http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=55488&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=YArticle from Israeli Newspaper Ha´aretz, Internet
Edition
Israeli secrets could be
exposed by nuclear trigger dealer's arrest
By Yossi Melman
July 24, 2001
There is deep concern at the Defense Ministry that the arrest in
Spain two weeks ago of an American charged with illegal arms trading
could reveal details of how Israel acquired materials for its nuclear
initiatives.
Neither the U.S. nor Spain have yet asked Israel for any
information regarding the Malaga arrest of Richard Kelly Smith, the
71-year-old fugitive who jumped bail rather than face charges in the
U.S. in 1985 of illegally selling Israel and Taiwan Krypton triggers
used in the manufacture of nuclear bombs, a defense ministry source
said yesterday.
But behind a fa?ade of calm, the ministry is seriously concerned
that Smith's extradition to the U.S. to stand trial could lead to
exposure of some of the inner workings of Israeli purchasing for its
nuclear initiatives, and its special relations with the U.S.
Smith was arrested two weeks ago by Spanish police responding to a
long-standing extradition request by the U.S. News of his arrest was
released this weekend. The extradition request, said a spokesman for
the Spanish Justice Ministry, was sent in 1992.
Smith was the president of a West Coast company called Milco,
which manufactured microchips, and worked for NASA, the U.S. space
administration. In May 1985, he was arrested on suspicion of
illegally selling the Israeli defense ministry 850 electronic Krypton
triggers, used for triggering the detonation of nuclear bombs. After
interrogation by the police in Los Angeles, he posted $100,000 bond
for his trial on charges of counterfeiting and illegal export of
material used for nuclear weapons development. But he and his wife
disappeared from Los Angeles, leaving behind a half-million dollar
home and the forfeited bond money. Over the years there have been
rumors he was seen in Israel and Britain. The FBI declared him a
wanted fugitive at the time and reports then suggested he may have
left the U.S. on board his yacht.
During the investigation into his activities, U.S. authorities
learned he also sold the triggers to Taiwan. Like Israel, Taiwan is
not a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, making it
illegal for a U.S. citizen to sell Israel or Taiwan equipment used
for manufacturing nuclear bombs.
Smith's investigation led to Arnon Milchin, now a top Hollywood
producer, who owned a company called Hailey that served as the link
between Milco and the Israeli Defense Ministry. The investigation
revealed that between 1973 and 1985 when he was arrested, some 80
percent of Milco's sales were to Israel, which raised suspicions that
Milco itself was an Israeli front for illegal purchases by the
Israeli Defense Ministry in the U.S.
Milchin, originally from Rehovot, was never indicted in the case.
But a number of years ago in interviews about his rise to prominence
in Hollywood as a producer, he hinted that he had been involved "in
certain kinds of activities that are best not talked about."
At the time of the Milco scandal in 1985, Israel denied that it
was using the Krypton triggers for its nuclear program, claiming they
had been used for the pharmaceutical industry here. But three months
after Smith disappeared, the FBI arrested Jonathan Pollard, a junior
officer working for the Navy and spying for Israel. Pollard had been
transferring documents to Israeli contacts from Lakam, a
then-little-known unit in the Defense Ministry headed by Rafi Eitan,
an appointee of Ariel Sharon, when the latter was Defense Minister in
the early 1980s.
