---
category: "Authors & Journalists"
tags:
  - Person
  - Nuclear
  - Israel
summary: "Finney's article, published on December 19, 1960, on the front page of the *Times*, informed the American public about what Arthur C."
born: 1924
died: 2004-10-29
location: "Massachusetts"
---
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 Desert|Negev]] to produce plutonium. This information was leaked to him by [[John McCone|John A. McCone]], then chairman of the AEC, who was angered by [[Israel]]'s and [[France]]'s secrecy.[^1]

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.