Israel Accepted as Full Member of CERN, Worlds Largest Science Project

Congratulations to Israel for being accepted as the first non-European full member of CERN today, the prestigious European Organization for Nuclear Research, and the worlds largest ongoing science project. Given Israel's amazing scientific accomplishments, this was an easy call for CERN from a purely scientific perspective. As revealed in the book Confidential, Arnon Milchan was given a VIP tour of CERN on April 25, 2007. An interesting tidbit considering Milchan's key covert role in the Israeli nuclear program in decades past.

On April 25, 2007, Arnon Milchan toured 

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

The New York Times Rejects Repeated Reqeusts for an Article on Israel's Channel 2 Milchan Report... Says Uvda's Report is "Nothing New" and Based Entierly on The Book 'Confidential'.

By Eric Wilder - Hollywood

I'm not a journalist, but I play one on TV...
I use other peoples material and pretend like its mine 

 

 

 

ILANA DAYAN'S ATTEMPTED HIJACKING OF 'CONFIDNTIAL'  

 

Based entirely on the book indeed: After watching the program, there is simply no question that the New York Times had it right and that book 'Confidential' served as the entire script for the Uvda show, in some cases almost word for word.

Her show would not have been even remotely possible without the book which served as her inspiration, her road map, her script and even her dialogue. Ilana Dayan gave a very quick "thanks to Joe Gelman and Meir Doron, the authors of the book" at the end of the show as the credits rolled... almost as an afterthought.

The authors are surly thankful for the "thanks", but fairness would dictate something a little more substantial than a legal ass-covering.  

'Uvda' is Israel Channel 2's leading investigative reporting program, anchored by Ilana Dayan. A year ago, Channel 2 approached the authors of 'Confidential' for help in putting together an investigative program based on the groundbreaking reporting in the book. The authors agreed and co-author Meir Doron was interviewed extensively for background information.

The report aired on Monday, November 25.

As it turned out, a funny thing happened on the way to the airing of that program. Suddenly, Ilana Dayan and her staff began to describe their report as "exclusive discoveries",  "for the first time", "until now only rumors"... etc... forgetting their source.

It should be noted that Mr. Milchan has never denied a single assertion in the book 'Confidential' despite every opportunity to do so, and had interviewed in person for tens of hours for the book. The Uvda program was merely Mr. Milchan's way of coming out and publically saying: THE BOOK IS ACCURATE.

In a desperate and obvious ploy to cover and deflect from her utter dependence on the book, Ilan Dayan then used a source, NBC's Robert Windrem, who was referred to her by anti-nuclear gadfly, Avner Cohen; both of whom are hard-left ideologues with a substantial history of an anti-Israel agenda. Windrem's contribution was based on and limited to his understanding of Milchan's activities in South Africa, written about extensively by the authors of Confidential. 

With authors research in hand, Uvda's producers then made every effort to promote the show as original material and exclusive findings when it was not. Fortunately, aside from their own website (and the wildly unprofessional right-wing publication "Yisrael Hayom" in Israel), prior to the show, no serious publication agreed to cover the issue without crediting the book. 

Examples:
Haaretz, New York Daily News, UK Daily Mail, UK Independent, Hollywood Reporter, The Times of India, The Voice of Russia, The Hong Kong Daily Apple.... etc....

Even following the airing of the show, as the story went viral around the world, most publications had the decency to at least reference the book that made the story possible.

Examples: Fox News, NBC, CBS, The UK Daily Mail, The UK Guardian... etc... some even placing pictures of the book's front cover in their stories. A level of professional courtesy not displayed by Uvda.

But the New York Times, to their credit, went even further:

They refused to publish any report on the 'Uvda' story as a matter of journalistic principle. After being "badgered" by 'Ilana Dayan's producers to do a story, the New York Times responded that there is nothing in the Uvda story worthy of reporting on that has not already been revealed in the book 'Confidential' two years earlier, which the New York Times covered extensively.

Arguably, other than the many elements left out of the Uvda story that are in the book, the ONLY semi-meaningful elements in the 'Uvda' story that differ from 'Confidential' involve:

1) Mr. Milchan implicating former director Sidney Pollock in his espionage activities. Of course, Sidney Pollock is conveniently dead and is not in a position of confirm or deny Mr. Milchan's words. Out of respect to Mr. Pollack and his family, and out of journalistic integrity because it could not be reasonably confirmed, the authors of Confidential left that claim out of their book, refusing to take Mr. Milchan's sole word on that matter at face value.

