Vanunu’s notebooks `prove intent to harm state security’

08/07/2004 By Yuval Yoaz An expert has concluded that Mordechai Vanunu’s prison notebooks contain previously unpublished information on the Dimona nuclear reactor, the state said in a brief to the High Court of Justice yesterday. The brief was in response to Vanunu’s petition that the restrictions imposed following his release from jail earlier this year be overturned. Vanunu served an 18-year sentence for revealing Israel’s nuclear secrets to England’s Sunday Times. The brief said that shortly before Vanunu was released, authorities found notebooks in his cell that contained classified information derived from his work as a technician at the Dimona reactor. An expert who reviewed the notebooks concluded that some of the sketches and descriptions they contained were not published by The Times. Vanunu’s petition, filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, protests the following restrictions: the obligation to notify authorities 48 hours before any change of address; the obligation to give a 24-hour advance warning before leaving any site where he resides; a ban on approaching certain areas of airports; a ban on entry to foreign embassies in Israel; a ban on conversation with foreigners; and a ban on Internet chats. The prosecutors’ statement was submitted ahead of next Sunday’s High Court hearing on Vanunu’s petition. Prosecutors claim that Vanunu still poses a risk to Israeli security. The notebook materials found in his cell prove that he has the wherewithal, and the motivation, to disclose additional classified information, and harm state security, claim prosecutors. The prosecutors cite as evidence passages from letters which Vanunu wrote while still in prison. In one letter written in August 2000, Vanunu wrote: „We must open up Dimona, and receive clear, precise information about what, and how much, has been produced there … I can report on all these topics, on all the materials which were produced in the Dimona reactor.” In December 2002, Vanunu wrote: „I wouldn’t mind working for foreign intelligence services after I am free, or helping the CIA and the FBI, if somebody needs something from me.”