The Press: A-Bomb Beat

The Egyptian-Israeli disengagement talks have had their ups and downs, but last week the Boston Globe may have rocked them further with a front-page story that Israel had a secret arsenal of more than ten nuclear weapons. Nobody had ever before reported so authoritatively that Israel possessed bombs, though it had been widely assumed. What upset some observers —particularly those at the Pentagon and in the State Department—was less the revelation than the name of the article's author, William Beecher. Globe Diplomatic Correspondent Beecher was for the past two years—until last May —Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs,...