RENEGADE RATTLES ISRAELI NUKE PROGRAM

By Niles Lathem

May 14, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - A rare court appearance by Israeli whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu yesterday rekindled the worldwide debate over Israel's secret nuclear-weapons program, at a time of heightened tension in the Middle East.

Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who is serving an 18-year prison term for treason for giving a London newspaper pictures of Israel's nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert in 1988, appeared in court to seek permission to meet with his British lawyers and make public documents from his trial.

But the seemingly benign courtroom procedure, coming at a time of intense conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, once again kicked off the global controversy over Israel's long-standing policy of "nuclear ambiguity" and its continuing refusal to admit that it is the world's sixth-biggest nuclear power.

The CIA and the Pentagon believe that Israel now has between 200 and 400 enhanced radiation and hydrogen weapons.

"They are the only nuclear power in the Middle East and if you are sitting in Damascus or Baghdad you know that Israel is holding all the cards," said Tim Brown of Globalsecurity.org, a Virginia defense think tank.

"The U.S. has always made it a policy of actively looking the other way," Brown added.

Israel, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, refuses to formally acknowledge the existence of these weapons because it would trigger a series of U.S. laws that would result in the cutoff of U.S. military and economic aid to the Jewish state.