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The Movie Producer And The Israeli Nuclear Smuggling Ring
Arnon Milchan is the Hollywood mogul behind films as diverse as JFK, Pretty Woman, Brazil, Fight Club, LA Confidential and Alvin and the Chipmunks. He was also an Israeli spy involved in smuggling equipment for the development of nuclear weapons. Milchan has spoken publicly about his role in this scandal, defying a request from Benjamin Netanyahu, though somewhat predictably this has involved telling a few porkies. What else would you expect from a spy and a Hollywood bigshot?
The Arnon Milchan Front Companies
According to the book CONFIDENTIAL: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan, Arnon was recruited into Israeli intelligence in his 20s, and put to work by LAKAM, the economic espionage division. Milchan then recruited a California engineer Richard Kelly Smyth who set up MILCO International Inc. in 1972, a front company that linked up with Heli Trading in Israel (Heli was also known as Milchan Brothers Trading Company). Between 1979 and 1983 MILCO purchased 800 krytrons and secretly exported them to Heli. Krytrons are gas tubes that are used as high-speed switches, and can function as nuclear triggers.
The export of krytrons was strictly regulated precisely because of their use in nuclear weapons and efforts by the Israeli government to import them legally had failed. So the Ministry of Defence provided Heli with the money to buy them via MILCO, who got them from EG&G, a US defense contractor. This went on happily for several years until it was interrupted by a potentially even more suspicious event.
As Milchan’s heavily-redacted FBI file details, in January 1983 there was a break-in at MILCO’s offices in Huntingdon Beach and someone (likely Smyth) filed a report with the FBI.
Hit enter to search or ESC to close
Close Search
Spy Culture
Home
Videos
Podcast
Documents
Blog
Book
vimeo
youtube
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search
Documents
The Movie Producer And The Israeli Nuclear Smuggling Ring
Arnon Milchan is the Hollywood mogul behind films as diverse as JFK, Pretty Woman, Brazil, Fight Club, LA Confidential and Alvin and the Chipmunks. He was also an Israeli spy involved in smuggling equipment for the development of nuclear weapons. Milchan has spoken publicly about his role in this scandal, defying a request from Benjamin Netanyahu, though somewhat predictably this has involved telling a few porkies. What else would you expect from a spy and a Hollywood bigshot?
The Arnon Milchan Front Companies
According to the book CONFIDENTIAL: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan, Arnon was recruited into Israeli intelligence in his 20s, and put to work by LAKAM, the economic espionage division. Milchan then recruited a California engineer Richard Kelly Smyth who set up MILCO International Inc. in 1972, a front company that linked up with Heli Trading in Israel (Heli was also known as Milchan Brothers Trading Company). Between 1979 and 1983 MILCO purchased 800 krytrons and secretly exported them to Heli. Krytrons are gas tubes that are used as high-speed switches, and can function as nuclear triggers.
The export of krytrons was strictly regulated precisely because of their use in nuclear weapons and efforts by the Israeli government to import them legally had failed. So the Ministry of Defence provided Heli with the money to buy them via MILCO, who got them from EG&G, a US defense contractor. This went on happily for several years until it was interrupted by a potentially even more suspicious event.
As Milchan’s heavily-redacted FBI file details, in January 1983 there was a break-in at MILCO’s offices in Huntingdon Beach and someone (likely Smyth) filed a report with the FBI.
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