Kidnapped in Rome: Mordechai Vanunu and the Mossad
A team of Israeli Mossad agents kidnapped Mordechai Vanunu in Rome in September 1986.
Vanunu’s Moroccan Jewish family immigrated to Israel when he was a child. After serving in the Army, he worked at the Negev Nuclear Research Center from 1976 until 1985, suspected by many around the world to house a secret Israeli nuclear weapons program.
While simultaneously pursing a college degree, he became active in student politics, including pro-Palestinian causes. He was warned by his superiors to cease his outside activities but did not.
In 1985, Vanunu took photos of the complex, including clear evidence of nuclear weapons development. Undiscovered, he then moved to Australia, where he converted to Christianity.
The following year, he offered the photos and story to a reporter from London’s Sunday Times, among others. His information was deemed credible, and he was flown to London for more interviews, where he was sequestered for many days in a hotel, while the story was corroborated and readied for publication.
Unbeknownst to anyone, a friend of Vanunu’s had also sold the story to the Sunday Mirror, owned by Robert Maxwell, a former Mossad officer and father of Ghislaine Maxwell.
In late September, Vanunu suddenly disappeared from London. He had struck up a relationship with an Israeli-American female Mossad agent posing as a tourist named Cindy. She convinced him to take a short trip to Rome with her, where he was captured, drugged, and smuggled back to Israel via ship.
While being transported in a van to court in late 1986, Vanunu wrote a message to camera crews on his hand, which read, “Vanunu M was hijacked in Rome ITL. 30.9.86. 21.000. Came to Rome by fly BA504.”
The Sunday Times published the story on Israel’s nuclear arsenal just days after his disappearance, and Vanunu was convicted of treason, serving 18 years before his release in 2004. Afterwards he was prohibited from leaving Israel and had continued legal troubles.
The American Mossad agent ‘Cindy’ returned to the US, where she reportedly began a new career as a real estate agent in Orlando, FL.
