Declassified U.S. documents prove Israeli-South African N-Test in 1979
By The Wayne Madsen Report
As with anything relating to covert Israeli operations, the U.S. National Archives must tread carefully when releasing formerly classified documents that reveal Israeli secrets. Due to the immense influence of Jewish organizations and the Israel Lobby in the United States, verboten classified documents have included those relating to the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, the Jonathan Pollard spy ring, and, most importantly, Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. However, due to the release of files from President Jimmy Carter's administration, including those originating with Carter's special envoy for nuclear non-proliferation matters, Ambassador Gerard Smith, the public now knows much more about the joint Israeli-South African nuclear test conducted in 1979. The test occurred on September 22, 1979 in a remote area of the South Atlantic, near the Prince Edward Islands, a possession of South Africa.
A U.S. Vela satellite, designed to detect nuclear explosions, identified a double flash in the South Atlantic. In 2010, Carter, himself, wrote in his book that he believed the Israelis, working jointly with the apartheid government of South Africa, tested a nuclear device either using a ship or another type of platform. Carter was in a political quandary. If he publicly announced that Israel and South Africa tested a nuclear weapon, U.S. law required him to apply sanctions against Israel. Sanctions were already in effect against South Africa due to its apartheid racial policies. However, Israel, which had and continues to have undue influence over U.S. politics, was another matter. Carter, who had staked his reputation on the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt, could ill-afford to see his marquee foreign policy success unravel. So the U.S. government officially remained silent.
The declassified Smith files now prove that Tel Aviv and Pretoria became members of the nuclear club on September 22, 1979. The files document the conclusions of the
Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC)-- which ran a series of acoustic detection facilities around the world to detect underground seismic harmonics of nuclear blasts in a range below 1 hertz -- the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the Central Intelligence Agency that the September 22 double flash picked up by the Vela satellite was from a nuclear blast. Radioactive substances, including high levels of Iodine 131, an isotope resulting from nuclear explosions, were found in rainwater samples collected by the New Zealand Institute of Nuclear Science (INS) and in thyroid gland tissue samples of Australian sheep analyzed by the DIA. However, this and other evidence was buried by officials in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand who were fearful of the vengeance that could be expected from the Jewish community and Israeli Lobby.
Although Politico reported on Smith's findings on December 8, WMR revealed the details of the Israeli-South African nuclear test on July 15, 2006:
"On September 22, 1979, Israel and South Africa conducted a joint nuclear test in the southern Indian Ocean, near the Prince Edward Islands. A U.S. Vela spy satellite detected the blast. In addition, the radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico detected a ionospheric disturbance at the time of the nuclear detection by the Vela satellite. In addition, a TIROS geophysical satellite detected an electronic event at the time of the blast and the CIA dispatched teams to study acoustic data captured by U.S. Navy Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) underwater hydrophones. Analysis of the acoustic data also indicated a nuclear detonation had taken place. After Israeli-South African nuclear cooperation was discovered, the two nations' intelligence agencies worked closely together. South African intelligence strongly relied on Israeli intelligence assets in Washington, DC, including individuals who are now key operatives of the Bush administration's neo-con cells within the Pentagon, National Security Council, State Department, and CIA."
This editor assisted a CIA analyst who traveled under MITRE Corporation contractor cover. The analyst arrived in Keflavik, Iceland subsequent to the South Atlantic nuclear test to examine the SOSUS low frequency passive acoustic sonar grams, as well as the lower-frequency seismic acoustic grams of the AFTAC unit, gathered under the auspices of the U.S. Naval Facility where this editor was serving as Maintenance Officer. Although there were no acoustic traces of the nuclear blast found above 1 hertz, the analyst hit pay dirt when examining the AFTAC unit's data. He confided that the data pointed to a nuclear blast in the South Atlantic that involved Israel, South Africa, and another nation, Taiwan.
The saga of the Israeli-South African nuclear test in 1979 is yet another case in which the influence of the Israel Lobby and Jewish political donors has been used to obscure and alter U.S. intelligence.
