COVERT ISRAELI SPY UNIT LINKED TO POLLARD CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890020-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: November 29, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890020-7
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"covert Israeli
Spy Unit Linked
to Pollard Case
By DAN FISHER
and RONALD J. OSTROW,
Times maff r s
JERUSALEM-Behind the af-
fair of a U.S. Navy intelligence
analyst accused of selling defense
secrets to Israel is a little-known
Israeli intelligence operation serv-
ing the Ministry of Defense, The
Times has learned.
The operation is outside the
traditional Israeli intelligence com-
munity and functions particularly
to gather scientific and technical
information.
It includes an office known by its
Hebrew acronym as LEKEM and is
headed by a famous career Mossad
agent who was an adviser on
terrorism to two previous Israeli
prime ministers. While he lost the
latter post when the national unity
government took office last fall, the
official is technically still attached
to Prime Minister Shimon Peres'
bureau.
Independent Operation
The picture that has emerged
from contacts over several days
with a number of sources-both
official and unofficial, Israeli and
non-Israeli-is one of an independ-
ent intelligence operation that
grew and became an accepted
annex to the five organizations that
make up the traditional Israeli
intelligence community.
Those five organizations are
Mossad, the Israeli CIA; Shin Bet,
the Israeli FBI; Military Intelli-
gence; the Research Bureau of the
Foreign Ministry, and a police
intelligence unit.
While the independent intelli-
gence operation enjoys a sizable
budget and supplies regular reports
LOS ANGELES TIMES
29 November 1985
to top Israeli officials, sources in
Israel stressed that there is no
evidence that any ministerial-level
official was aware that among its
sources was Jonathan J. Pollard,
the American arrested for espio-
nage last week in front of the
Israeli Embassy in Washington.
A Foreign Ministry statement
released last Sunday said that "Is-
rael's political leadership received
with shock and consternation" re-
ports of what it said would be a
deviation from a longstanding poli-
ce against such intelligence-gath-
ering in the United States.
Officials here said that the state-
ment was intended to deny any
high-level political involvement in
the affair. The officials said an
investigation into the incident is
continuing, but there has been no
additional government comment
since Sunday.
In Washington, U.S. officials
continued to say publicly that they
are awaiting a full report from
Israel. But privately, some sources
expressed skepticism that
high-level Israeli officials would
not have known of Pollard's activi-
ties.
Underlining the extreme sensi-
tivity of the Pollard affair in Israel,
sources said that Prime Minister
Peres, Defense Minister Yitzhak
Rabin and Foreign Minister Yit-
zhak Shamir have been meeting
daily to review the internal inves-
tigation.
The essential elements of the
case are now believed to be clear to
the three, but they are said to be
hesitating about any public disclo-
sure, owing in part to the danger of
domestic political fallout.
In an Israeli television interview
Thursday, Peres refused to provide
details on the investigation and said
that it is taking so long because
"there is a need to do things
thoroughly, without nervousness
and with full responsibility." He
added that "any conclusions that
will be drawn from the affair will
be designed to prevent future
hitches."
His comments suggested that
contrary to earlier reports, there
may be no public punishments
dispensed to those found responsi-
ble for the affair.
The Foreign Ministry statement
released Sunday pledged that if
any "deviations" were discovered,
"the necessary conclusions will be
drawn"-an Israeli euphemism
that has traditionally meant heads
would roll.
While joined for the last 14
months in an uneasy coalition,
Israel's two major political blocs-
the centrist Labor Alignment and
the rightist Likud Bloc-are bitter
rivals, and some officials would like
to use the Pollard affair for political
gain. Complicating the picture,
however, is the fact that a key
figure in the case-former Mossad
operations chief Rafael Eitan-has
served under both Likud and Labor
prime ministers.
Also, Israeli officials are said to
be worried about possible damage
to the country's vital intelligence
community. "Israel can't afford to
do to its (intelligence community)
what America did to its CIA," one
source said.
In Washington, U.S. intelligence
officials said the Israeli expressions
of shock over the Pollard affair
give the government "plausible
deniability" of knowledge of the
affair but have left the Americans
unconvinced.
"Eitan was a terrorism expert for
(former Prime Minister Menach-
em) Begin. He recruited Pollard.
He couldn't have done so without
the knowledge of the prime minis-
ter of the country," said one U.S.
official who spoke on the promise of
anonymity. "All this about the
(Israeli) politicians not knowing is
ridiculous. Of course they knew."
That official said the Americans
are confounded that the Israelis
took "an extraordinary risk" of
embarrassment for the data Pollard
provided.
Adm. Bobby R. Inman, former
director of the National Security
Agency and former deputy director
of the CIA, said Wednesday night
on the ABC-TV program "Night-
line" that he thought it plausible
that Peres did not know Pollard's
identity. But he added:
"I think it's unlikely that the
government was not aware that the
government had sources other than
liaison to keep them apprised of
events in this country."
