U.S. officials deny that they inadvertently revealed secret details about a proposed Israeli missile base when they put the $25 million project up for bid.
Department of Defense officials said Israeli officials had reviewed in advance and approved the 1,000 pages of specifications for the Arrow 3 anti-missile defense system base that were posted on a U.S. government website for contractors. The United States is paying for construction of the base. It routinely posts details of such projects so that contractors may estimate the cost of building them.
“We have a long-standing relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and we advertised the project in accordance with U.S. laws and regulations,” Brian Temple, the public affairs chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District – the branch of the U.S. government that worked out the arrangement with the Israeli government – said in an email.
He said Israel’s Ministry of Defense was responsible for determining how secret any project was and that “they determine whether they will be procured using classified or unclassified procedures.”
“It was determined by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to be an unclassified project,” he said.
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