2) The other element that 'Uvda' claims as 'groundbreaking' is Mr. Milchan's amazingly blatant assertion that he USED actor Richard Dreyfuss to lure one of the fathers of the hydrogen bomb, Author Biehl, to a meeting with Israeli intelligence. That story was mentioned in the book 'Confidential' on pages 137 and 138. The book gave both Mr. Milchan and Mr. Biehl's versions of the story and let the reader decide who was telling the truth, without directly and unfairly involving/implicating Mr. Richard Dreyfuss, who was an unwitting partner to the affair. 'Uvda' simply repeated that story but greatly highlighted the involvement of the Academy Award winning actor to increase the sex appeal of the story at Mr. Dryefuss expense. One wonders how Mr. Dryefuss feels about that? And it is surprising that Ilan Dayan did not seek a reaction from Mr. Dreyfuss, if only as a matter journalistic integrity.

But Ilana Dayan's cynical hijacking did not end there. In promoting the show, Uvda published material almost word for word from the Hebrew version of 'Confidential', and from an article in the respected news website Tablet Magazine, and even used an almost identical graphic for their story that was published in Tablet Magazine... and again claimed the revelations to be "for the first time"... "exclusive"... etc.... Below are posts of the two almost identical stories. I would challenge those who are fluent in English and Hebrew to find the "exclusivity" in the Uvda article:

The 2011 Tablet Magazine article here, and graphic below:

The 2013 Uvda article on Mako here, and graphic below:

          In the end, Uvda and Ilana Dayan do have one achievement that cannot be denied or taken away; they successfully got Mr. Arnon Milchan on camera to publicly admit to the very serious clandestine activity that was revealed in the book 'Confidential', which he had not denied since the publication of the book in the first place. That alone is an impressive achievement on her part. Thus, one wonders why Ilana Dayan felt the need to embellish and claim "exclusive"... "for the first time" credit on the actual substance of journalistic discoveries that she had absolutely nothing to do with.

One of Israel's leading media critics, Dvorit Shargal put it best in her stinging report on the matter in her website Velvet Underground: "'Uvda' did not reveal Milchan's Secret Life" ... Confidential did that!

The Aftermath:
Perhaps one of the most appalling aspects of this journalistic malfeasance, were the efforts by Israel's channel 2 to block international media outlets from using their footage in reporting on the story. When NBC News' Andrea Mitchell called to seek approval to use Uvda footage on a story for NBC Nightly News' broadcast nationally in the US, Israel's channel 2 resisted giving authorization. In the end, NBC used the material after a legal determination that it fell under the "fair usage" rule for news.

So what we have here is Israel's channel 2 using other peoples material without extending due credit, and then throwing up roadblocks to those, like NBC News, who would use their material legitimately.

I believe the word for that is Chatzpah.

Ha'aretz: Hollywood is Always on the Lookout for Blockbuster Stories, and This Coming Monday it will get the Juicy Details

Although this is the first time that Milchan has spoken about the subject since the publication of 'Confidential'....

This isn’t the first time Milchan's role in Israeli arms dealings and intelligence has surfaced: Just two years ago authors Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman published a book titled “Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan" – which alleged that Milchan was an operative for Israel's Bureau of Scientific Relations. The bureau, headed by spy-masters Benjamin Blumberg and Rafi Eitan, gathered information for secret defense-related programs, including Israel's alleged nuclear program. The bureau was closed after Jonathan Pollard was arrested for spying on behalf of Israel in 1986.

The "Uvda" report does, however, contain some shocking new details about Milchan's work, including claims that other Hollywood bigwigs like the legendary, late director Sydney Pollack and at least one other Academy Award-winning actor, both figured into his work for Israel.

Israel's Channel 2 to Air Lengthy Interview with Arnon Milchan, Possibly about Subjects Raised in 'Confidential'

Israel's Channel 2 Ilana Dayan is not a pushover. She Interviewed Arnon Milchan for the Investigative show 'Uvda'. It has the potential to be a blockbuster of an interview if she did not hold back, and no back-room deals were cut.  

A bird has just whispered in our ear, informing us that a lengthy interview with Hollywood Producer Arnon Milchan has been given to Israel's premier investigative journalism show 'Uvda', a few days ago. The show will air in prime time, 9:00 PM, in approximately two weeks. Channel 2 is Israel's most watched station, and Uvda is it's most important investigative show. The interviewer, Ilana Dayan is one of Israel's most respected investigative journalists. Channel 2 will begin promoting the show, which will also be its season premier, in the coming days.

Clearly, a number of crucial elements exposed in the book 'Confidential' will be discussed, and this may represent the first time that Arnon Milchan has agreed to discuss such matters publicly. We do not know exactly what was said in the interview, but we do know that the book 'Confidential' served as the significant resource for the interviewer. Ilana Dayan is not known to throw soft-balls, or to be used as a PR tool, so there is a good chance that the interview will be authentic and impactful. Stay tuned.

