The ins and outs of it

Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli released in April after 18 years in solitary confinement for the heinous crime of telling the world what it already knew - that Israel, alone among the nations of the Middle East, possesses nuclear weapons - has been re-arrested, BBC reported Thursday.

He was seized by armed officers and is being held on suspicion of passing on classified information, police say. ...

The bishop of the Jerusalem church where Vanunu has lived since his release said he saw him seized by between 30 and 50 men, many armed with machine guns.

Anglican Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal told the BBC News website that Vanunu's room had been searched and his mobile phones, laptop, camera and notebooks seized. ...

"They invaded the cathedral close," he said. "Some of them climbed over the fences, others came through the main gate.

"They terrified, terrorised the guests and the pilgrims, none of whom knew why this invasion happened with machine guns." ...

There have been suggestions that Vanunu's detention, coming on the day of Yasser Arafat's death, may have been timed to avoid widescale media coverage, says the BBC's Richard Miron in Jerusalem.

Personally, I'd phrase it as more than a suggestion. And 30-50 men with machine guns? What the hell was that?

And here's something else: What the hell classified information are they talking about? What information could he have that would be of any interest or use since it would be 20 years old or more? What's really going on here? Is this actually because he's been meeting with journalists, which technically he's not supposed to be doing? If so, why not just say so, say he violated the terms of his release? Why the "passing on classified information" BS?

Free him. Now.