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Confidential, The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon
Before the Ofer Brothers there was Arnon Milchan.
“Arnon is a special man. It was I who recruited him…When I was at the Ministry of Defense, Arnon was involved in numerous defense-related procurement activities and intelligence operations… His activities gave us a huge advantage, strategically, diplomatically and technologically… In my present position as president, I am restrained from recommending any single individual for our highest defense-related honor, but undoubtedly, Arnon Milchan is worthy of such an acknowledgement, and that’s as close to a recommendation that I, as President, can give.”
Shimon Peres, President of Israel
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Arnon Milchan (center) with Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres (left) and
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in 2005 (David Silverman/Getty)President Obama to award Peres a Presidential Medal of Freedom
Below the fold: The Billionaire Fugitive
(Daily Beast) – Arnon Milchan was nervous, very nervous. He had just received a phone call at his Paris apartment from a Newsweek reporter seeking his reaction to the stunning indictment of Dr. Richard Kelly Smyth, president of California-based Milco Ltd.–an Israeli intelligence front company–for shipping krytrons to one of Milchan’s Tel Aviv companies.
Krytrons are sophisticated triggers for the detonation of nuclear bombs. According to Smyth, Milchan’s company had pushed him hard for the krytrons and knew perfectly what they were for–even though it was illegal to export them from the U.S. without a U.S. State Department munitions license. Milchan’s Heli Trading Ltd. had ordered 14 shipments totaling 810 krytrons from 1979-82. Now U.S. Customs and the FBI had moved in and the entire Milco operation was in jeopardy. Milchan feared that a politically ambitious and publicity-hungry U.S. prosecutor would come hunting for him.
After a short conversation with the Newsweek reporter, in which Milchan pleaded ignorance, he booked the first available flight to Tel Aviv.
There was one call he could not avoid–from his mother, Shoshanna. “Everyone is calling my son an arms dealer,” she said, bursting into tears. “It’s embarrassing.”
Arnon was devastated. “Mother, it’s not like I’m instigating wars in third-world countries and shipping them guns,” he told her. “I’m doing this to help our country.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
