All right, y'all welcome back It's anti-war radio.
I'm Scott Horton.
Our next guest is Grant F. Smith he is the I Don't know the official title.
He runs the Institute for research Middle Eastern policy IRMEP org ear map org and he writes for anti-war comm and he's got one on the page today That's gonna blow your socks off Americans pay dearly to maintain Israel's nuclear secrets CIA in dangers new mech toxic waste cleanup Welcome back to the show Grant.
Hey Scott.
Good to be back Well, I'm very happy to have you here and very happy that you'll be explaining the story behind this thing First of all, what is new mech?
New mech is the nuclear materials and equipment corporation was formed back in 1957 headquartered in Apollo, Pennsylvania And it was set up by a very talented physicist by the name is Alman Shapiro with $4,000 to begin receiving US taxpayer-funded highly enriched uranium for reprocessing into fuel rods for mainly Nuclear propulsion systems for the Navy and the Interesting thing about the nuclear materials and equipment corporation Is that number one it was heavily investigated?
As a front company diverting weapons-grade materials to Israel in the 1960s and More recently US taxpayers are now funding a 170 million dollar nuclear cleanup of Newmex waste dump, which is in Park Township just up the river from the Apollo facility, so That's a little bit of background on why this is a current and relevant story Well, I believe we've discussed this corporation before on this show grant and and that you've done work on these guys in the past This is where Israel was getting at least some portion of America's highly enriched weapons grade uranium for their weapons program in Israel Right, but you know, this is one of these stories that It has not really ended it's not historical in any sense because Like a lot of things there's a lot that Americans don't know that the government does know About this particular facility and what happened back on August 29th was the FBI under Freedom of Information Act request Seeking more data on David Lowenthal who was in the smuggling business in the 40s and then somehow managed to come up with the capital to buy a defunct steel mill and start a of all things nuclear processing facility released his file and Curiously the Central Intelligence Agency stepped in and And Took out the majority over 200 pages of the file and said no you can't you can't have that and so The the shocking thing about what was released is that it disclosed?illegal handling of waste in the parks township waste dump a spill that was caused according to the wiretap to you know improper handling of nuclear materials and It it raises the question of Why the Central Intelligence Agency for so many decades has been refusing to release?its files about The nuclear materials and equipment corporation and it raises the stakes for Americans because we're not only paying for the cleanup But the fact that There's obviously information in these classified files, which is relevant to the cleanup such as 200 barrels of previously unknown nuclear waste that it would improve the safety and lower the cost of all of these files were out well, it's Amazing really you're telling me that The FBI Documents that you have revealed the CIA is keeping information not just from you and your Freedom of Information Act request but from the people doing the nuclear cleanup of Where some of the waste is hidden for that they ought to be cleaning up that ain't gonna get cleaned up for that reason Well, right.
I mean it just raises a lot of questions the files I forwarded them to the US Army Corps of Engineers Which is in charge of this whole thing and there they've got something going on.
It's under consideration What to do about this new information, but you know, it's not a typical that the more secretive branches of government Don't necessarily share relevant information with other branches of government What you see in the case of the US Army Corps of Engineers is they're probably about the most transparent Institution in government in terms of their large projects everything goes up on the web maps, you know decisions Consultations with people whether it's you know, building a dike or in this case cleaning up a nuclear waste dump But you know the argument here is reporters such as John Fialca back in the 1980s Nuclear Regulatory Commission former officials such as Victor Galinsky and Roger Madsen And I believe even Seymour Hirsch many people have tried to get the original Central Intelligence Agency files on pneumatic because the CIA was the only organization Which was really able to see both ends of the diversion from Tel Aviv To Apollo, Pennsylvania and they continue continue to refuse any public interest Academic or whatever other access to their files and so, you know It's not idle at this point Historic curiosity about what happened in this particular case.
It's now a public safety issue Mm-hmm.
Well You know, I don't know if you say nuclear plant to me I just picture Monty Burns and I know he doesn't care how thick those barrels are what happens to that glowing green stuff or The people who come into contact with its remnants or whatever Well, I mean the interesting thing about this and there's a lot of information in the public domain You know Zalman Shapiro the head of this plant when he was ordered to interview in front of Congress with Chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy Udall from back in back in the day Actually told them.
Hey, you know, we were storing some waste from our clean sealed chambers We were using cardboard boxes.
And so I mean the fact that this plant was Not in compliance with even the lax Standards back in the day for handling nuclear waste as well documented but again the fact that one agency has a lot of relevant information that could possibly lower the costs and improve public understanding about this particular plant and and Arbitrarily refuses to release it is is a problem because you know, as you know Both the US government and the Israeli government Generally and even the US media, I've noticed this more and more Don't want to talk about the Israeli nuclear weapons program.
And in fact, there was an event here at American University where the organizers Which had a local radio station involved talked wanted to talk about the Israeli nuclear Capability and this is the same language that's used by Israeli journalists who have to function under the military Sensor over there whenever they talk about Israeli nuclear weapons, but what you see is that there's a general whether it's you know Helen Thomas questioning Barack Obama for her first question to the president or virtually any President with exception of Jimmy Carter, they won't talk about Israeli nuclear weapons because there are so many I guess from their perspective Pitfalls to doing that but you know, there are definite costs for that What I would say misguided an obsolete policy of ambiguity and this is one of them Yeah, Pennsylvanians being irradiated Well to put it in two words.
Yeah, that's basically it.
I mean, they're well, yes I'll disagree with you.
I hear music Yeah, that's the taxi theme song I love it, all right hang tight everybody It's a grant F Smith from the Institute for research Middle Eastern policy Boy, does he have some FOIA documents for you?
