April 30th, 2006
Dear Readers,
If you are a Russian scientist and the authorities don't like your research because your results don't fit with their politically-warped view of the world, they'll send you to Siberia, and the world will probably never hear of you again.
If you are an American scientist and the authorities don't like your research because your results don't fit with their politically-warped view of the world, they'll cut off your funding, and the world will probably never hear of you again.
Both punishments are devastating to society -- and to the scientists.
Both destroy the atmosphere of academic freedom which must exist for scientific research to be meaningful and free of bias.
In America, when you lose your funding, you soon lose your university affiliations (necessary to impress potential publishers of your essays). Indeed, you can ONLY write "essays" and "commentaries" instead of "reports" and "studies" because the cost of doing "basic research" is prohibitive to the unemployed, and of course, you have no staff. You have no funds to attend technical conferences, present your ideas, and co-mingle with colleagues.
You have to pay the rent. You have to eat.
How does the Israeli government silence a scientist it does not like, because he is speaking the truth? In 1986, they kidnapped one in Rome, and then kept him imprisoned, mostly in solitary confinement, for eighteen years. Now they are after him again (still)! Please sign the petition (shown below) to let Mordechai Vanunu speak freely and travel freely anywhere in the world.
Sincerely,
"Ace" Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
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About Vanunu's 1986 arrest:
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"Before the [London] Times could print its story (and Vanunu's photographs of [the Dimona nuclear reactor]), an Israeli female agent had lured Vanunu from London to Rome, where he was seized, drugged and shipped in chains aboard a yacht to Israel. There, he was tried and sentenced in secret and slapped in solitary confinement."
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Petition to free Mordechai Vanunu:
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PETITION TO GOVERNMENTS
April 27 2006
Dear Friends,
This is the statement which we are putting into the Israeli newspaper Haaretz for Sunday 30th April. Noam Chomsky, Nobel Laureate Adolfo Perez esquivel and well known names in Israel/Palestine and world community will be invited to sign. If you know of such well known names willing to sign please send them immediately to Gideon Spiro at this email - spiro@bezeqint.net .
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE THIS PETITION IN ANY WAY YOU CAN. WEBSITE, NEWSPAPERS, SENT TO GOVERNMENT REP., UN, ALL INTERNATIONAL BODIES AND FAITH COMMUNITIES. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ALL YOU ARE DOING FOR ME.
vmjc.
Subject: The petition
To the Government of Israel -
Stop mistreating Mordechai Vanunu!
Lift the restrictions imposed on him!
In the past week the Government of Israel has extended for the third year the restrictions it imposed on Mordechai Vanunu when he was released from prison. He is forbidden to leave Israel; may not move freely inside Israel; is forbidden to speak to foreign nationals, 'for fear of causing damage to the security of the State'.
Mordechai Vanunu served the sentence that was imposed on him - 18 years in prison, of which he spent 11 and a half years in complete isolation. He came out of prison wholly committed to the idea of a world without weapons of mass destruction - the same idea he upheld when he was imprisoned. He remains convinced of the rightness of this cause.
The element of vengence by the Israeli Government is plain to see. No-one in their senses believes that Vanunu represents a threat to the security of Israel. He told everything he knew to the Sunday Times in 1986. All the experts in Israel and abroad - except those who speak for the secret services - agree that after 20 years away from the Dimona reactor Vanunu has not a shred of information that could endanger the security of the State.
The restrictions imposed on Mordechai Vanunu violate the basic rights of citizens in a democratic country - the freedom of expression and of movement. These restrictions also conflict with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention on Political and Civil Rights.
Mr Prime Minister, the Chiefs of the Security Services of Israel -
Let Mordechai Vanunu leave, to live wherever he chooses. He would like to have a family of his own and to exist as a free man, without Big Brother dominating his existence.
Let Mordechai Vanunu go free.
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Contact information for "Ace" Hoffman:
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