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posted by martyb on Thursday September 26 2019, @11:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the neither-long-ago-nor-far-away dept.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/22/blast-from-the-past-vela-satellite-israel-nuclear-double-flash-1979-ptbt-south-atlantic-south-africa/ (may be paywalled; alternate link):

Shortly before sunrise on Sept. 22, 1979, a U.S. surveillance satellite known as Vela 6911 recorded an unusual double flash as it orbited the earth above the South Atlantic. At Patrick Air Force Base in Florida, where it was still nighttime on Sept. 21, the staff in charge of monitoring the satellite's transmissions saw the unmistakable pattern produced by a nuclear explosion—something U.S. satellites had detected on dozens of previous occasions in the wake of nuclear tests. The Air Force base issued an alert overnight, and President Jimmy Carter quickly called a meeting in the White House Situation Room the next day.

Nuclear proliferation was just one of the Carter administration's headaches in late 1979. The president was dealing with a slew of foreign-policy dilemmas, including the build-up to what would become the Iran hostage crisis. Carter was also preparing for a reelection campaign in which he had hoped to showcase his foreign-policy successes, from brokering Israeli-Egyptian peace to successful arms control talks with Moscow. The possibility that Israel or South Africa, which had deep clandestine defense ties at the time, had tested a nuclear weapon threatened to tarnish that legacy. And the fact that South Africa's own nuclear weapons program, which the Carter administration was seeking to stop, was not yet sufficiently advanced to test such a weapon left just one prime suspect: Israel. Leading figures within the administration were therefore keen to bury the story and put forward alternative explanations.

Those alternative explanations were widely dismissed by many members of the scientific and intelligence community at the time; four decades years later, they look even more questionable.

On the 40th anniversary of the Vela event, Foreign Policy has assembled a team of scientists, academics, former government officials, and nonproliferation experts to analyze the declassified documents and data in the public domain, explain the political and strategic objectives of the key players at the time, and argue why a mysterious flash 40 years ago still matters today.

[Ed. Note: Many here may not have experienced what it was like during the cold war with frequent nuclear weapons tests and the ever-present threat of thermonuclear war. Given the increasing rhetoric and sabre rattling going on around the world today, this seemed a good reminder of the past. Let's hope we do not try to repeat it.]


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by KilroySmith on Friday September 27 2019, @12:09AM (3 children)

    by KilroySmith (2113) on Friday September 27 2019, @12:09AM (#899350)

    >>> Israel is not a signatory to any arms proliferation treaties.
    Agreed. The problem is that (from TFA):
    "In 1976, 1977, and 1994, U.S. senators succeeded in securing legislation known as the Symington and Glenn amendments. These laws banned U.S. foreign, financial, or military assistance to any countries—apart from the five nuclear weapons states under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty—that acquired uranium enrichment or nuclear reprocessing technologies or who set off a nuclear device. "
    and the US's unwillingness to follow it's own laws. It's not that Israel violated an APT - its that they tested a nuclear weapon after we'd passed these laws, and we didn't stop "foreign, financial, or military assistance" to Israel.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Friday September 27 2019, @12:39AM (2 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Friday September 27 2019, @12:39AM (#899356)

    The US has a history of ignoring its own laws.

    When el-Sisi overthrew the democratically elected government of Egypt the US declared it "not a coup" and continued to provide weapons to Egypt, despite that being against the Foreign Assistance Act.

    I am sure that the US ignored this nuclear test and pretended it was swamp gas or whatever because Israel is their Middle East ally, and the Apartheid regime in South Africa was a very reliable anti-Communist force, and anti-communism is the cornerstone of US foreign relations.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by fustakrakich on Friday September 27 2019, @01:46AM (1 child)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Friday September 27 2019, @01:46AM (#899377) Journal

      The US has a history of ignoring its own laws.

      That's because we're Americans dammit!

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday September 27 2019, @05:32PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 27 2019, @05:32PM (#899650) Journal

        It's because some are more equal than others.

        Both countries, individuals, and that most important class of people: corporations

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.