As with anything relating to covert Israeli operations, the U.S. National Archives must tread carefully when releasing formerly classified documents that reveal Israeli secrets. Due to the immense influence of Jewish organizations and the Israel Lobby in the United States, verboten classified documents have included those relating to the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, the Jonathan Pollard spy ring, and, most importantly, Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. However, due to the release of files from President Jimmy Carter's administration, including those originating with Carter's special envoy for nuclear non-proliferation matters, Ambassador Gerard Smith, the public now knows much more about the joint Israeli-South African nuclear test conducted in 1979. The test occurred on September 22, 1979 in a remote area of the South Atlantic, near the Prince Edward Islands, a possession of South Africa.
A U.S. Vela satellite, designed to detect nuclear explosions, identified a double flash in the South Atlantic. In 2010, Carter, himself, wrote in his book that he believed the Israelis, working jointly with the apartheid government of South Africa, tested a nuclear device either using a ship or another type of platform. Carter was in a political quandary. If he publicly announced that Israel and South Africa tested a nuclear weapon, U.S. law required him to apply sanctions against Israel. Sanctions were already in effect against South Africa due to its apartheid racial policies. However, Israel, which had and continues to have undue influence over U.S. politics, was another matter. Carter, who had staked his reputation on the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt, could ill-afford to see his marquee foreign policy success unravel. So the U.S. government officially remained silent.
The declassified Smith files now prove that Tel Aviv and Pretoria became members of the nuclear club on September 22, 1979. The files document the conclusions of the
Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC)-- which ran a series of acoustic detection facilities around the world to detect underground seismic harmonics of nuclear blasts in a range below 1 hertz -- the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the Central Intelligence Agency that the September 22 double flash picked up by the Vela satellite was from a nuclear blast. Radioactive substances, including high levels of Iodine 131, an isotope resulting from nuclear explosions, were found in rainwater samples collected by the New Zealand Institute of Nuclear Science (INS) and in thyroid gland tissue samples of Australian sheep analyzed by the DIA. However, this and other evidence was buried by officials in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand who were fearful of the vengeance that could be expected from the Jewish community and Israeli Lobby.
Although Politico reported on Smith's findings on December 8, WMR revealed the details of the Israeli-South African nuclear test on July 15, 2006:
"On September 22, 1979, Israel and South Africa conducted a joint nuclear test in the southern Indian Ocean, near the Prince Edward Islands. A U.S. Vela spy satellite detected the blast. In addition, the radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico detected a ionospheric disturbance at the time of the nuclear detection by the Vela satellite. In addition, a TIROS geophysical satellite detected an electronic event at the time of the blast and the CIA dispatched teams to study acoustic data captured by U.S. Navy Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) underwater hydrophones. Analysis of the acoustic data also indicated a nuclear detonation had taken place. After Israeli-South African nuclear cooperation was discovered, the two nations' intelligence agencies worked closely together. South African intelligence strongly relied on Israeli intelligence assets in Washington, DC, including individuals who are now key operatives of the Bush administration's neo-con cells within the Pentagon, National Security Council, State Department, and CIA."
This editor assisted a CIA analyst who traveled under MITRE Corporation contractor cover. The analyst arrived in Keflavik, Iceland subsequent to the South Atlantic nuclear test to examine the SOSUS low frequency passive acoustic sonar grams, as well as the lower-frequency seismic acoustic grams of the AFTAC unit, gathered under the auspices of the U.S. Naval Facility where this editor was serving as Maintenance Officer. Although there were no acoustic traces of the nuclear blast found above 1 hertz, the analyst hit pay dirt when examining the AFTAC unit's data. He confided that the data pointed to a nuclear blast in the South Atlantic that involved Israel, South Africa, and another nation, Taiwan.
The saga of the Israeli-South African nuclear test in 1979 is yet another case in which the influence of the Israel Lobby and Jewish political donors has been used to obscure and alter U.S. intelligence.