FBI Files: Smyth Claimed in 2002 FBI Debrief That He Sent Nuclear Triggers to Netanyahu, Who He [Smyth] Says Worked for Milchan at the Time (Early 80's/Late 70's). Allegation The Authors Could Not Confirm One Way Or The Other:

Just released, heavily censored FBI files describe (among other things), meetings between convicted spy Richard Kelly Smyth and a young Benjamin Netanyahu (now Prime minister), who Smyth said in the 2002 FBI debrief worked for Arnon Milchan’s Heli-Trading Ltd, where the Krytrons (nuclear triggers) were sent. The files were released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to an organization hostile to Israel which requested them:

http://www.irmep.org/ila/krytons/06272012_milco_mdr.pdf

Of course, Iran’s Press TV immediately jumped on this, predictably accusing Netanyahu of “nuclear smuggling” in his younger years. The Iranians reference Confidential: The Life Of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan.  

Important Notes:
The authors of Confidential were aware of Smyth's insistence on Netanyahu’s involvement in the nuclear triggers smuggling case and quote Smyth saying so in the book, but Milchan explained to the authors during interviews with him that Smyth is lying about that. Milchan explained that he did not even know Netanyahu until the 1990’s. That is why Confidential left the matter unresolved, and simply reported what both sides claimed. Now we know that this is what the FBI heard from Smyth as well during his 2002 debriefing. Although anything is possible, and the authors are not infallible and may have missed it, the authors tend to lean towards Milchan's version of events in this case because of what is known about Netanyahu's biographic timeline (unless of course, Netanyahu's employment at RIM Furniture in the late 70's was a cover) . It is hard to believe when he [Netanyahu] could have fit in any covert activity of the nature described in this FBI memo during any portion of his busy, public and well documented career. One must also take into consideration that Smyth had every reason to try to embarrass Milchan at that point after his arrest, and stated clearly in his memoirs that he had every intention to do so. It must also be remembered, that these FBI files merely reflect what Smyth told the FBI, and do not pass judgment on whether the information is accurate. The fact that they were found in secret files released only after a FOIA request, does not indicate any greater level of credibility beyond Smyth's word, and beyond what was already known and mentioned in the book, pages 214-216, where Smyth threatened Milchan in a letter and mentioned Netanyahu. In this case, the alluring title of "secret FBI file" does not necessarily mean instant credibility and in fact could transmit a misleading and unjustified aura of credibility. 


On the other hand, obviously, there is also an inherent interest by both Mr. Milchan and Mr. Netanyahu to deny any such past relationship or activity. It might also be noted that lying to the FBI is a federal offence, which could have entailed more jail-time for Smyth, so why would he do that? It is hard to understand what Smyth's motivation for lying would have been, and to merely embarrass Mr. Milchan does not seem motivation enough to justify the risk, but anything is possible. Furthermore, the claim that Milchan did not know Netanyahu until the 90's is not a weighty explanation because there were many people who worked for Mr. Milchan's front companies like Heli-Trading Ltd. who he [Milchan] never met... as Dvora Ben Yizchak confirmed. 


The authors opinions and analysis aside, in reality, they admit that they have no way of confirming one way or the other, who's telling the truth...thus they left the matter hanging in the book, which of course, could serve as fodder for conspiracy theorists. It will be up to enterprising investigative journalists to find the truth.   


In any event, Note that Sharon's name is misspelled, that they call Dvora Ben Ytzchak (Milchan's assistant for covert activity) "Benny Ytzchak" ... and many other details in the memo that  are flat out wrong.... which leads the authors to believe that they have a clearer grasp of the facts in this case than the FBI ever had.  


The most interesting elements to the authors of Confidential, in the recently released FBI documents, is the fact almost everyone's names were redacted except for 'Benjamin Netanyahu'. The authors find it strange that the FBI found it necessarily to redact 'Milchan', 'Smyth' and other names, but not Mr. Netanyahu's name. It was either accidentally left in, or was purposefully left in, knowing that it will become public in this context... which is telling in itself.  It is well known that Netanyahu is disliked at various American government  agencies such as the State Department, the FBI and others, this release is either an explanation for, or a consequence of, that disliking. The release was also the first time that the authors had ever head the term "Operation Pinto", which is the name apparently used by Israeli intelligence for the efforts to obtain various technologies, equipment and material for the nuclear program through the LAKAM front company "Milco". In fact, the name "Operation Pinto" is the only element in the FBI file not mentioned in Confidential.  

Stuxnet-Flame: 'Confidential' Got It Right

The New York Times reports today on the joint US-Israel cyber-war on Iran. Exclusive details of that war are described in-depth in the book Confidential.   

Page 92:
"One of his [Arnon Milchan's] many objectives was to secure the design of centrifuges, a new [at the time] and highly secret method of enriching uranium. The primary manufacturer of centrifuges in the world was Urenco Ltd., a firm based in Julich, Germany, and owned by a consortium of Dutch, German and British companies.


