CQ HOMELAND SECURITY
April 25, 2008 – 8:13 p.m.
Israel Might Have Many More Spies Here, Officials Say
By Jeff Stein, CQ National Security Editor
The elderly New Jersey man arrested last week on charges of spying for Israel years ago was probably still working for the Jewish state’s espionage service in tandem with another, as yet unidentified spy, former American intelligence officials say.
Ben-Ami Kadish, now 84, was employed as a mechanical engineer at a U.S. Army weapons center in New Jersey when he allegedly supplied his Israeli handler with classified military documents, according to charges filed last week.
The handler was named only as “CC-1,” or co-conspirator 1, in the criminal complaint. But its description of him as the same man who was handling the notorious Israeli mole Jonathan Pollard all but identified him as Yosef Yagur, formerly the consul for scientific affairs at the Israeli consulate in New York.
Pollard, who gave Yagur thousands of highly classified documents while working as a navy intelligence analyst in the 1980s, is in the 21st year of a life sentence for espionage.
Kadish, who worked at the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, N.J., from 1963 to 1990, could also spend the waning years of his life in jail if he is convicted.
A former senior CIA counterintelligence operative believes the case “will never go to trial, because of all the ugly stuff that would come out” about Israeli activities in the United States.
Indeed, Justice Department attorneys have fought to keep “ugly stuff” from emerging in the trial of two officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, charged with accepting classified documents from Pentagon official Larry Franklin.
But the federal judge in the case has indicated he might not go along with their strategy. Last month Judge Thomas Ellis III indefinitely postponed the trial of AIPAC officials Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, which was scheduled to open next week.
Neither the United States nor Israel, strategic allies struggling with Middle East terrorism, the war in Iraq and the rising threat of Iran, can afford a breach in relations triggered by either case.
The Justice Department said Kadish brought home briefcases full of classified documents, which “CC-1” photographed in his basement. Among the documents was “restricted data” on nuclear weapons, classified information on a modified F-15 fighter that was sold to an unnamed foreign country (most likely Saudi Arabia), and a document relating to the Patriot anti-missile system, which the United States deployed to Israel during the first Gulf War in 1990.
Yagur fled New York in 1985 as U.S. counterintelligence agents closed in on Pollard. He has not been back since, U.S. officials believe.
They thought that was the end of his espionage operations here.
But Yagur evidently kept in touch with Kadish, exchanging e-mails and telephone calls with him long after he returned to Israel. Kadish went to Israel in 2004 and met with his former spy master, authorities said.
Israel Might Have Many More Spies Here, Officials Say
Just last month, on March 20, “CC-1” told Kadish to lie to FBI agents who had questioned him about the documents, according to a wiretap transcript produced by federal prosecutors.
“Don’t say anything. Let them say whatever they want. You didn’t do anything,” CC-1 told Kadish. “What happened 25 years ago? You didn’t remember anything.”
Ron Olive, the navy investigator in charge of the Pollard case, said he was shocked when he heard about Kadish’s arrest.
The description of CC-1 as Pollard’s handler meant that “it has to be” Yagur, he said by telephone from Arizona, where he was giving a counterintelligence lecture to federal officials.
“I was like, ‘holy cow, this is unbelievable,’” he said.
Olive said the arrest meant that Kadish was still working for Israeli intelligence.
“It means Israel still has an agent in place in the U.S. who can ferret out someone who has access to information they want,” Olive said.
One role Kadish could play was as a “spotter,” who could size up possible recruits for Israeli intelligence, even while living in a retirement community in Monroe Township, N.J., said Olive and another former federal agent.
“That jumped out at me,” said Harry B. “Skip” Brandon, a former deputy assistant director of counterintelligence at the FBI.
“It is very unusual for a former agent handler and his former agent to remain friends. And it’s dangerous for both,” he added. Any communication between the two, no matter how innocent, raises the risk of detection and exposure.
Other aspects of the case suggest that Jerusalem has at least one, and maybe several more spies embedded in U.S. military services or intelligence agencies: As with Pollard, the Israelis asked Kadish for specific documents, indicating they knew what they were looking for, supplied by another spy.
“You know, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit,” said Olive, who in 2006 published a memoir about the case, “Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American History Was Brought to Justice”.
