John A. McCone was a wealthy Republican businessman from [[California]] who served as chairman of the [[Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC) and later as Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. In December 1960, he leaked information to *New York Times* reporter [[John W. Finney]] about [[Israel]]'s secret nuclear reactor at [[Dimona]], expressing anger that [[Israel]] and [[France]] had "lied to us" about its purpose.[^1] McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after. He was committed to nuclear nonproliferation and was aware that the [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] administration was nearing its end, making it an opportune time to act. He was also frustrated by the constant Israeli lying about [[Dimona]].[^1] McCone was regularly briefed on the Israeli nuclear program after replacing [[Lewis L. Strauss]] as AEC commissioner in July 1958. As AEC chairman, he was a member of the U.S. Intelligence Advisory Committee, the top-level group at the time. He was labeled by some as anti-Semitic due to his actions, but there was no known basis for such allegations; he was simply dead set against any nuclear proliferation and offended by the Israeli and French deception.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 6, 7.