Reliable
sources have revealed that as a result of a secret trial, Iranian
nuclear
whistleblower Amid Nasri has been sentenced to 18 years in solitary
confinement. Nasri, a former worker
at an Iranian uranium enrichment plant, revealed to the The Sunday Times
in London that Iran was developing nuclear
materials as part of a program to create nuclear weapons. Lured
to Rome
by a strikingly beautiful Iranian secret agent, Nasri was kidnapped by
the
secret service and returned to Iran
for trial.
The
government of Iran
issued a brief statement in which they claim that Nasri violated the
national
security of the Islamic Republic of Iran and was tried and punished
accordingly. They state that he had
a contractual obligation not to release any information concerning the
work of
the uranium enrichment plant where he worked.
Nasri
has been incarcerated in Iran's
highest level security prison and has not been allowed to speak to the
press or
to foreign officials. He is under
such severe restrictions that he is not allowed even to speak with other
prison
inmates.
There
have been widespread protests from Western governments about Nasri's
treatment at the hands of the Iranian
government. A high-level UK official
called the secret trial a "sham of the first order," and harshly
criticized the Iranian government for its heavy handed treatment of
Nasri. US officials have also protested Nasri's
conviction, calling him a hero for making public
the information on the Iranian nuclear weapon program.
Before
you become too concerned about the harsh treatment of this Iranian
whistleblower acting for the common good, I need to tell you that he is
fictional. He does not exist. There is also
no proof of an Iranian
nuclear weapon program, although there are concerns about its nuclear
enrichment program.
The
story, though, is not entirely false.
There is an Israeli nuclear whistleblower by the name of
Mordechai Vanunu.
He worked as a nuclear technician at the Negev
Nuclear Research
Center in Israel. He revealed information on the Israeli
nuclear weapon program to the The Sunday Times in London
in 1986. He was lured from London to Rome by a
beautiful Israeli secret agent, where he was kidnapped by Israel's
secret service and returned to Israel. There he was given a
secret trial,
convicted and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. He
served more than 11 years of his
sentence in solitary confinement.
The Israelis claimed that Vanunu
violated his contractual obligations of secrecy and was a national
security
risk.
Vanunu was released
from prison in 2004, but under
harsh parole terms. He is not
allowed to leave Israel,
nor is he allowed to talk to foreigners.
In 2007, Vanunu served
another six months in prison for violating the terms of his parole.
In May 2010, Vanunu
was returned to prison for three months for violating the terms of his
parole. Amnesty International has
called Vanunu a prisoner of
conscience. Although he has
received many awards for his courage in blowing the whistle on Israel's
nuclear weapons program and has been nominated many times for the Nobel
Peace
Prize, he has received virtually no support from Western governments.
What
are we to learn from this tale of two whistleblowers, one fictitious, one
real? One
important lesson is the danger of nuclear double standards. We
cannot be content to make a hero of a
fictional Iranian nuclear whistleblower, while turning a blind eye to
the
treatment of a real-life Israeli nuclear whistleblower and to the
Israeli
nuclear arsenal.
Nuclear
weapons are not reasonable weapons in the hands of any nation -- not
Israel, not Iran,
not the US, the UK, or any
other nation. We should not be
complacent with the punishment of messengers such as Vanunu. We
should laud them and work to assure
that no nation holds in its hands the nuclear power of mass
annihilation. The
Final Document of the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference
calls for
a Middle East Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone, a long time aspiration of the
people of
this region. If such a zone is
created, it will mean that Iran
and other countries in the region will not be able to develop nuclear
weapons,
but it will also mean that Israel
will not be able to continue to possess its nuclear arsenal, which is
thought
to contain some 200 nuclear weapons.
If
we are going to prevent future replays of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki,
or even worse scenarios, we must rid the world of nuclear weapons.
It will not be easy, but it is necessary
if we are to assure the continuation of human life on our planet.
President Obama
has told us that America
seeks "the peace and security of a world without nuclear
weapons." In that world,
whistleblowers like Mordechai Vanunu
will be respected and honored for the courage they displayed in
revealing the
truth in the face of the overwhelming power and hypocrisy of the state
and of a
global system that unwisely supported nuclear double standards.
David Krieger
is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
(www.wagingpeace.org),
an
organization that has worked for the abolition of nuclear weapons since
1982.