Thursday, April 8, 2010
Nuts: BREAKING: Obama Administration Denies Visas to Israeli Nuclear Scientists
The Obama administration is now denying U.S. visas to Israeli scientists who work at that nation's Dimona nuclear reactor. This startling reversal of traditional policy was reported April 7, 2010, in the Israeli website/newspaper NRG/Maariv (link to the original Hebrew here and to an exclusive Pajamas Media translation here).
This could be yet another flashpoint in the increasingly sensitive relations between the administration, the American Jewish community, and Israel. The revelation in Maariv came only a day before the arrival in New York of Tariq Ramadan -- controversial grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna -- whose visa was reportedly championed by Secretary of State Clinton. Yesterday as well, new rules disavowing the term "Islamic radicalism" were announced by Secretary of Defense Gates.
According to Maariv: "...workers at the Dimona reactor who submitted VISA requests to visit the United States for ongoing university education in Physics, Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering -- have all been rejected, specifically because of their association with the Dimona reactor. This is a new policy decision of the Obama administration, since there never used to be an issue with the reactor's workers from study in the USA, and till recently, they received VISAs and studied in the USA."
Israeli defense officials are stating these workers have no criminal records in the U.S. or Israel and have been singled out purely because of their place of employment. Moreover, nuclear materials for the Dimona reactor apparently do not come from the U.S. Zeev Alfasi -- head of nuclear engineering at Israel's Ben Gurion University -- states that "the United States doesn't sell anything nuclear-related to the Dimona reactor, and that means absolutely nothing. Radiation detectors, for example, have to be purchased now in France because the USA refuses to sell these to Israel."...
Seraphic Secret: Barack Hussein Obama's Nuclear War Against Israel
Related: Uh oh: Netanyahu pulls out of Obama's nuclear summit
Update 4/9: Ben Smith at Politico says the Obama Administration is denying the report.
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Update to the story below, Obama Denies Visas to Israeli Nuke Scientists, Ben Smith reports that the Administration is denying the story: White House denies Israeli visa story The White House is denying a story in the Israeli newspaper Maariv,... Read More
Roger L. Simon has updated his post on the problem Israeli nuke scientists have been having getting visas (see: Obama Denies Visas to Israeli Nuke Scientists and White House Denies Israeli Nuke Scientist Story). This has been a problem since... Read More
I think this is beyond outrageous. How many signals does Bibi need to finally get the message?
It seems to me that it would have been wiser for him to actually come to the U.S. but instead of attending the idiotic 'summit' start utilizing his supreme skills as a communicator. For starters, give interviews to all major TV channels and explain to people what is going on.
The only problem is that he needs to grow a pair first. Will he or won't he?
Do other foreign nationals who work at nuclear power plants have such visa difficulties? I work at a major American research university, and I can state with some certainty that large numbers of foreign students of ME and South Asian origin are enrolled in engineering graduate programs here.
nieuwe_zijde ,
Would the major TV channels give him a platform?
Cynic,
Of course, these days it is difficult to know for sure, but I would actually think that most TV channels would indeed agree to do a Netanyahu interview.
Sort of good for the rating, isn't it? And he is in fact an excellent speaker (sans teleprompter).