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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/John W. Finney.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Journalist
+  - USA
+---
+John W. Finney was a reporter for the *New York Times*, covering nuclear issues and the [[Atomic Energy Commission|AEC]]. In December 1960, he broke a major story revealing that [[Israel]], with French help, had secretly built a nuclear reactor in the [[Negev]] to produce plutonium. This information was leaked to him by [[John A. McCone]], then chairman of the AEC, who was angered by [[Israel]]'s and [[France]]'s secrecy.[^1]
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+Finney's article, published on December 19, 1960, on the front page of the *Times*, informed the American public about what [[Arthur C. Lundahl]] and [[Dino A. Brugioni]] had been reporting to the White House for over two years. He was used by the [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] administration to publicly address the issue of [[Dimona]], which senior officials were apprehensive about doing themselves.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 6.