VARIOUS: United States arrest 84-year-old American suspected of giving Israel secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles in the 1980s

Record ID: 781721

  • Title: VARIOUS: United States arrest 84-year-old American suspected of giving Israel secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles in the 1980s
  • Date: 24th April 2008
  • Summary: 'FREE POLLARD' POSTER
  • Embargoed: 9th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAXPGKA7H4BTLKP4CCC704CLSW
  • Story Text: The United States arrested an 84-year-old American on Tuesday (April 22) suspected of giving Israel secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles in the 1980s, in a case linked to the Jonathan Pollard spy scandal that rocked U.S.-Israeli relations.
    The arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish indicates that Israeli spying revealed by the Pollard case, still an irritant to the U.S. alliance with Israel, may have spread wider than previously acknowledged.
    Kadish acknowledged his spying in FBI interviews and said he acted to help Israel, according to court documents. He was accused of reporting to an Israeli government handler who was also a main contact for Jonathan Pollard, an American citizen serving a life term on a 1985 charge of spying for Israel.
    Authorities said Kadish was arrested in New Jersey on four counts of conspiracy and espionage after an investigation that began in 2005. The first spy charge carries a possible death sentence.
    Kadish made an initial appearance at Manhattan federal court late on Tuesday (April 22). Looking frail and shuffling, Kadish smiled briefly at the judge who ordered his release on $300,000 bail and restricted his travel.
    Kadish did not speak, and his lawyer made no comment upon leaving.
    Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said of the arrest: "We know nothing about it. We heard it from the media."
    Pollard pleaded guilty in 1986. Israel gave him citizenship in 1996 and acknowledged in 1998 the former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst was one of its spies. Israel has unsuccessfully sought Pollard's release.
    Kadish is a Connecticut-born U.S. citizen who worked as a mechanical engineer at the Army's Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey.
    His spying lasted roughly from 1979 to 1985, and his contact with the unidentified Israeli handler continued until March of this year, the federal complaint against him said.
    Newspapers headlines in Israel focused on Wednesday (April 23) on the espionage scandal, but not all citizens were impressed.
    "Because it was so old, 25 years ago, I don't think anybody cares," said one Jerusalem resident.
    "A man has to be, any person has to be loyal to the country he is a citizen of," said another man from Jerusalem.
    Based on circumstances of the case, DiGenova identified Kadish's contact as Yosef Yagur, who has been linked in court documents to the Pollard case. A Justice Department spokesman said he could not confirm that. The complaint cited Kadish as saying that, unlike Pollard, he received no money from the Israelis.
    Kadish used his security clearance to borrow 50 to 100 classified documents from the arsenal's library, the complaint said. He worked from a list provided by the handler, identified in court documents as "CC-1." The contact photographed the documents in Kadish's basement.
    One classified document Kadish passed on "contained information concerning nuclear weaponry," the complaint said. Israel is believed to have nuclear weapons but has never acknowledged it. Another document related to a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet that the United States had sold to an unidentified other foreign country, the complaint said.
    A third pertained to the U.S. Patriot missile air defence system. The U.S. military first deployed the system in 1984, and Israel used the system to defend against Iraqi missiles in the 1991 Gulf war.
    "The significance of this affair is that it's clear now that Pollard was not the only spy Israel operated in the United States, on American soil, as Israel had claimed at the time. In terms of the quantity or the quality of this espionage affair, I would say it dose not match the magnitude of Pollards," said Israeli journalist and Analyst Yossi Melman to Reuters Television. "There is a certain damage to the relations between the two countries (Israel and the United States), the damage is more of a public nature. Israel's name and reputation is once again stained in the public eye and in the media," Melman added.
    Israeli Member of Parliament and past chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee Yuval Steinitz was certain on Wednesday (April 23) that the new information is irrelevant to the present. "I assume that there will be no serious impact to the very good relations and cooperation between the United States of America and Israel, because we are speaking about something that happened three decades ago and also more so because I can say with confidence that since then, since the eighties, Israel is not spying or gathering intelligence in the United States or against it," Steinitz told Reuters.
    The complaint said Kadish kept contact with CC-1, met him in Israel in 2004, and spoke with him by telephone on March 20 of this year, after his first FBI interview. It said the handler told him to lie to U.S. authorities: "Don't say anything ... What happened 25 years ago? You don't remember anything," CC-1 was quoted as saying.
    In Jerusalem late on Thursday (April 22), Ester Pollard, wife of Jonathan Pollard, was worried. "There is something that really smells bad, just as its time for America to make a gesture to Israel now, for Israel's 60th anniversary, to release Jonathan and finally send him home after making him serve this grossly disproportionate, exaggerated sentence, suddenly there is all this breaking news that has nothing to do with my husband, nothing to do with his case, and nothing to do with the request of Israel that Jonathan be free and sent to home now, while he is still alive," Ester Pollard said.
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