Cia Head Does Not Deny Report That Israel Has 10-20 Nuclear Weapons

Central Intelligence Agency Director George Bush deplored but did not deny today a statement attributed to “senior” CIA officials that Israel is estimated to have 10 to 20 nuclear weapons “ready and available for use.”

According to Arthur Kranish, a Washington science writer, “no further details were given” about Israel’s nuclear capability by the officials at a “rare” and “nonclassified” briefing by the CIA at its headquarters in Virginia March 11. Kranish, editor of the newsletter “Science Trends” who attended the briefing and wrote about it for the Washington Post, said that the briefing was attended by some 150 persons and was held for members of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Asked today by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about his article, Kranish said the CIA officials had asserted that in advance of the Syrian and Egyptian attacks on Israel on Yom Kippur 1973, the CIA had at least one report of the certainty of the attack and other reports that were less certain it would take place. The report of the certainty was discarded because of the disbelief that Egypt and Syria could coordinate their attacks as they did, Kranish said he heard the CIA officials say.

In a telephone statement read by a CIA official to the JTA, Bush said “We have no comment on any of the substantive information in the Post article one way or the other. To the degree that any classified information might have been mentioned, I accept full responsibility. I am determined it will not happen again.”

WAS NOT FOR PUBLICATION

Kranish said that those attending were told not to bring cameras or take notes and not to talk to the press. But he noted there were several reporters, including himself, present. Bush, in his statement, said “there was a clear understanding beforehand that the discussion was private and not for publication or for further dissemination.”

In his article, Kranish recalled that last summer there were press reports that Israel had about 10 nuclear weapons. He said last week’s briefing was apparently the first time that CIA officials “made a public estimate of Israel’s nuclear capability.”

At the State Department, spokesman Robert Funseth noted that the Israeli government had said “and I believe has reaffirmed” that Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East. He also recalled that Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin, on a television program last September, said that Israel is a non-nuclear country.