[Imc-uk-features] vanunu feature for thurs 30th (today)

[radged01 at fastmail.fm]

here is the vanunu feature. aren't sure if the code before / after links
is as it should be. please can someone check the code and - barring
objections - put it up on site?

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* IMC UK Feature / thurs 30 Sept 04

* Selection of photos here: http://www.vanunu.freeserve.co.uk/

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"it is exactly 18 years and i am free and strng as i was 18 years ago"

- Mordechai Vanunu 




Today (30 September) is the 18th anniversary of Mordechai Vanunu's
kidnap by Israeli security forces. 

Vanunu was a subordinate technician at the Dimona nuclear plant when he
blew the whistle on Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
Following his 
conscience, and believing the programme threatened another holocaust, he
delivered photographic evidence of historic magnitude to the Sunday
Times (<a href = 
"http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-1081668,00.html
">the original article</a>).
 
He was then lured to Italy from where Israel's secret police abducted
him to Israel, in grave violation of internnational law. He was
sentenced as a spy to 18 years in prison. The first 11 1/2 years, he
spent in solitary confinement.


Although he was <a href = 
"http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1197406,00.html">released
in April after serving the full eighteen years </a>, he is still subject
to severe 
restrictions on movement and on who he can talk to, in particular
foreigners. Nevertheless, Vanunu defied these restrictions to give an
interview to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now (<a href = 
"http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/18/136217&mode=thread&tid=25
">part 1</a>, <a href = 
"http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/19/1355209&mode=thread&tid=25">part 
2</a>) and, rejecting his Israeli citizenship on state television, he
has courageously stated that he wants to become a Palestinian citizen <a
href = http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_7815.shtml">.
A convert to Christianity, he is currently living in sanctuary in St
George's Anglican Cathedral, Jerusalem, <a href =
"http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/09/297719.html"> where he is
supported by Israeli friends, activists and internationals. 

The <a href = "http://www.vanunu.freeserve.co.uk/">campaign to free 
Vanunu</a> continues to be active, working for his complete freedom <a
href = 
"http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/09/297719.html
"></a>. Despite an <a href = 
"http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/freemordechaivanunu/">international 
petition</a> aimed at the Israeli Government, the Israeli High Court <a 
href = 
"http://www.vanunu.freeserve.co.uk/htdocs/pressReleases.htm">recently 
upheld the restrictions on Vanunu's movement.

Vanunu has endured the most punishment of any whistle blower. But there
are others who have courageously come forward in recent months: 

Sibel Edmonds 
<a href = 
"http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2004/06/804792.shtml">, the
Bloody Sunday witnesses <a href = 
"http://www.guardian.co.uk/bloodysunday/article/0,2763,1153698,00.html">
and  Katharine Gun <a href = 
"http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/issues/katharine-gun.shtml">.
More>> <a href = "http://www.article19.org/docimages/790.htm">



During his time in isolation, Vanunu wrote the following:

I'M YOUR SPY
 

I am the clerk, the technician, the mechanic,
the driver.

They said, Do this, do that, don't look left
or right,
don't read the text. Don't look at the whole
machine. You
are only responsible for this one bolt. For this
one rubber-stamp.
This is your only concern. Don't bother
with what is above you.
Don't try to think for us. Go on, drive. Keep
going. On, on.
So they thought, the big ones, the smart ones,
the futurologists.
There is nothing to fear. Not to worry.
Everything is ticking just fine.

Our little clerk is a diligent worker. He's a
simple mechanic.
He's a little man.
Little men's ears don't hear, their eyes
don't see.
We have heads, they don't
Answer them, said he to himself, said the
little man,
the man with a head of his own. Who is in
charge? Who knows
where this train is going?
Where is their head? I too have a head.
Why do I see the whole engine.
Why do I see the precipice -
is there a driver on this train?
The clerk driver technician mechanic
looked up.
He stepped back and saw - what a monster.
Can?t believe it. Rubbed his eyes and - yes,
it's there all right. I'm all right. I do see
the monster. I'm part of the system.
I signed this form. Only now I am reading the
rest of it.
This bolt is part of a bomb. This bolt is me.
How
did I fail to see, and how do the others go on
fitting bolts. Who else knows?
Who has seen? Who has heard - The
emperor really is naked.
I see him. Why me? It's not for me. It's too big.
Rise and cry out. Rise and tell the people.
You can.
I, the bolt, the technician, mechanic -
Yes, you.
You are the secret agent of the people. You are
the eyes of the nation.
Agent-spy, tell us what you've seen. Tell us
what the insiders, the clever ones, have
hidden from us.
Without you, there is only the precipice.
Only catastrophe.
I have no choice. I'm a little man, a citizen,
one of the people,
but I'll do what I have to. I've heard the voice
of my conscience
and there is nowhere to hide.
The world is small, small for Big Brother.
I'm your mission. I'm doing my duty. Take
it from me.
Come and see for yourselves. Lighten my
burden. Stop the train.
Get off the train. The next stop - nuclear
disaster. The next book,
the next machine. No. There is no such thing.