Israeli soldiers (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
MADAyuMadyan - Israel dalam simpanan senjata kimia dekad yang lalu - dokumen CIA. Israel dipercayai telah diam-diam membina simpanan sendiri senjata kimia dan biologi dekad yang lalu, laporan Dasar Luar, memetik satu dokumen CIA baru-baru ini ditemui.
Intipan satelit Amerika ditemui pada tahun 1982 “yang kemungkinan CW [senjata kimia] saraf agen kemudahan pengeluaran dan kemudahan penyimpanan . . . di Dimona Kawasan Penyimpanan sensitif di Gurun Negev, “kata rahsia 1983 CIA anggaran perisikan yang diperolehi oleh Dasar Luar (FP). “Lain-lain pengeluaran CW dipercayai wujud dalam industri kimia Israel maju,” dokumen itu menambah.
Menurut FP, agensi perisikan Amerika Syarikat hampir pasti bahawa Israel mempunyai simpanan stok senjata nuklear yang negara Timur Tengah yang dibangunkan pada 1960-an dan 1970-an sebagai sebahagian daripada pertahanan terhadap serangan mungkin dari jiran-jiran Arab.
Israel stockpiled chemical weapons decades ago – CIA document. Israel is believed to have secretly built up its own stockpile of chemical and biological weapons decades ago, reports Foreign Policy, citing a recently unearthed CIA document.
American surveillance satellites uncovered in 1982 “a probable CW [chemical weapon] nerve agent production facility and a storage facility . . . at the Dimona Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert,” states the secret 1983 CIA intelligence estimate obtained by Foreign Policy (FP). “Other CW production is believed to exist within a well-developed Israeli chemical industry,” the document adds.
According to FP, US intelligence agencies are almost certain that Israel possesses a stockpile of nuclear weapons that the Middle Eastern country developed in the 1960s and 1970s as part of its defense against a possible attack from Arab neighbors.
Laporan FP adalah berdasarkan halaman dari rahsia, 15 September 1983, CIA Khas Anggaran Perisikan Negara bertajuk “Implikasi Penggunaan Kimia Soviet dan Toksin Senjata bagi Kepentingan Keselamatan Amerika Syarikat.” Sebahagian daripada dokumen itu telah dikeluarkan pada tahun 2009 di Arkib Negara, tetapi sekeping di atas Israel telah dikeluarkan dari versi itu. (The FP report is based on a page from a secret, Sept. 15, 1983, CIA Special National Intelligence Estimate entitled “Implications of Soviet Use of Chemical and Toxin Weapons for US Security Interests.” Part of the document was released in 2009 in the National Archives, but the piece on Israel was extracted from that version).
Bagi tahun, penganalisis senjata kawalan telah membuat spekulasi bahawa Israel membina pelbagai kimia dan biologi senjata untuk melengkapkan senjata dikatakan nuklearnya.
Perhatian pakar-pakar, khususnya, telah memberi tumpuan kepada Israel Institut Penyelidikan Biologi (IIBR) di Ness Ziona, yang terletak 20 kilometer ke selatan Tel Aviv. Pusat penyelidikan yang sangat sulit dikendalikan dan dibiayai oleh Kementerian Pertahanan Israel yang dikatakan sebagai kemudahan ketenteraan pembuatan kimia dan senjata biologi. IIBR yang didakwa terlibat dalam beberapa “kemalangan.” Dalam salah seorang daripada mereka, menurut Laporan Luar British pada tahun 1998, pihak berkuasa telah hampir pesanan pemindahan rumah di kawasan itu sebelum saintis mendapati tiada ancaman kepada penduduk.
Walau bagaimanapun, setakat ini tidak banyak bukti telah diterbitkan mengenai Israel memiliki senjata nuklear atau kimia. Yang baru ditemui CIA memo boleh menjadi petunjuk yang kuat lagi, FP menulis.
