ISRAELIS PREVENT U.S. ACCESS TO NEW FIGURE IN POLLARD CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403620003-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 2, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403620003-7
I I
2 April 1987
Israelis Prevent U.S. Access
To New Figure in Pollard Ease
By Howard Kurtz
Wa.Aiaeton Pat Staff Writer
ment as reused to allow him to
eal-ve Tsrae for ues iomn on tit
role in channeling srae i payments
to o , according to knowledge-
able sources.
soite 1smell's pledge tha . it
would cooperate with the U.S. in-
vestigation no matter where the
trail may lead," tie sraeli defense
minis Tab ~ssu an o
bars Harold Katz an attorne from
leaving the country, t he sources
said.
They said the order has effective-
ly placed Katz beyond the reach of
U.S. prosecutors because the Har-
vard Law School graduate, who
lives in Israel and holds American
and Israeli citizenship, is subject to
Israeli law.
The disclosure that the Israeli
spy ring may have included another
person of American citizenship, be-
sides Pollard and his wife, Anne
Henderson-Pollard, is a major new
development in the 16-month inves-
tigation.
Justice Department investigators
believe that Katz holds the key to a
host of unanswered questions about
the extent to which Pollard's spying
may have been sanctioned at senior
levels of the Israeli government.
Katz also may know whether top
Israeli officials approved the pay-
ment of about $50,000 to Pollard,
according to the sources.
Katz is the owner of a condomin-
ium apartment in Northwest Wash-
ington where U.S. investigators
believe the Israelis photocopied
many of the classified military doc-
uments that Pollard provided. Katz
purchased the apartment for
$82,500 in cash in March 1985,
according to real estate records.
Sources said the Justice Depart-
ment is willing to grant Katz immu-
nity from prosecution in exchange
for his testimony before a federal
grand jury here. That testimony
could be highly damaging to Israel,
which has repeatedly insisted that
ttte Pollard spy ring was a "rogue
operation" not authorized by the
government.
Richard A. Green, Katz's Wash-
ington attorney, confirmed that the
Justice Department has been seek-
ing to question Katz but said he is
certain that Katz "is not a target of
the investigation."
After conferring with his client
by telephone, Green said he was
authorized to say that Katz "is not
involved in and knows nothing about
the Pollard matter."
"He's never refused to talk to
American officials, nor has Israel
prevented him from talking to
American officials .... It's a ques-
tion of under what circumstances,"
Green said. "He is willing to talk to
anybody at any time."
Green said Katz would have no
further comment on the matter.
Asked about Katz' role and the
government's alleged refusal to let
him leave the country, an Israeli
defense ministry official told Wash-
ington Post correspondent Glenn
Frankel in Jerusalem that the pol-
lard case "is now tinder investiga-
tion by two committees in Israel
and we are not able to discuss any-
thing that relates to this whole sub-
jecct."
Israeli government sources, re-
flecting the official view, confirmed
that Katz played a role in the Pol-
lard affair, but characterized his
involvement as "marginal" and said
Katz was not a matter of dispute
between Washington and Tel Aviv.
One source said the Knesset. inves-
tigating subcommittee was aware of
Katz' identity and the role that he
played, but the source would not
elaborate.
Another Israeli source said that
Katz has complained about the gov-
ernment's handling of his case and
even threatened at one point to sue
the government if it did not com-
pensate him for financial losses that
would result if he is not allowed to
travel to the United States.
Pollard, a former U.S. Navy in-
telligence analyst sentenced last
month to life in prison, was paid
$2,500 monthly in return for deliv-
ering suitcases of classified docu-
ments to his Israeli contacts. He
has told prosecutors that he was
promised $300,000 over 10 years
in a Swiss bank account.
Katz, a director of a Boston-
based health care company, fives in
a Tel Aviv suburb and has been
practicing law in Israel since 1972.
Legal proceedings related to his
role have been placed under seal in
U.S. District Court here because
secret grand jury testimony is in-
volved, sources said.
The dispute over Katz follows
repeated U.S. complaints that Is-
rael has failed to live up to its
pledge to cooperate fully with the
Justice Department and to "call to
account" those responsible.
American officials were partic-
ularly angered by the promotion of
Israeli Air Force Col. Aviem Sella
shortly before he was indicted by a
grand jury here for his role as Pol-
lard's first "handler." Sella resigned
his post Sunday as commander of
one of Israel's largest air bases.
Three other Israelis, including
Rafael Eitan, a former antiterror-
ism adviser to two prime ministers,
have been named unindicted cocon-
spirators in the case. The Justice
Department is moving to revoke
their immunity from prosecution on
grounds that they misled U.S. in-
vestigators.
According to real estate records,
Katz owns an eighth-floor apart-
ment at 2939 Van Ness St. NW in
the building where Irit Erb lived
while she was a secretary at the
Israeli Embassy here. Erb also was
named an unindicted coconspirator.
Investigators believe that Katz'
apartment was the site where Pol-
lard regularly delivered many of the
secret documents for photocopying.
Pollard delivered thousands of
pages of documents to Erb at her
apartment or "at another apartment
within the same building," accord-
ing to the charges to which Pollard
pleaded guilty last June.
'This second apartment located
in Irit Erb's apartment building was
used for monthly meetings" be-
tween Pollard, Erb and Joseph
Yagur, then an Israeli science con-
sul, the charges said. The apart-
ment was also used to pay Pollard
and "to house the equipment used
I/
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403620003-7
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403620003-7
at.
for photocopying and photographing
certain of the classified national de-
fense documents delivered by Pol-
lard," according to the charges.
The Israeli government initially
offered to allow U.S. investigators
to interview Katz in Israel if Israeli
officials were present and the ques-
tioning was limited to certain areas,
according to sources. The Justice
Department reluctantly agreed, but
the Israelis later refused to allow an
interview even under those condi-
tions, the sources said.
U.S. investigators believe that
Katz' testimony would be of little
use unless it is taken before a grand
jury in Washington, sources said,
because similar supervised arrange-
ments in Israel produced misleading
answers from the three unindicted
coconspirators in 1985.
Katz is a director of HealthCo
International nc., a on-
dental equipment firm that has sev-
eral branches in Israel and $349
mil ion in annual
Company spokesman James S.
Morgenthal said that Katz was the
firm's first counsel when he was a
Boston lawyer and became a direc-
tor after moving his family to Israel
in 1972. He said Katz has been reg-
ularly attending directors' meetings
as recently as last fall.
Morgenthal added that Katz "has
done various legal jobs for the Is-
raeli government from time to
time."
Pollard has said in court papers
that his Israeli contacts told him
"the hig*4 ve of e sra
governmen had thanked him for
passing U.S. secrets to Tel Aviv.
He said that eachmont a was
given xan extremely de-UR Tff l-r
materia by srae in e =
genes and '-en-"fuus- sfiR ' I nical
assessments ot'Es materia .
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403620003-7