Nicholas Davies

Nicholas Davies was a British journalist who joined Mirror Group Newspapers in the 1960s and was foreign editor of the Daily Mirror for about fifteen years under Robert Maxwell. The paper dismissed him on October 28, 1991, when it gave his age as 52. He died at the end of January 2016 after a short illness.¹

Allegations in "The Samson Option"

In 1991, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy, which included allegations based primarily on accounts by Israeli intelligence operative Ari Ben-Menashe. Hersh alleged that Davies had been recruited as a Mossad asset in the early 1980s through contacts in London and a subsequent visit to Israel.²

Ben-Menashe stated that Davies and he became business partners in an international arms firm, Ora Limited, operating out of Davies's home in London beginning in 1983. The firm allegedly functioned to facilitate the flow of Israeli arms to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War, a channel that ran parallel to the operations later associated with the Iran-Contra Affair. Ben-Menashe claimed Davies made more than $1.5 million from a single arms transaction.²

The most specific allegation was that Davies passed Mordechai Vanunu's location to Mossad operatives, enabling the 1986 honey-trap operation in Rome that led to Vanunu's abduction and return to Israel for trial on nuclear secrets charges.³

In Parliament

Hersh's book went on sale in Britain on October 20, 1991. Two members of the House of Commons raised it under privilege and put down motions. That of George Galloway stated that Davies "has been involved in substantial arms sales of Israeli equipment to Iran and other countries over the last 10 years, is a longstanding and highly-paid Israeli Intelligence asset and that he betrayed the whereabouts in a hotel in London of Mordechai Vanunu to Mossad," and called on Robert Maxwell to appoint an independent tribunal to establish "the extent of foreign intelligence penetration of Mirror Group newspapers." That of Rupert Allason, who wrote on intelligence as Nigel West, stated that the Daily Mirror and its proprietor "have maintained a close relationship with the Israeli Intelligence Service," that Davies in 1983 "entered into a business partnership with an Israeli citizen, Mr Ari Ben-Menashe, and based a company incorporated as Ora Limited at 41 Becmead Avenue, London S.E.15, and 1 Trafalgar Avenue, London S.W.16," that the company "negotiated the sale of 4,000 TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran," and that it "allegedly conspired in September 1986 to supply information regarding the whereabouts in London of Mr Mordechai Vanunu to the Israeli Embassy." It asked the Department of Trade and Industry to investigate a breach of the arms embargo and the Foreign Office to suspend the access of Mirror Group staff to its confidential briefings.⁴

Davies, who was in Harare covering the Commonwealth conference, said: "The allegations are a complete and total lie. I reject them in every respect." Maxwell, in New York, called them "ludicrous, a total invention," issued writs against Faber and Faber, and sought an injunction against distribution of the book. The Mirror's front page said the two members had "as much honor as a pair of jackals scavenging in a rubbish heap." Asked in November 1986 whether information on Vanunu's presence in Britain had passed from government sources to Israel, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had answered: "No."⁵⁶

Libel Litigation and Resolution

Maxwell and Davies began libel proceedings against Hersh and his British publisher, Faber and Faber, which sued in turn. Maxwell died on November 5, 1991. In August 1994 Mirror Group Newspapers apologized "unreservedly" in a London court for its articles of October 1991, acknowledged that its "attempts to impugn" Hersh's integrity had been "entirely improper," and agreed to pay him and Faber "substantial damages" and their costs.⁷

Sources in Britain and Israel publicly disputed Ben-Menashe's reliability as a witness, and no subsequent independent evidence emerged to corroborate the specific allegations about Davies's intelligence role or his involvement in the Vanunu affair.²