Grant Smith: Netanyahu Worked Inside Nuclear Smuggling Ring!

On June 27, 2012, the FBI partially declassified and released seven additional pages from a 1985-2002 investigation into how a network of front companies connected to the Israeli Ministry of Defense illegally smuggled nuclear triggers out of the US. The newly released FBI files detail how Richard Kelly Smyth, who was convicted of running a US front company met with Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel during the smuggling operation. At that time, Netanyahu worked at the Israeli node of the smuggling network, Heli Trading Company. Netanyahu, who currently serves as Israel's prime minister, recently issued a gag order that the smuggling network's unindicted ringleader refrain from discussing "Project Pinto." As revealed in previously released FBI files and the tell-all book, Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan, the Hollywood producer was recruited into Israel's economic espionage division (LAKAM) in his 20s and learned how to establish front companies and secret bank accounts for smuggling operations. Arnon Milchan encouraged Smyth, a California engineer, to incorporate MILCO in 1972, and serve as a front for the Israel-based Heli Trading's, also known as Milchan Limited, acquisitions of sensitive military technologies on behalf of the Ministry of Defense. Smyth fled the US after being indicted for violating the Arms Export Control Act in the mid-1980s. In July 2001, Smyth was arrested in Spain by Interpol and returned to the US. In November, he was convicted of exporting 800 nuclear triggers, called krytrons. FBI agents interviewed Smyth on April 16-17, 2002, at the US attorney's office in Los Angeles. The secret interview report details how during a trip to Israel,Smyth was "spotted" by Milchan, who claimed he worked as an exclusive purchasing agent for the Ministry of Defense.