Declassified Report: US Helped Israel Obtain Hydrogen Bomb

The US assisted Israel in developing the hydrogen bomb, according to a declassified report by the US Department of Defense. The move violated international laws the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act enacted in 1978 which codified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty the US signed.

The arrangement also violated the Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 which prohibits most US foreign aid to countries found to be trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology.

The 1987 report “Critical Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations,” details how Israel’s nuclear development sites obtained the technology required to design and produce nuclear weapons. The labs were “strikingly” similar to the Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories where much of the research was done for developing the US nuclear armory.

It had long been thought that Israel could not have developed nuclear weapons technology without US assistance and the report now makes it evident they had it. 

The report was released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Grant Smith, director of the Washington think tank Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, three years ago.

"It's our basic position that in 1987 the Department of Defense discovered that Israel had a nuclear weapons program, detailed it and then has covered it up for 25 years in violation of the Symington and Glenn amendments, costing taxpayers $86 billion,” said Smith during a hearing DC’s US District Court a few months ago during his attempt to get the documentation declassified.

The report’s timing now closely coincides with a trip by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is due to address Congress next month in an effort to raise pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear power program.