Check his article out today at anti-war calm We're gonna be right back.
Talk a little bit more about this in just a minute All right, y'all welcome back since I wore radio I'm Scott Horton I'm on the line with grant F Smith From the Institute for research Middle Eastern policy and Basically his gig is he gets documents About what Israel's up to in America and has been for decades and decades in a row and then he writes journalism about what he finds Very important journalism.
Now if I understand this story, right you're telling me that there's this nuclear company Which was financed under mysterious circumstances in the first place grant called new mech in Pennsylvania created back in the late 50s These are the same people we've talked about before we're diverting uranium for use in Israel's nuclear weapons And you're telling me that the CIA is keeping Secret vast amounts of information which could help the Army Corps of Engineers Right now clean up nuclear waste left by this now defunct company, is that right?
Did I sum up your position correctly here?
Yeah, it was a good summary, but I would I would mention that I am not just the Corps of Engineers But stakeholders in general and that would include residents Absolutely of the two townships where the facilities were located People in the Pennsylvania Valley where the EPA is testing the water and beginning to to really look at This particular dump site because it was as the article mentions the staggeringly inappropriate one And and yes, just the whole aspect of this company You know, it was in an industry where the average, you know annual revenues of its competitors were in the hundreds of millions of dollars And it would be generating something like seven to nine million dollars a year.
It was mysteriously small and ill-situated in an abandoned steel mine and so it raised Questions when it was operating and from hindsight it more resembles It's what I would call siblings, which are Front companies shell companies established in the United States expressively and for the purpose of diverting Weapons to Israel and I mentioned some of the historic ones in the article Service Airways, which was an Al Schwimmer Nahum Bernstein operations that smuggle warplanes to Israel mentioned materials for Palestine and also mentioned some of the subsequent front companies such as Milco which smuggled nuclear triggers to Israel and so this company matches the profile of a typical Israeli smuggling front company and So it's interesting to look at with you know Hindsight and perspective how it fits that mold and how it was operated and then ditched within about a decade leaving US taxpayers and then subsequent Corporations that in that purchased it holding the bag for all of the cleanup and health costs and so But yeah, your summary is accurate Well, I say hindsight nothing.
I mean what you're telling me is the CIA is Delivering you pages of magic marker blacking out what it says, which is that's what they knew the whole time, right?
Well, you know, there's a really interesting.
Yeah, I mean basically yes There were some CIA officials high officials who were so upset by this Such as their director of science and technology Carl Duckett and also the CIA Tel Aviv station chief Who were very frank and very open about this being an Israeli job from the beginning?and so they Have both given numerous Well, they both gave numerous interviews about About their findings, but the CIA won't release any of their documents, you know, these two gentlemen are now gone and there was a constant generation and and And analysis by the CIA which affected all administrations from Johnson to Carter about the New Mexico And Documents that have been identified even the titles of the documents have been identified with the CIA just won't release any of them They'll go through some some processes They'll make you wait a year and then they won't release anything And of course no excuses ever given except for national security or this one I love, you know just by virtue of the CIA Act of 1949 Well, then I say all these CIA guys are a bunch of sissies Otherwise, they would have the courage to put it all up on wikiLeaks Yeah, I know you and Ray McGovern or maybe you and Daniel Osberg have been talking about Why it is more people don't just step forward and do that Obviously the implications are this cowardice because they're little bitty babies pretending to be tough guys all day Well, the implications of this are huge I mean, you know, it's much more easy to treat the American people like children and You know again align with this policy of what's basically a mass deception campaign The Israelis can do it.
You know, they have this policy which The Cohen book about Amimot and Israel and the bomb bomb by Abner Cohen Explained in depth, which is just this policy of never talking about this, but in the United States You know, we have license to talk about anything and in particular important things affecting the United States and you know, basically governance and rule of law and so when President Obama or President Bush or whoever refused to even address Legitimate questions about the Israeli nuclear arsenal in particular how it may be driving proliferation That just means that they're treating the American people as though they aren't Stakeholders and have no say and can't handle The required level of information to even make informed choices at the vote voting booth.
So it's you know, it's obviously there's obviously a huge Consequence to releasing information in this domain but the point of this article is that Now the stakes have escalated even to the point of public health concerns and a little bit of information which trickled out You know back in August actually can help clean up a nuclear waste facility So, you know now it's beginning to look more like vanity and bureaucratic privilege rather than any sort of legitimate Retention of these documents Well, and you know as far as far-reaching consequences of the pretended ambiguity about Israel's nukes Just think about the effect it has on the debate about Iran Where all TV viewers in America are supposed to believe that tiny helpless little Israel is prostrate before the massive Persian Empire bent on destruction When in fact Israel's military could beat the Iranian military for a year in a row and They're armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons as the Iranians are not they even have German Submarines that it's probably a safe bet or floating off the Iranian coast in the Indian Ocean If not the Persian Gulf right now And it's ridiculous to believe that Israel would need protection by anyone from Iran and yet Because they won't say okay.
Well, we all know that Israel's hundreds and hundreds of nuclear weapons the This ridiculous narrative reigns on and on and on for years in a row decades in a row.
Yeah, it's time to change it Absolutely.
Oh and also, you know, the one more thing too is Because it's a front company.
That's why it's a worse mess than the average industrial or nuclear waste dump, right?
Because they weren't actually in the nuclear business.
They were in the stealing nuclear stuff business.
That's exactly right Well, good luck Pennsylvanians with that.
We don't talk about these kinds of things except on anti-war radio with Grant F Smith Thank you very much.
Ear map org.
I are MEP org.
That's right
