Israeli Espionage Against the US: A Long History
May 14, 1997
The Washington Post reported in a front-page story on May 7th that US
intelligence had intercepted a conversation in which two Israeli officials
had discussed the possibility of getting a confidential letter that
then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher had written to Palestinian
leader Yasir Arafat. One of the Israelis had commented that they may get
the letter from "Mega" -- apparently a codename for an Israeli agent within
the US government.
This revelation has been treated by much of the press as something of an
aberration, as Israeli officials have claimed that they do not spy on the
US. Israel Foreign Minister David Levy told the Washington Post (5/8/97)
that "Our diplomats all over the world, and of course specifically in the
US, don't deal with such a thing." Prime Minister Netanyahu's office
declared: "Israel does not use intelligence agents in the United States.
Period.".
Here is a sampling of the public record of Israeli espionage and covert
actions against the US:.
According to Time magazine (5/19/97), the US ambassador to Israel, Martin
Indyk, last year "complained privately to the Israeli government about
heavy-handed surveillance by Israeli intelligence agents, who had been
following American-embassy employees in Tel Aviv and searching the hotel
rooms of visiting US officials.".
Three relevant documents were made public in early 1996:.
1) A General Accounting Office report "Defense Industrial Security:
Weaknesses in US Security Arrangements With Foreign-Owned Defense
Contractors" found that according to intelligence sources "Country A"
(identified by intelligence sources as Israel, Washington Times, 2/22/96)
"conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United States
of any US ally." The Jerusalem Post (8/30/96) quoted the report,
"Classified military information and sensitive military technologies are
high-priority targets for the intelligence agencies of this country.".
The report described "An espionage operation run by the intelligence
organization responsible for collecting scientific and technologic
information for [Israel] paid a US government employee to obtain US
classified military intelligence documents." The Washington Report on
Middle East Affairs (Shawn L. Twing, April 1996) noted that this was "a
reference to the 1985 arrest of Jonathan Pollard, a civilian US naval
intelligence analyst who provided Israel's LAKAM [Office of Special Tasks]
espionage agency an estimated 800,000 pages of classified US intelligence
information.".
The GAO report also noted that "Several citizens of [Israel] were caught in
the United States stealing sensitive technology used in manufacturing
artillery gun tubes.".
2) An Office of Naval Intelligence document, "Worldwide Challenges to Naval
Strike Warfare" reported that "US technology has been acquired [by China]
through Israel in the form of the Lavi fighter and possibly SAM
[surface-to-air] missile technology." Jane's Defense Weekly (2/28/96) noted
that "until now, the intelligence community has not openly confirmed the
transfer of US technology [via Israel] to China." The report noted that
this "represents a dramatic step forward for Chinese military aviation."
(Flight International, 3/13/96).
3) The Defense Investigative Service circulated a memo in late 1995 warning
US military contractors that "Israel aggressively collects [US] military
and industrial technology." The report stated that Israel obtains
information using "ethnic targeting, financial aggrandizement, and
identification and exploitation of individual frailties" of US citizens.
(Washington Post, 1/30/96) (This report was criticized by several groups
for allegedly implying that Americans Jews were particularly suspect.).
***
From New York Times December 22, 1985, by David K. Shipler:.
Many American officials are convinced of Israel's ability, on a routine
basis, to obtain sensitive information about this county's secret weapons,
advanced technology and internal policy deliberations in Washington....
The F.B.I. knew of at least a dozen incidents in which American officials
transferred classified information to the Israelis, [former Assistant
Director of the F.B.I.] Mr. [Raymond] Wannal said. The Justice Department
did not prosecute..
"When the Pollard case broke, the general media and public perception was
that this was the first time this had ever happen," said John Davitt,
former chief of the Justice Department's internal security section. "No,
that's not true at all. The Israeli intelligence service, when I was in the
Justice Department, [1950-1980] was the second most active in the United
States, to the Soviets.".
***
From "The Samson Option," by Seymour M. Hersh
[Page numbers are from the Vintage paperback edition, 1992.].
The name "Mega" in the recent Washington Post story may be noteworthy:.
[I]llicitly obtained intelligence was flying so voluminously from LAKAM
into Israeli intelligence that a special code name, JUMBO, was added to the
security markings already on the documents. There were strict orders, [Ari]
Ben-Menashe recalled: "Anything marked JUMBO was not supposed to be
discussed with your American counterparts." ("The Samson Option," pg 295).
After Jonathan Pollard was arrested for selling secrets to Israel, the
Israeli leadership denied all knowledge. Hersh provides several sources
indicating that they did know. Here's one:
The top leadership, of course, knew what was going on. One former Israeli
intelligence official recalled that Peres and Rabin, both very
sophisticated in the handling of intelligence, were quick to ask, as the
official put it, "Where are we getting this stuff?" They were told, the
Israeli added, that Israeli intelligence "'has a penetration into the U.S.
intelligence community.' Both men let it go. No one said: 'Stop it here and
now.'" ("The Samson Option," pg 296).
One of the little-known aspects of the Pollard case is that information was
passed along by the Israelis to the Soviets:.
