Israeli Agent in United States Helped Moscow

Israeli Agent in United States Helped Moscow
23.11.2006
Sami Rozen, AIA Israeli section

Jonathan Pollard

According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Jonathan Pollard, condemned in the US on life imprisonment for espionage in favour of Israel, became the reason of a failure of the American secret-service network in the territory of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. Daniel Ayalon, the ambassador of Israel, leaving his post in Washington told about this in an interview to the daily Ma’ariv.

He said that the American authorities till now refuse to give Israelis access to the part of documents of investigation of Pollard’s case concerning the "Russian trace". According to Ayalon, using own sources, he established that in opinion of the Americans, the classified information transferred by Pollard to Israel, had got to Moscow already from there. It follows from Ayalon’s story that this had happened as a result of penetration of the Soviet intelligence, either into the Israeli secret services, or into the higher echelons of power, in particular in the office of the Prime Minister and Minister of Defence.

• Ayalon noted that, according to the Americans, as a result, they had lost hundreds of agents in the Warsaw block countries. The Israeli ambassador emphasized that he could not estimate reliability of charges of the American side. At the same time, he does not believe that there are chances of Pollard’s release in the foreseeable future.
  

It is worth reminding that the "Russian trace" in Pollard’s story was made public simultaneously with history with proceeding on his case in 1987. Caspar W. Weinberger, then the US Secretary of Defence, declared that the data, transferred by Pollard to Israel, appeared from there at the disposal of the KGB. In December of the same year, news agency UPI published a material under the title KGB Agents in the Israeli Mossad. In opinion of experts, the publication was initiated by high-ranking representatives of the American security services.

• It was marked in the story that the Israeli intelligence officers had transferred to KGB materials of Pollard, in exchange for the sanction to Soviet Jews to be repatriated to Israel. Pollard himself reacted as follows:

  "The story from which it follows as if Russians have so "long hands", that they had managed to reach the Mossad, has been forged precisely in the KGB to cause additional damage to the Israeli-American strategic cooperation".
  

In December 2000, Ma’ariv published a statement in this connection of the former KGB chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov (1988-1991). In the time of Pollard’s collaboration with Israelis, and the subsequent trial, Kryuchkov was the Deputy Chairman of the KGB. According to him, neither the Mossad, nor the Israeli administration ever transferred the KGB any data, obtained from the reports of Jonathan Pollard.

In opinion of Pollard’s lawyers and of some the Israeli officials, US secret services"had written off" the former agent all fault for the leakage of secret information that had taken place as a result of activity of other spies, who had worked directly to the Soviet intelligence. Among them, first of all, was named the former high-ranking CIA officer Aldrich Hazen Ames, who since 1985 collaborated for nine years with the KGB.

• Israelis mark that it was him who in June 1985 transferred to the Soviet intelligence the list of the American residents and agents in the territories of the USSR and Eastern European countries.
  

Jonathan Pollard is a US citizen of the Jewish origin, born 1954. Since 1979 he held a post of the reviewer-analyst in the US Navy intelligence department. In June 1984, through a relative, Pollard established contacts with the colonel of the Air Forces of Israel, Aviam Sela. At a rendezvous, he voluntarily, from ideological promptings, offered his services to the Israeli secret services. Contact with him was established by the Scientific Affairs Liaison Bureau (LEKEM) at the Ministry of Defence, headed by the former high-ranking officer of the Mossad, Rafi Eitan. He personally supervised the work with Pollard, and net with him several times. Contacts with Pollards were kept through the LEKEM employees who worked in the US.

In 1984-1985 Pollard together with his wife left for a meeting with his curators twice to Europe and Israel. In total, Pollard has transferred about 1,800 confidential materials prepared by various US security services. The basic attention was given to the information on the non-conventional arms of Syria and Iraq; systems of air defence of Libya, Tunis and Algeria; usual kinds of the arms, delivered by the Soviet Union to the Arab countries; activity of the USSR and French Naval Forces of the USSR in the Mediterranean; activity of the Soviet secret services in the Middle East.

Pollard’s extremely careless behaviour and his vain character, and also incompetence of the Israeli curators in the issues of the organization of human intelligence are considered as the main reasons of Pollard’s failure. In the beginning Pollard had caused suspicion in his colleagues, and then he got under the FBI supervision. In November, 1985, being afraid of arrest, he along with his wife had attempted to disappear in the embassy of Israel in Washington, but was not let in by security guards. Right after this, the Pollards were arrested.

In March 1987, Jonathan Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment, and his wife Ann to five years of imprisonment. Simultaneously the court accused the colonel of the Air Forces of Israel Aviam Sela of espionage against the US.

• Pollard’s case caused the sharpest crisis in the American-Israeli relations and also a public discussion in the US concerning the "double loyalty" of the American Jews. Originally Israeli leadership completely kept a distance from Pollard’s espionage activity. The whole responsibility was assigned to representatives of the LEKEM, who allegedly operated under their own initiative, not informing higher instances (the bureau was disbanded in November 1985).
  

• The then head of the government Shimon Peres made official apologies to Washington, having expressed readiness to give any materials necessary for the investigation. Two state commissions investigated circumstances of Pollard’s case in Israel. They finished their work in July 1987, having put all the responsibility directly on the country’s leaders, including the Prime Minister.

Starting from 1991, the heads of the governments of Israel, ministers and members of parliament without results have tried to achieve Pollard’s release. The most serious attempt in this connection was undertaken by the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1998, within the framework of the regular round of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, under aegis of the US.

• The then US President Bill Clinton promised to pardon Pollard in case of their success.
  
• He did not keep the promise because of the sharp protest of the Director of the CIA, George Tennet, supported by 50 senators.

	Rafi Eitan

• In November 1995 Jonathan Pollard got the Israeli citizenship.
• In 1998 Israel for the first time officially recognized that Pollard had operated under orders from the Israeli competent persons.
  

• Early in 2006, the former curator of Pollard, 79-year-old Rafi Eitan, headed the new party of pensioners that got seven parliamentary seats in the elections in March.
• In April, two portfolios, Minister’s of Health and Minister’s on Affairs of Pensioners at the Prime Minister’s office. The last post filled Rafi Eitan himself.
• In May, Pollard’s lawyer submitted a claim to the Higher Court of Validity (BAGATS) of Israel, with the requirement to recognize inclusion of Eitan in the structure of the cabinet illegal.
• All the responsibility for Pollard’s espionage activity and its failure was assigned personally on Eitan who was accused of treachery of his former subordinate. The claimant has also declared that Eitan till now hides a certain document containing the full list of all confidential materials, transferred by Pollard to the Israeli side.
  
• In November 2006 BAGATS rejected all requirements of Pollard.
  

Jonathan Pollard has become the first revealed agent of the Israeli intelligence in the United States, and the person who received in America the most severe verdict for espionage activity in the history.



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