---
category: Nuclear Scientists & Programs
summary: Hadden sent Colonel Carmelo V.
tags:
- Person
- Nuclear
- Israel
---

John L. Hadden served as the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) station chief in [Tel Aviv](/places/tel-aviv/), [Israel](/places/israel/), in the mid-1960s. He viewed Ambassador [Walworth Barbour](/people/walworth-barbour/) as a professional and encouraged his staff to find out what they could about [Dimona](/places/dimona/). Hadden worked closely with [Robert T. Webber](/people/robert-t-webber/), the embassy's scientific attaché, in clear violation of a [State Department](/organizations/state-department/) decree forbidding scientific attachés from engaging in intelligence work.[^1]

Hadden sent Colonel Carmelo V. Alba to [Beersheba](/places/beersheba/) to conduct a census of French names on mailboxes in the city's apartment complexes, as part of an ongoing effort to determine who was working at [Dimona](/places/dimona/). Hadden also inadvertently got into trouble with the Israeli foreign office when his American license plates were put on a jeep used by Alba for a weekend trip to the [Negev](/places/negev-desert/), leading to a stiff protest from the Israelis who suspected the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) station chief was sneaking around.[^1]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 12.