“Walaupun kita tidak boleh mengesahkan sama ada Israel mempunyai bahan kimia maut,” dokumen CIA itu dipetik sebagai berkata, “beberapa petunjuk membawa kita untuk percaya bahawa mereka ada untuk mereka sekurang-kurangnya agen saraf berterusan dan bukan berterusan, ejen mustard, dan beberapa agen kawalan rusuhan, berarak dengan sistem penyampaian yang sesuai.”
“ejen tiada-persistent” yang disebut dalam dokumen rahsia adalah sarin mungkin - sebuah gas saraf yang didakwa telah digunakan dalam 21 Ogos serangan senjata kimia di pinggir bandar Damsyik, FP menulis. Amerika Syarikat menyalahkan kerajaan Syria untuk menyerang dan mengancam untuk melancarkan serangan tentera sebagai tindak balas.
1983 memo CIA mendedahkan bahawa perisikan Amerika Syarikat menyedari aktiviti senjata ujian kimia yang didakwa Israel sejak awal 1970-an - apabila mereka belajar daripada sumber-sumber risikan tentang kewujudan senjata kimia menguji alasan. Ia adalah hampir pasti bahawa kawasan-kawasan ujian yang terletak di Negev Desert, di selatan Israel, FP menulis.
Israel meningkatkan penyelidikan dan kerja pembangunan ke atas senjata kimia berikutan berakhirnya tahun 1973 Perang Arab-Israel, menurut dokumen CIA. Peperangan ini bermula apabila Mesir dan Syria melancarkan serangan mengejut bersama terhadap Israel sebagai negara itu menyambut Yom Kippur - hari yang paling suci dalam kalendar Yahudi.
“Israel, mencari dirinya dikelilingi oleh barisan hadapan negara Arab dengan keupayaan CW tunas, semakin sedar kelemahan kepada serangan kimia,” dokumen itu berkata. “Sensitiviti yang telah tergalvani oleh menangkap kuantiti besar Soviet peralatan CW-berkaitan dalam kedua-dua tahun 1967 Arab-Israel dan 1973 Yom Kippur peperangan. Hasilnya, Israel telah menjalankan program persediaan peperangan kimia di kawasan-kawasan kedua-dua serangan dan perlindungan.”
Laporan itu juga mendakwa bahawa pada bulan Januari 1976, perisikan Amerika dikesan “ujian mungkin” senjata kimia Israel kemungkinan besar telah berlaku di Gurun Negev. FP memetik risikan pegawai bekas Tentera Udara Amerika Syarikat, yang memberitahu majalah itu bahawa Agensi Keselamatan Negara memintas komunikasi yang menunjukkan bahawa tentera udara Israel pejuang-pengebom menjalankan simulasi misi penghantaran senjata kimia peringkat rendah di pelbagai pengeboman di Negev.
Ia adalah tidak diketahui sama ada Israel masih menyimpan stok didakwa senjata kimia. Pada tahun 1992, kerajaan Israel menandatangani Konvensyen Senjata Kimia, yang mengharamkan senjata itu. Yang penting, bagaimanapun, Israel tidak mengesahkan perjanjian itu.
Pengarang artikel FP mendakwa bahawa selepas carian di Google Maps, beliau mendapati apa yang dia percaya adalah “lokasi saraf Israel kemudahan pengeluaran ejen kimia dan kawasan penyimpanan yang berkaitan dengannya senjata” di Negev Desert timur kampung Al ‘Kilab, kira-kira 10 kilometer barat bandar Dimona.
Kedutaan Israel di Washington tidak bertindak balas kepada permintaan FP untuk mengulas mengenai artikel itu.
Dokumen CIA muncul sebagai Amerika Syarikat mulls atas mungkin serangan “terhad” ketenteraan terhadap rejim Syria bahawa Presiden Barack Obama telah menolak untuk mengikuti serangan senjata kimia bulan lepas.
