, Inc.
Calvert Station
PO Box 32041
Washington, DC 20007

First published in 2012by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy
7 9 10 8 6

Copyright Institute forResearch: Middle Eastern Policy, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Paperback ISBN-13 978-0-9827757-0-7

Library of CongressCataloging-in-Publication Data

Smith, Grant F.

Divert! : NUMEC, Zalman Shapiroand the diversion of US weapons grade uranium into the Israeli nuclear weaponsprogram / by Grant F. Smith.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-9827757-0-7 (alk. paper)

1. Nuclear weapons--Israel. 2.Shapiro, Zalman M. (Zalman Mordecai), 1920- 3. Nuclear Materials and EquipmentCorp. 4. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. 5. Highly enriched uranium--Israel. 6.Highly enriched uranium--United States. 7. Diversion of goods--Israel. 8.Diversion of goods--United States. 9. Espionage, Israeli--United States. I.Title.

UA853.I8S58 2012
623.4'5119095694--dc23
2011050232

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In April 1976 Attorney GeneralEdward Levi ordered the FBI to reopen an investigation into Dr. Zalman MordecaiShapiro and the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC). Since themid-1960s enforcement and regulatory agencies suspected NUMEC had illegallydiverted U.S. government-owned weapons-grade nuclear material into Israel'sclandestine nuclear weapons program.

The newly reopenedinvestigation looked beyond violations of the Atomic Energy Act. The FBI's new mandatewas to also uncover "any attempt by anyone in the executive branch toprevent or impede an investigation into this alleged diversion, or to withholdany information regarding this alleged diversion from any investigativebody."

The FBI code-named itsinvestigation "DIVERT." After interrogating high-level officials fromU.S. government agencies and NUMEC employee eyewitnesses to nuclear diversion, theinvestigation was suddenly terminated in 1981. Why?

Grant F. Smith is director ofthe Washington, DCbasedInstitute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). IRmep is an independentnonprofit that studies U.S. policy formulation toward the Middle East. Smith'sresearch and analysis about trade, law enforcement, and opportunity costs haveappeared in Antiwar.com, the Financial Times of London, Inc.Magazine, Arab News, Kiplinger, Gannet, The WallStreet Journal, The Washington Post, The Jewish Daily Forward,AlEqtisadiah,Khaleej Times, The New York Times, The Minneapolis StarTribune, The Daily Star, the Associated Press, Reuters, TheWashington Report on Middle East Affairs, and specialty publications suchas the U.S. State Department's Washington File. Smith has been afrequent guest analyst on Voice of America (VOA) television and Radio FranceInternationale. He has also appeared on the BBC, CSPAN, Al Jazeera, CNN, PressTV, andnumerous public radio programs. In 2003, Smith launched IRmep at a policysymposium in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill warning aboutthe grave dangers of adopting a 1996 neoconservative plan for involving theU.S. military more deeply across the Middle East.

Smith's research assignmentshave taken him to more than 40 countries. Before joining IRmep, he was a senioranalyst and later research program manager at the Bostonbased YankeeGroup Research, Inc. Smith taught undergraduate, graduate, and executiveeducation courses in finance, research, and marketing for five years at CESA inBogot, one of Colombia's topranked business schools. Before that, Smithwas a marketing manager at the Minneapolisbased Investors DiversifiedServices (IDS), now Ameriprise Financial Advisors. Smith completed a BA inInternational Relations from the University of Minnesota and a master's inInternational Management from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul,Minnesota. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post named Smith "a Washington,D.C. author who has made a career out of writing critical books on Israelispying and lobbying." Mondoweiss.com blogger Philip Weiss claimed"the best investigative work is being done by Grant Smith atIRmep..."

Thefollowing was written by former CIA employee Michael F. Scheuer. In his 22-yearcareer, he served as the Chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station (aka "AlecStation"), from 1996 to 1999, the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at theCounterterrorist Center. He then worked again as Special Advisor to the Chiefof the bin Laden unit from September 2001 to November 2004.

Grant F. Smiths fine new book Divertcontinues his scholarly exposition of the wide-ranging illegal and anti-Americanactivities knowingly conducted by some elite supporters of Israel operating onthe fringe of established lobbies, abetted by senior appointed U.S. governmentofficials.

Using formerly classified U.S.government documents acquired via Freedom of Information Act and MandatoryDeclassification Review requests and other irrefutable primary sources, Mr.Smith details the manner in which weapons-grade uranium was illegally divertedto Israel from a ramshackle facility in Apollo, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh. TheNuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) launched in a facility thatwas transformed into a nuclear-reprocessing plant designed to win USGcontracts. The illegally diverted highly enriched nuclear material wentdirectly to Israel to help establish its nuclear-weapons capability. NUMEC wasestablished, funded, and owned by wealthy Jewish-Americans with close ties toIsraeli intelligence and experience in smuggling. Early on, NUMEC hired anIsraeli scientist who learned how to handle large quantities of plutonium, onlyto return to Israel when alarm bells were sounded by Admiral Hyman Rickover inthe early 1960s. For years NUMEC hosted visits by Israeli nuclear weaponsprogram officials and Mossad operatives, including the future handler of theconvicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. The illegal activities perpetrated bythese mainly Jewish Americans were shielded by senior U.S. officials who wereterrified of a public relations disaster and loss of funding. This includedthe Atomic Energy Commission and several presidents and their advisers who putobstacles in the path of FBI investigations of the plant and to this day,forbid the CIA and other agencies from releasing data that probably wouldcorroborate the plants illegal nuclear-diversion mission.

Mr. Smiths book depicts thesenuclear thieves and smugglers as they truly were: men who defended and excusedtheir self-serving, self-enriching, and traitorous behavior with the claim thatanything that defended Israel also defended America. This attitude continuestoday, though it is as specious as the I was only following orders defense.In Divert, Mr. Smith carries forward the story he meticulously began in SpyTrade, and documents the disassimilation of some leading members of Zionist organizationsthat began even before the formation of Israel in 1948. Be it in the area ofconventional weapons, trade and business secrets, or nuclear materials, someprominent U.S. Israel nationalists are ready, nay eager to assist Israel inways that damage U.S. interests, break the law, and through lobbyists,political contributions, and threats of public charges of anti-Semitismcorrupt the U.S. political system and the federal government into protectingand covering up their illicit activities.