Press reports here today said that the Israeli Government is considering taking up with the German Government a request that Bonn take a stronger attitude regarding the West German rocket experts and technicians who have been aiding Egypt’s rocketry program. There are about 200 of these German rocket experts in Egypt, the reports stated.
(The New York Times, in a cable today from its correspondent, C. L. Sulz-berger reported that either of the two rockets which Egypt produced could bombard all of Israel from bases well in the rear, and that “the design and fabrication of these rockets were made possible by signal contributions from three Germans, Professors Saenger, Brandner and Pilz, aided by over 100 German technicians.” Mr. Sulzberger added that Saenger and Brandner once held important positions with jet and ordnance firms and institutes in West Germany. Brandner worked in Russia after World War II helping design Ilyushin engines. Pilz is credited with inventing an astonishingly inexpensive missile which, although it still has a short range, costs only $50,000 and has been vital to Nasser’s tests.
“Bonn has been aware for many months of this special German role in the Middle East arms race. Its security branch eventually forced all concerns in the Federal Republic with which the three scientists had ties to sever these connections. But passports have not been withdrawn from the professors,” Mr. Sulzberger reported.)
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