Olive said Pollard stole “360 cubic feet” of classified documents during his six years as an Israeli mole. “It was the most devastating spy case I ever saw,” he said. “No other spy in the history of the United States has stolen so many secrets, so highly classified, in such a short period of time.”
Israel Might Have Many More Spies Here, Officials Say
“No other spy in the history of the United States has stolen so many secrets, so highly classified , in such a short period of time,” he said.
There have long been rumors of a “Mr. X,” Olive said, “another unknown government employee who had access to information that the Israelis could use.”
Israeli intelligence had a spy, code-named MEGA, high up in the Reagan administration at the same time Pollard, and now allegedly Kadish, were stealing documents, according to a Washington Post story years ago that has never been confirmed.
In fact, according to past and present U.S. counterintelligence officials, Israeli agents were so aggressive even after the Pollard case that an FBI counterintelligence boss in the late 1990s, David Szady, summoned Mossad’s top official for a tongue lashing.
“Knock it off,” Szady said, according to a reliable source on condition of anonymity.
Szady has been pilloried in pro-Israel circles for pursuing the AIPAC case, which many critics say amounts to trumping up espionage charges against officials who were merely engaging in the kind of transaction officials and journalists conduct every day.
But the Israelis here have never stopped practicing the “world’s second oldest profession,” as espionage is sometimes dubbed, despite years of rote denials, many officials say.
“I guarantee you the same thing is happening now,” said Olive, who trains Department of Energy security officials on detecting signs of espionage.
One effective espionage tool is forming joint partnerships with U.S. companies to supply software and other technology products to U.S. government agencies, intelligence officials say.
But Brandon, who retired in the mid-1990s but retains many intelligence contacts for his global security consulting business, says the Israelis are interested in commercial as much as military secrets. They have a muscular technology sector themselves.
“They are always looking for a leg up,” he said.
Congress is a major target, too, Brandon said.
“God, they would work the Hill, ” he said. “They really worked the Hill. They were not necessarily interested in collection [of information] so much as they were in influence.”
Israel Might Have Many More Spies Here, Officials Say
Influencing Congress is usually the domain of foreign diplomats, he said, but in Israel’s case there was “very little distinction between Mossad and the diplomats.”
“They were very sharp,” he added. “Their best and brightest.”
Mossad agents also scout for people to help them in the Jewish-American community, he said, based on their religious and political commonality. It’s a vast community of potential “spotters,” who can point them to other Jewish Americans in government, law, finance and banking who might be susceptible to recruitment, as is the case with potential Chinese and Cuban recruits.
Or just useful conversation. Israeli agents, Brandon said, are skilled at eliciting information from unwary Jewish Americans in strategically important positions.
“They make you feel good, feel important,” he said. “They don’t even realize they’re giving up something” sensitive, or even classified — until it’s too late.
At the same time, U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials have worked hand in glove on numerous fronts since 1948, when the Jewish state was founded.
Mossad had access to Russian Jews who supplied the West with Soviet military, scientific and technical secrets. American and Israel intelligence have always worked closely in counterterrorism.
But they don’t tell each other everything, which is why the relationship sometimes veers from friendship to competition.
“They were never, ever allowed in our facilities,” says a former CIA officer who was sometimes assigned a liaison role with Israeli counterterrorism agents.
Likewise, when CIA or other U.S. intelligence operatives visited Israel, Israeli security agents would “toss their room,” he said, “just to show who’s in charge.”
Jeff Stein can be reached at jstein@cq.com.
Comments
Shall we keep the most fundamentalist extremists in Israel and America under restraint? Please? They're sabotaging our relationship with the majority of Israel's citizens. I'm so tired of Lenin, Marx, Strauss, and Hitler. They don't fit in American democracy, so it can't be too comfy for the people of Israel. I think we should instead concentrate on the Pox and it's principals. http://www.light-to-dark.com/rove_and_gonzales_do_justice.html
The foreign aid given to Israel is not enough, is it? How long has this been going on? We know this is not the first time they have been caught at this. Outrageous!