Pada hari Selasa, Obama menggesa Kongres Amerika Syarikat untuk menangguhkan undi untuk membenarkan tindakan ketenteraan, dan berkata beliau mencari penyelesaian diplomatik kepada perang Syria yang sedang berjalan. Obama memetik cadangan Rusia untuk meletakkan senjata kimia Syria di bawah kawalan antarabangsa antara sebab-sebab bagi kelewatan. Damsyik minggu ini bersetuju untuk menyerahkan senjata kimia untuk penyelia antarabangsa, dan menandatangani Konvensyen Senjata Kimia.
For years, arms control analysts have speculated that Israel built up a range of chemical and biological weapons to complement its alleged nuclear arsenal.
Experts’ attention, in particular, was focused on the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) at Ness Ziona, located 20 kilometers south of Tel Aviv. The highly-classified research center operated and funded by the Israel Ministry of Defense is alleged to be a military facility manufacturing chemical and biological weapons. The IIBR was allegedly involved in several “accidents.” In one of them, according to the British Foreign Report in 1998, authorities were close to ordering evacuation of homes in the area before scientists discovered there was no threat to the population.
However, to date not much evidence has been published about Israel possessing chemical or nuclear weapons. The newly-discovered CIA memo may be the strongest indication yet, FP writes.
“While we cannot confirm whether the Israelis possess lethal chemical agents,” the CIA document is quoted as saying, “several indicators lead us to believe that they have available to them at least persistent and non-persistent nerve agents, a mustard agent, and several riot-control agents, marched with suitable delivery systems.”
The “non-persistent agent” mentioned in the secret document was likely sarin – a nerve gas that was allegedly used in the August 21 chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb, FP writes. The US blamed the Syrian government for the attack and threatened to launch a military strike in response.
The 1983 CIA memo reveals that US intelligence was aware of Israeli alleged chemical weapons-testing activities since the early 1970s – when they learned from intelligence sources about the existence of chemical weapons testing grounds. It is almost certain that these test areas were located in Negev Desert, in southern Israel, FP writes.
Israel stepped up its research and development work on chemical weapons following the end of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, according to the CIA document. The war began when Egypt and Syria launched a joint surprise attack against Israel as the nation was celebrating Yom Kippur – the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar.
“Israel, finding itself surrounded by frontline Arab states with budding CW capabilities, became increasingly conscious of its vulnerability to chemical attack,” the document says. “Its sensitivities were galvanized by the capture of large quantities of Soviet CW-related equipment during both the 1967 Arab-Israeli and the 1973 Yom Kippur wars. As a result, Israel undertook a program of chemical warfare preparations in both offensive and protective areas.”
The report also claims that in January 1976, American intelligence detected “possible tests” of Israeli chemical weapons very likely to have taken place in the Negev Desert. FP cites a former US Air Force intelligence officer, who told the magazine that the National Security Agency intercepted communications indicating that Israeli air force fighter-bombers carried out a simulated low-level chemical weapons delivery missions at a bombing range in the Negev.
It is unknown whether Israel still keeps its alleged stockpile of chemical weapons. In 1992, the Israeli government signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, which outlaws such arms. Crucially, however, Israel has not ratified the agreement.
The author of the FP article claims that after a search on Google Maps, he found what he believes to be “the location of the Israeli nerve agent production facility and its associated chemical weapons storage area” in the Negev Desert east of the village of al-Kilab, about 10 miles west of the city of Dimona.
The Israeli embassy in Washington did not respond to FP’s requests to comment on the article.
The CIA document emerged as the US mulls over a possible “limited” military strike against the Syrian regime that President Barack Obama was pushing for following the chemical weapons attack last month.
On Tuesday, Obama the urged the US Congress to postpone a vote to authorize military action, and said he was seeking a diplomatic solution to the ongoing Syrian war. Obama cited the Russian proposal to put Syria’s chemical weapons under international control among the reasons for the delay. Damascus has this week agreed to hand over its chemical weapons to international supervisors, and to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention.
