David E. Long was a [[State Department]] [[Middle East]] expert. He explained that the Israeli nuclear issue was taboo within the bureaucracy, and that [[State Department]] and [[Pentagon]] staff officers who wanted to learn more about [[Israel]]'s nuclear weapons could not, because such intelligence carried the highest classification. Long recalled being informally questioned by diplomats from the [[Middle East]] about [[Israel]]'s nuclear arms, and his response was always that "we don't know anything and here is what the Israelis say." He refused a superior's request to put this response in writing, arguing that delivering a deliberately false impression went beyond subterfuge.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 16.