Americans shouldn't be surprised by this. Just remember the Rosenbergs, Klaus Fuchs, Jonathan Pollard, those AIPAC guys, and now this latest spying incident for our supposed friend Israel. It proves these people and this little country are not loyal to America. Israel takes our money and spits in our eye with impunity because our government is actually serving Israel's interests at the expense of the American people. This all raises a big question. Are people of this etnicity trustworthy? What grave danger do these people and this little kingdom pose to America's security?
Its so typical ,not guilty because the info to convict is too sensative [catch 22] But thanks to homeland security laws we could rendition them to wantonimo [give them the same trial as the detainee's there that are going to be tried there by military tribunal [they after all are trained in israel[by compulsory mil service on all israelies]. Iit is a well known fact many israelies go back to israel for 'training' for the homeland [where they are taught many things [from blogging to lobby] of course they return to the us and asume civilian attire [but are still trained in basic mossad teqniques to serve the 'true homeland ' [ie spies , lobbiests and activists ] for a foreign power ,[and as us citizens spies for the self same 'foreign power'] Their crimes would include taking advantage of us demon-auto-cratic weakness attaind [and tainted by their very colluded acts of treason agauinst the usa and for israel ] serving two masters [isnt there something in the holy texts about that? im certain there must be something in the 'homeland security manual'[either theirs or ours. any way cedarv is almost over [expect the bloggers on line anytime now] how peacefull the last few days have been[surely in this alone is a sign] one god gave all life its life to live [those seeking endless war serve death [not the living god of life and love] who was not given to live from god [serving 3 masters dont work dudes peace shalom [ps the lost son of israel never left it [you will no doudt in time find him in some ghetto [or prison] in the land formerly known as palistein]
The US government is busy waterboarding hapless kids at Gitmo but all they deign to do to the real threats to national security is wring their hands and jail them. Yeah, that tells me pretty much all I need to know.
The Rosenburgs were supposed Soviet Spies, not Israeli. Don't let this become a forum on anti-semtism or bitter feelings toward Israel, it's just as bad as the fervent supporters. Israel has many of the problems it has today because it has trampled on people for decades, building a huge base of people who hate it enough to kill themselves to damage it. Einstein said in 1954 that he worried that the "Jews would not be able to get along with the arabs", and treat them fairly. That being said their claims that Israel stole the land from them are equally ridiculous, Jewish people from across the world moved, and settled their, they sold their country, house by house, parcel by parcel, for a good price to those incoming Jewish people. Both sides are equally wrong there, nobody's right, everyone hates each other, and it's created an unfortunate cycle of violence. It will take a very powerful, great leader to break it.
Well, folks, get over it. It's another federal state overseas. Your outrage is artificial. That's all entirely legal.
Oh, the ignorance runs rampant here! Jacob Wallk, you're so utterly wrong. Tell that to all of the Palestinians who have deeds to land that have been appropriated by the Israeli government. And go look up the 70+ UN resolutions passed against Israel for these and other shenanigans. Johh McGuire: yes, espionage is legal - that's why we HANG people for it. You'll notice similar disinformation being spread via the comments sections of any article even mildly critical of Israel. Thank goodness the world is waking up to this, though. The rest of the world already has. America, now it's our turn.
Dear Mr. Stein: I just read your on-line article "Israel Might Have Many More Spies Here" and additionally saw your comments on the upcoming AIPAC "spy trail" I just wanna know if the cable news networks have approached you for an interview about these issues (I am sure this kinda stuff does ups the TV ratings) or have you approached them with your information And what has been the response ???
Spies are to be put to death
Mr. Wilcox I assume you believe you are an expert on the creation of israel and the many complicated issues surrounding it. Why is it people like you only choose certain UN resolutions to want to restrain Israel and ignore resolutions that protect Israel. The UN is a great big joke. The fact that there are spies is old news. I am sure you will find plenty of US spies all over the place too. Heck under the Patriot act we are being spied on too. Don't compare Israelis to Guano prisoners. Israelis are not sworn to our destruction.
It never fails to amaze me how the antisemites see Jews under every rock. Klaus Fuchs was a Lutheran, and the AIPAC spies were all Messianic Christians. Yes, the AIPAC spies allegedly spied for Israel, but Fuchs and the Rosesbergs allegedly spied for Russia. If you are going to take little jabs at 'these people" and "that ethnicity," at least make som,e minor effort to get your facts straight!
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