Nicholas Davies
Nicholas Davies was the foreign editor of the Daily Mirror under Robert Maxwell, accused by Seymour Hersh in 1991 of operating as a Mossad intelligence asset, passing Mordechai Vanunu's location to the Mossad, and co-directing an arms-dealing firm with Ari Ben-Menashe.
Nicholas Alan Francis Benedict Davies was born on March 14, 1937, and died on January 28, 2016. He spent most of his career at Mirror Group Newspapers, which he joined in 1961 as a foreign correspondent and investigative reporter after starting at the Birmingham Post and Mail. He served as foreign editor of the Daily Mirror for fourteen years until Robert Maxwell dismissed him in 1991.1
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
Libel Litigation and Resolution
Maxwell and Davies both sued Hersh and his publisher for libel following publication. Maxwell's suit terminated with his death in November 1991. Mirror Group Newspapers, after Maxwell's estate became embroiled in the pension fraud scandal, reversed course and settled with Hersh, issuing an apology and paying substantial damages. Davies did not pursue his own libel case to trial.1
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
Sources
- "Nicholas Davies (journalist)," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Davies_(journalist) ↩
- Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Random House, 1991. ↩
- UK Parliament Early Day Motion 2134, "Mirror Group Newspapers and Israeli Intelligence," 1992. https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/2134/mirror-group-newspapers-and-israeli-intelligence ↩
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