---
category: Nuclear Scientists & Programs
summary: State Department Middle East expert who revealed that Israeli nuclear intelligence
  was treated as a strictly taboo subject within the U.S. bureaucracy.
tags:
- Person
- Nuclear
- Israel
---

David E. Long was a [State Department](/organizations/state-department/) Middle East expert. He explained that the Israeli nuclear issue was taboo within the bureaucracy, and that [State Department](/organizations/state-department/) and [Pentagon](/organizations/pentagon/) staff officers who wanted to learn more about [Israel](/places/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](/places/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]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 16.