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Zane Selvans
Zane Selvans
@ZaneSelvans@social.coop  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

Holy shit I was not aware.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/world/africa/renfrew-christie-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ElA.l_uO.quxTSV0lHbGV&smid=url-share

https://www.nytimes.com

Renfrew Christie Dies at 76; Sabotaged Racist Regime’s Nuclear Program

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Ray Gulick, he/him/wtf 🇺🇦
Ray Gulick, he/him/wtf 🇺🇦
@rgulick@social.coop replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans

I'd never heard this story; a true hero.

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Michael Slade
Michael Slade
@michaelslade@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans Tom Lehrer humorously predicted South Africa would get the bomb. We need to get used to this sort of thing again since tfg is about to ignite a new bomb rush through his foolish international adventures.
https://youtu.be/oRLON3ddZIw?si=ObE8gs47e6RTvEDw

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Ben Brockert
Ben Brockert
@wikkit@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans @reedmideke What an absolute badass.

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Large Format Boyjectionist
Large Format Boyjectionist
@BenHM3@saint-paul.us replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans

Non-paywalled, non-NYTimes source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renfrew_Christie

Renfrew Christie - Wikipedia

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Lien Rag
Lien Rag
@lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans

"what one does with Nazis is kill them".
Not one to mince words.
And a motto that certainly is fitting for our time.

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🔶Mark Nicoll 3.5%🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
🔶Mark Nicoll 3.5%🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
@duckwhistle@mastodon.org.uk replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans
"I want that one."

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oatmeal
oatmeal
@oatmeal@kolektiva.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans I don’t read the #NYT but worth mentioning Israel ignored global anti-apartheid boycotts to secure strategic resources like uranium and a military partner against Arab states, continuing arms sales and nuclear cooperation until South Africa’s 1991 program dismantlement. Post-apartheid South Africa cut ties with Israel over these historical links.

https://mg.co.za/thought-leader/opinion/2024-12-12-secret-alliance-israel-and-apartheid-south-africas-nuclear-collaboration/

Israel’s foreign diplomacy was always based on deceit. It still is. Hasbara is one of its most known strategies.

[…] Israel ignored the United Nations Security Council–imposed arms embargo on South Africa while telling the world that it was complying.

https://jacobin.com/2024/12/israel-south-africa-apartheid-weapons?utm_source=perplexity

Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion meets with South African prime minister Daniël François Malan in Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 15, 1953. (Hans Pinn / Wikimedia Commons)
Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion meets with South African prime minister Daniël François Malan in Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 15, 1953. (Hans Pinn / Wikimedia Commons)
Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion meets with South African prime minister Daniël François Malan in Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 15, 1953. (Hans Pinn / Wikimedia Commons)

Israel and Apartheid South Africa Were the Closest of Friends

The mutually beneficial relationship between Israel and apartheid South Africa was not just about the arms trade. It was an ideological affinity about how to treat unwanted populations.
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Michael Graaf
Michael Graaf
@michaelgraaf@kolektiva.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@oatmeal @ZaneSelvans Let's not forget the whistleblower of the other apartheid nuclear weapons program, still under cruel house arrest after years of vicious treatment including being abducted and smuggled in a "diplomatic bag!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu

Mordechai Vanunu - Wikipedia

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Don Ray
Don Ray
@donray@mastodon.online replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans

Wow. Someone should make a movie.

Also, the article mentioned that the US initially helped South Africa with their nuclear program. I need to double check that, but WTF!

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lizzard
lizzard
@lizzard@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans incredible story!!

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Faraiwe
Faraiwe
@faraiwe@mstdn.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans not all heroes wear capes.

Had Apartheid South Africa become a DPRK, their peculiar brand of racist fascism would have spread throughout Africa, resonated with the usual wypipo population of First World, if only because nobody would have dared stop them.

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Zane Selvans
Zane Selvans
@ZaneSelvans@social.coop replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

After 48 hours of torture, Dr. Christie wrote a forced confession — “the best thing I ever wrote,” he later told the BBC, noting that he had made sure the confession included “all my recommendations to the African National Congress” about the best way to sabotage Koeberg and other facilities.

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Zane Selvans
Zane Selvans
@ZaneSelvans@social.coop replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

“And, gloriously, the judge read it out in court,” Dr. Christie added. “So my recommendations went from the judge’s mouth” straight to the A.N.C.

Two years later, in December 1982, Koeberg was bombed by white A.N.C. operatives who had gotten jobs at the facility. They followed Dr. Christie’s instructions to the letter.

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bencourtice
bencourtice
@bencourtice@aus.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans best use of a courtroom ever

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Zane Selvans
Zane Selvans
@ZaneSelvans@social.coop replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

The guy who actually planted the bombs, and then escaped to Swaziland by bike.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-10-31-the-man-who-blew-up-koeberg/

Daily Maverick

The man who blew up Koeberg

First published in Daily Maverick 168Thirty-eight years ago, Rodney Wilkinson committed the only act of nuclear terrorism ever carried out on the African continent. It has been described as one of the
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publius
publius
@publius@mastodon.sdf.org replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

@ZaneSelvans

There is nothing laudable about attacking a power station.

Koeberg is an entirely civil installation, and was if anything an obstacle in the way of the South African nuclear weapons program. Not only did it divide their available trained manpower, but to get it built they had to allow much more international scrutiny (including inspections) of their nuclear industry, which had been been cloaked in secrecy.

But the anti-nuclear zealots are arrogant.

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