For Shamir, the Israeli added, the relaying of the Pollard information to
the Soviets was his way of demonstrating that Israel could be a much more
dependable and important collaborator in the Middle East than the "fickle"
Arabs: "What Arab could give you this?" ("The Samson Option," pg 299).
The Pollard information helped in Israel's ability to exercise "The Samson
Option" -- to threaten the Soviet Union, and therefore the US, with nuclear
war if they didn't get their way in developments in the Mideast. Disclosure
of information to the Soviets also apparently led the Soviets to track down
US agents:.
One senior American intelligence official confirmed that there have been
distinct losses of human and technical intelligence collection ability
inside the Soviet Union that have been attributed, after extensive
analysis, to Pollard. "The Israeli objective [in the handling of Pollard]
was to gather what they could and let the Soviets know that they have a
strategic capability--for their survival [the threat of a nuclear strike
against the Soviets] and to get their people out [of the Soviet Union],"
one former CIA official said. "Where it hurts us is our agents being rolled
up and our ability to collect technical intelligence being shut down. When
the Soviets found out what's being passed"--in the documents supplied by
Pollard to the Israelis--"they shut down the source." ("The Samson Option,"
pg 300).
***
A portion of a 1979 CIA internal report, "Israel: Foreign Intelligence and
Security Services" (from The Nation, "I Spy, You Spy, We All Spy,"
December 14, 1985, by Alexander Cockburn) included the following:.
In one instance Shin Beth [the Israeli internal security agency] tried to
penetrate the US Consulate General in Jerusalem through a clerical employee
who was having an affair with a Jerusalem girl. They rigged a fake abortion
case against the employee in an unsuccessful effort to recruit him. Before
this attempt at blackmail, they had tried to get the Israeli girl to elicit
information from her boyfriend..
Two other important targets in Israel are the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and
United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) with headquarters in
Jerusalem. There have been two or three crude efforts to recruit Marine
guards for monetary reward. In the cases involving UNTSO personnel, the
operations involved intimidation and blackmail..
In 1954, a hidden microphone planted by the Israelis was discovered in the
Office of the US Ambassador in Tel Aviv. In 1956, telephone taps were found
connected to two telephones in the residence of the US military attache..
***
In March 1978, Stephen Bryen, then a Senate Foreign Relations Committee
staffer, was overheard in a DC hotel offering confidential documents to top
Israeli military officials. The F.B.I. found Bryen's fingerprints on the
documents in question, and he admitted to having obtained them the night
before the meeting with the Israelis. Bryen was forced to quit his job, but
was never indicted. He was later brought on to the Defense Department as a
deputy to Reagan Administration Assistant Secretary Richard Perle. There
Bryen was in charge of such matters as overseeing technology transfers in
the Mideast. (See "The Armageddon Network" (Amana Books) by Michael Saba,
an officer of the National Association of Arab Americans when he overheard
Bryen offer the documents to the Israelis.).
As late as 1992, Stephen Bryen was serving on board of the pro-Israeli
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs while continuing as a paid
consultant -- with security clearance -- on exports of sensitive US
technology. (Wall Street Journal, 1/22/92, Edward T. Pound and David Rogers).
***
* "The Lavon Affair": In 1954, Israeli agents attacked Western targets in
Egypt in an apparent attempt to upset US-Egyptian relations. Israeli
defense minister Pinchas Lavon was removed from office, though many think
real responsibility lay with David Ben-Gurion..
* In 1965, Israel apparently illegally obtained enriched uranium from NUMEC
corporation. (Washington Post, 6/5/86, Charles R. Babcock, "US an
Intelligence Target of the Israelis, Officials Say.").
* In 1967, Israel attacked the USS Liberty, an intelligence gathering
vessel flying a US flag, killing 34 crew members. See "Assault on the
Liberty," by James M. Ennes, Jr. (Random House)..
* In 1985 Richard Smyth, the owner of MILCO was indicted on charges of
smuggling nuclear timing devices to Israel (Washington Post, 10/31/86)..
* April 24, 1987 Wall Street Journal headline: "Role of Israel in
Iran-Contra Scandal Won't be Explored in Detail by Panels".
* In 1992, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israeli agents apparently
tried to steal Recon Optical Inc's top-secret airborne spy-camera system.
(1/17/92, Edward T. Pound and David Rogers)..
* In early 1997, an Army mechanical engineer, David A. Tenenbaum, told
investigators that he "inadvertently" gave classified military information
on missile systems and armored vehicles to Israeli officials (New York
Times, 2/20/97)..
* For detailed analysis of the Israel-US relationship, including covert
operations, see "Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant
Israel" by Stephen Green (Amana Books). Also see "Dangerous Liaisons" by
Andrew and Leslie Cockburn (Harper Collins)..
* For information on economic espionage see "War By Other Means: Economic
Espionage in America" by Wall Street Journal reporter John Fialka (Norton).
Also see "Israel's Unauthorized Arms Transfers" in Foreign Policy, Summer
1995, by Prof. Duncan Clarke of American University. ..
Sam Husseini
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