Publishers say they leaked Barak tapes due to rights dispute

The source behind a series of interviews with former prime minister Ehud Barak in which he detailed near-strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities says the tapes were leaked to the media in a dispute over rights to the English version of his biography.

The compilers working on Barak’s Hebrew-language biography say they decided to air the interviews after Barak allegedly backtracked on a pledge to give them the rights to the English-language version of the book.

The publishers, Ilan Kfir and Danny Dor, say they have 100 hours of Barak on tape — which were recorded with his full consent — and the leaked recordings already appear in text form in the soon-to-be-released Hebrew book.

The leaked tapes, detailing three times Israel ostensibly planned to strike Iran but refrained for various reasons, are rocking Israel’s political landscape since they were first aired by Channel 2 news Friday night after being cleared by the country’s military censor.

— Avi Lewis