Friday, April 9, 2010
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, gaining traction today on the right, that Israeli nuclear scientists have been denied visas to visit the United States...
...The story, whose sourcing is a bit hazy, says that "Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor's employees have told Israel's Maariv daily that they have been having problems recently getting visas to the United States where they have for years attended seminars in Chemistry, Physics and Nuclear Engineering. They also complain of being treated in an 'insulting manner' by President Obama's people. Until recently, employees of the Nuclear Research Center routinely traveled to the United States for seminars and courses."
But White House spokesman Bill Burton flatly denied the report of a change to U.S. visa policy.
So there may be nothing to the story that Maariv presented, or this could be double-talk by the White House (no changes de jure, while de facto the visa handling has changed in practice).
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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
maariv did not invent a story.
WH can always claim that they don't have a policy - but the people who work in Dimona are not the type of people who will not tell the truth.
Some of these stories involving the administration are quite disturbing, for example the unnamed person who smeared Dennis Ross.
"So there may be nothing to the story that Maariv presented, or this could be double-talk by the White House (no changes de jure, while de facto the visa handling has changed in practice)."
If that is the case (i.e., no changes de jure, while de facto the visa handling has changed in practice), then there should be a follow-up story with the details of Israeli scients who have/haven't been granted visas before and after the advent of Obama. We really need to know the truth of this matter, and it shouldn't be that hard to ascertain.