nacmssin Autho emmaslos UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT SE8 3 ET 1' Memorandum TO FROM SUBJECT Mr Talbot DATE 28 December 1962 J Iii lo 7 Jo we Spain If' 69'6 I Israeli Nuclear Capabilities 1 The attached documents contain most of the pertinent information we have on the subject at the moment Perhaps the be most useml is the Office of Scienti c Intelligence Report entitled The Israeli Nuclear Energy Program The British Joint Intelligence Camittee paper is very thin hove-var London may know more than is revealed here As you probably know under the terms of a December 27 1960 Operations Coordinating Board Memorandtm issued at the order of President Eisenhower we are not authorized to exchange information with the British on this subject without the Department's approval It may be that we will want to ask for this approval scene time soon 2 The proposed text on Israeli nuclear capabilities for National Intelligence Estimate 30-62 is a first draft It will be refined considerably as we polish it here and as the agencies coordinate it Naturally any cmunent on it any of you people may have will be most welcome The approved NIE should be ready in mid-January 3 May I offer one other disquieting thought We have had a tendency to concentrate on Dimona in looking at this problem In view of the possibility of other nuclear sites in Israel pages 17 and 18 of the 081 Report 2 our virtually ignorance as to French-Israeli relations in this and QEEI-trla 62 3'3an In hhsg Id Iukmaics L- a DECLASSIFIED 850 957 V 3 our lac of knowledge of what assets and resources the Israelis may have been able to tap in the whole international science field it is as least possible that there may be nothing at Mona but that the Israelis will turn up one day with a weapon developed in other places or by other means In short even a negative result from a thorough inspection at Dimona may 'be no guarantee that Israel is not in the nuclear weapons game This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu