A-Bomb Beat

The Egyptian-Israeli disengagement talks have had their ups and downs, but last week the Boston Globe may have rocked them further with a front-page story that Israel had a secret arsenal of more than ten nuclear weapons. Nobody had ever before reported so authoritatively that Israel possessed bombs, though it had been widely assumed. What upset some observers --particularly those at the Pentagon and in the State Department--was less the revelation than the name of the article's author, William Beecher. Globe Diplomatic Correspondent Beecher was for the past two years--until last May --Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, a sensitive post that gave him regular access to secret intelligence information.

Inside Access. Beecher is no stranger to scoops. A lifelong newspaperman except for his stint at the Pentagon--which he left with a Distinguished Service Medal to return to journalism--he was once a defense specialist for the New York Times, where he scored major beats on the secret U.S. bombing of Cambodia in 1969 and the SALT talks in 1971. But some Government officials have strong suspicions about this latest coup. Beecher, they suspect, may have been using material he recollected from his Government days to write the article. Beecher flatly denies the insinuation. "My story," he insists, "is entirely based on interviews I conducted in the past three weeks." Indeed, Beecher's story broke shortly after a three-week trip he took to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Cairo. He also talked, he says, to "U.S. analysts" and came away with "conclusions closely held within the American national security community."

The controversy might have been expected. When a crack newsman goes to work in a sensitive Government job, then returns to journalism covering the same area where he had served as an official, he will be accused of being his own source for scoops. Beecher concedes only that the Pentagon experience may have prepared him to "know the right questions to ask." His critics are unmoved, however, by his denials, claiming that he wrote several earlier stories for the Globe based on "inside access." Significantly, the only reaction from an Israeli official to Beecher's piece was a rather feeble dismissal of it as "speculation," while the Administration issued a "no comment."

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