POLLARD: TOP ISRAELIS BACKED SPY RING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403620005-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: February 28, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403620005-5
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28 February 1987
P!llrd: Top Israelis Backed Spy Ring
U.S. Tells Espionage Contacts They May Face Indictment
By Howard Kurtz
Win mg on rot s la Writer
Admitted spy Jonathan Jay Pol-
lard said yesterday that his Israeli
contacts told him "the highest levels
of the Israeli government" had
thanked him for passing U.S. mil-
itary secrets to Tel Aviv.
Although Israel has repeatedly
insisted that the Pollard spy ring
was a "renegade operation," Pollard
said in a memorandum filed in fed-
eral court that it is "beyond reason"
to believe that senior Israeli offi-
cials were unaware of his spying.
Pollard, a former U.S. Navy in-
telligence analyst who pleaded
guilty last June to espionage, made
the assertions in a 61-page docu-
ment filed in advance of his March
10 sentencing. Pollard faces a max-
imum penalty of life in prison and a
$250,000 fine.
Pollard called himself a "mis-
guided idealist" and said he "felt like
a prostitute" for accepting pay-
ments from Israel. Prosecutors
have said the Israelis paid Pollard
$2,500 a month, financed European
vacations for him and his wife and
promised him $300,000 more over
10 years.
Israeli Embassy spokesman Yossi
Gal said Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir reiterated on his recent vis-
it here "that this was a rogue oper-
ation that was not authorized and
against the will of the government.
As far as we're concerned, the mat-
ter is closed."
But Justice Department sources
said they find Pollard's account
credible. Jerusalem Post correspon-
dent Wolf Blitzer recently reported
that Pollard was a "master spy" who
gave Israel access to virtually all
U.S. intelligence.
Sources said the Justice Depart-
ment recently notified Israeli Air
Force commander Aviem Sella, Pol-
lard's first handler, that he could
face indictment in the case. The
department told three other Is-
raelis, including Rafael Eitan, a for-
mer terrorism adviser to two prime
ministers, that it plans to revoke
their immunity from prosecution in
the case.
Pollard said the material he pro-
vided "was so unique that anyone
... would have known about the
existence of an agent working in the
American intelligence establish-
ment."
"A near-famous ex-Mossad [Is-
raeli intelligence agency] assistant
chief of operations ... a highly dec-
orated member of the air force, two
senior science attaches and a lead-
ing international arms broker do
not coalesce out of thin air," Pollard
said.
"At the end of each month," he
said, "I was given an extremely de-
tailed' list of material which was
needed by the various organizations
that included an explanation of why
the information officially trans-
ferred did not satisfy their require-
ments .... There was always one
prioritized list which had evidently
been agreed upon the respective
military chiefs of intelligence and
bore their combined seal."
Pollard said he was "routinely
provided with finished technical as-
sessments of the material which
had been passed to the Israelis,"
which he was told came from "a
special team of analysts" in Israel.
Since the material was based on
satellite photography and signal in-
telligence, he said, Israeli officials
had to be "cognizant that it was not
being transferred through official
channels."
Pollard said his handlers told him
that "Israel's dependence upon a
'special source' " was mentioned at
presentations to the Israeli cabinet.
Pollard said he was motivated by
"anti-Semitism" in his Navy intel-
ligence office, which he said had "an
unbelievably cynical attitude toward
Israel's survival . High-level
directives about releasing certain
types of information to Jerusalem
were routinely shelved by the men
in the trenches, who felt that the
'Jews' didn't need to know any-
thing."
The material he provided on Lib-
ya's air defense system aided a
.1985 Israeli raid on Palestine Lib-
eration Organization headquarters
near Tunis, Pollard said. He said
this was "a perfect example of
where I thought my actions were of
service to both Israel and the Unit-
ed States."
Pollard said he also provided data
on Soviet bloc weapons and U.S.
intelligence about Syria, Libya, Al-
geria, Iraq and Pakistan. Eitan once
pressed him to provide information
about the activities of the U.S. Na-
tional Security Agency in Israel, but
he refused, Pollard said.
Pollard said he worked without
payment for six months "until the
issue of salary was raised by Col,
Sella." He said he felt "extremely
dirty" about accepting money from
Israel.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403620005-5