According to Dr. Avner Cohen, a leading expert on nuclear proliferation, Israel started experimenting with centrifuges in the early to mid 1960's, "but it took a while, at least a decade to master the technology." In fact, Israel never entirely mastered centrifuge technology on its own. Only after secretly obtaining the Urenco centrifuge blueprints in the early 1970's from a senior Urenco executive, did Israel finally take command of the technology. Money was exchanged, the blueprints were "misplaced" and later found, but not before copies were made, which miraculously appeared on Benjamin Blumberg's desk in Tel Aviv. Mission accomplished."


Within a few years of Milchan's first Dimona visit, an entire new 'Machon' at Dimona was devoted to enriching uranium, more efficiently and quickly, through centrifuges manufactured entirely in Israel based exactly on the Urenco blueprint. Machon-8, with its thousands of spinning centrifuges, might justifiably be called Machon Milchan. 


It is noteworthy that shortly after Israel secured centrifuge technology from Urenco, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of the Pakistani bomb, who then worked at one of Urenco's affiliated labs in Holland, also secured the same centrifuge designs for Pakistan, and he later sold them to Iran.... which explains how Israel and Iran are today operating virtually identical centrifuges for uranium enrichment, a fact that Israel would take advantage of at a later stage.


Page 262-263:
"Over the years, the United States has tacitly accepted Israel's status as the only nuclear power in the Middle East. That monopoly is currently challenged by a fundamentalist Islamic regime in Iran that denies the Holocaust and maintains deep ties to proxy terror organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas, who represent an existential threat to Israel. To counter the growing threat, the renamed LAKAM, and the Mossad have kicked into high hear. Every known computer system in Iran has been bugged." [We now know that the bugging method was the Flame virus].    


It is widely reported that Israel is directly responsible for the penetration of the Stuxnet worm into computers that control Iran's uranium enrichment program and its spinning centrifuges. The Stuxnet is considered the ost sophisticated cyber attack since the dawn of the digital age, setting Iran's nuclear program back bu a number of years. On January 15, 2011, The New York Times reported that the Stuxnet worm was tested at Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor, where Israeli uses identical centrifuges. As reported for the first time in this book, the reason Iran and Israel's centrifuges are identical is because both countries obtained the design from the same source in the early 1970's: the German company Urenco."
    


    

Ma'ariv: Legendary Israeli Spy-Master, Benjamin Blumberg, Confirms That Arnon Milchan Was Top Secret Agent Working For Him

The first photograph of legendary Israeli spy-master Benjamin Blumberg
ever published. Blumberg created and ran Israel's super-secret LAKAM spy
agency. Image published in Israel's Maariv Newspaper 04-06-2012.

The Passover addition of one of Israel's oldest and largest daily newspapers, Maariv, contains a huge interview with Benjamin Blumberg, one of the most important hero's in the non-fiction book Confidential. At age 88, these are the first words ever uttered publicly by the legendary spy-master who, on orders from David Ben Gurion and Shimon Peres, created the LAKAM, the Science Liaison Bureau spy agency focused on obtaining technology and materials for Israel's clandestine nuclear program. Blumberg headed LAKAM until the early 1980's, a very active and successful  period. In 1981, the agency was taken over by spy-master Rafi Eitan following a reorganization by then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. For the first time ever, Blumberg confirmed his relationship with prolific Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, who was one of his most important and productive agents over a period of many years. The article is in Hebrew, and also contains the only known photograph every taken of Benjamin Blumberg since his high-school days in pre-Israel Palestine. (link to the Maariv article is now available).

The Authors Interview With Israeli President Shimon Peres:

On February 8th, 2010, the authors of Confidential interviewed Israeli President Shimon Peres on the life of legendary Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. The President confirmed in generalities Mr. Milchan's substantial contributions to the defense of Israel in a covert capacity, and that he [Peres] had "recruited him" back during the days when he served in the Ministry of Defense in the 1960's. When we asked whether he believed Mr. Milchan worthy of the Israel Defense Prize, he stated that as President he could not make any individual recommendation but that he certainly felt that he [Milchan] is worthy; "and that that, in fact, is almost a recommendation". He also stated within the context of our discussions about Mr. Milchan and the nuclear program, that "we went for Dimona [Israel's nuclear rector] in order to reach for peace", i.e. peace through strength. A direct acknowledgement of Israel's nuclear program and its defense-related implications. The cordial interview was conducted in Hebrew at the Presidents Residence in Jerusalem. The President was calm, courteous, measured, professional, generous with his time, and straightforward. We asked to tape the interview but his assistant who was also present requested that we take notes instead. The President however, did tape the interview. We are thankful to him for extending us this journalistic opportunity.