Israel: Mystery of the Vanishing Man

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"Mordechai Vanunu is under lawful detention in Israel." With that, the Jerusalem government last week cleared up some of the mystery surrounding the nuclear technician who turned Israeli atomic secrets over to a London newspaper and then vanished. But the question remained: How had the Israelis managed to get their hands on him?

Vanunu, 32, was last seen in London on Sept. 30 after giving the London Sunday Times information that allegedly proved Israel has operational atomic weapons. Senior Israeli officials, anxious to quash reports that Vanunu had been kidnaped on British soil, insisted he had left the country "of his own volition." Said Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir: "We did nothing that could be considered a violation of British law." If convicted of violating Israel's Official Secrets Act, Vanunu could be sentenced to 30 years in prison.