U.S. law enforcement and intelli-
gence sources also told The Times
on Thursday that the FBI is inves-
tigating allegations by Pollard that
an American television journalist
played a still-undefined role in the
espionage scheme.
The journalist, an independent
television producer based in Wash-
ington, was alleged to have re-
ceived some documents from Pol-
lard and has been questioned by
the FBI, one U.S. official said. The
sources said they have no solid
evidence that the journalist violat-
b
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890020-7
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890020-7
ed any laws and that he may even
have been unaware of Pollard's
s :,ged espionage work.
Contacted by phone, the produc-
er denounced the report as "so
ridiculous that it wouldn't make a
part in a Marx Brothers movie." He
declined to say whether he knows
Pollard.
"I have nothing whatever to say
about the case. Have a happy
Thanksgiving," he said before
hanging nited States has demanded
a full accounting from Israel, but
according to another Israeli source,
officials here "feel that what the
Americans are demanding would
reveal lots about how Israeli intel-
ligence operates." Israel is provid-
ing "interim" reports on its investi-
gation to the Reagan
Administration, and officials here
are said to be hoping that, in
deference to Peres, Washington
will not press for public disclosures
that would be considered damaging
here.
However, sources close to the
investigation here said Thursday
that Washington is angry over the
sudden recall to Israel of two
science attaches before U.S. inves-
tigators could question them in
connection with the Pollard affair.
The Foreign Ministry refused to
comment on the recalls Thursday
except to confirm that the two men
named did work in the Israeli
missions in Washington and New
York. However, sources here con-
firmed that Yossi Yagur, scientific
consul at the Israeli mission in New
York, and Ilan Ravid, deputy scien-
tific attache in Washington, re-
turned to Israel earlier this week.
Asked if the government would
permit American interrogators to
question the two men here, a
government source who spoke to
reporters on condition of anonymi-
ty replied, "Whatever the U.S.
asks, they will have the full coop.
eration of Israel." Israel radio re-
ported later Thursday that the
government would permit the two
to return to the United States for
questioning but not in a courtroom.
Another source confirmed that
the two attaches reported not to
the Foreign or Science ministries,
but to the Defense Ministry.
Informed sources here also con-
firmed that Eitan provides scientif-
ic and other information to the
Defense Ministry in his capacity as
head of the semi-secret LEKEM.
The acronym is short for Leshkat
Kesher Madan, or the Bureau of
Science Relations.
The Israeli press has identified
Eitan variously as the man who
recruited Pollard and as his ulti-
mate control agent.
Eitan could not be reached for
comment Thursday. The newspa-
per Maariv quoted him Thursday as
saying the accusations "may be a
mistake." He added that "the best
thing for an intelligence person to
do is to stay away from the media."
Eitan is a former operations chief
for Mossad, the Israeli equivalent of
the CIA, and is famous as the man
who subdued the late Adolph Eich-
mann on a Buenos Aires street in
1960, when a Mossad team travel.
led to Argentina to capture the
Nazi war criminal. Eichmann was
brought to to Israel where he was
tried and executed for his crimes.
Eitan was named anti-terrorism
adviser to then-Prime Minister Be-
gin in July, 1978. However, sources
here said, he actually wore two
hats-one in the terrorism job and
the second in intelligence.
The former Mossad man was
reportedly recommended for the
terrorism post by his friend and
close political ally, Ariel Sharon.
Sharon later became defense min-
ister in Begin's Cabinet and the
architect of the war in Lebanon. He
is trade and industry minister in
the current coalition government.
Exactly when he began what one
source referred to as a "renegade"
intelligence-gathering activity is
unclear. The Israeli press has hint-
ed broadly that he did so at
Sharon's behest.
Sharon is traveling outside of
Israel and could not be reached for
comment. However, the independ-
ent newspaper Haaretz on Thurs-
day quoted a Sharon aide, who
spoke with the minister by tele-
phone, as saying he knows nothing
about the Pollard affair.
$2,500 Payments Alleged
However it started, sources here
contend that Eitan's operation ulti-
mately included its own agents and
paid informants and that its output
was considered valuable enough
that he was kept on in his intelli-
gence post after Peres became
prime minister and named a new
adviser on terrorism.
It was not immediately clear
whether Eitan's operating budget
came from the prime minister's
office or the Defense Ministry.
However, the "customer" for the
intelligence information he collect-
ed was the Defense Ministry, the
sources said.
The sources emphasized that
Defense Ministry officials would
not have routinely known the orig-
inal sources of the intelligence
input that they got from Eitan. And
unless there was something unusu-
al about the intelligence data it-
self-which might raise a question
about where and how it was gath-
ered-there would be no reason to
suspect it was gathered against
government policy in the United
States.
According to FBI testimony in a
pretrial hearing in Washington on
Wednesday, Pollard collected
$2,500 a month for supplying clas-
sified U.S. documents to the Israe-
lis.
Pollard supplied information on
the military capacities of Israel's
Arab neighbors, according to
sources here.
While the United States shares
an enormous amount of intelli-
gence information with Israel, it
withholds some. For example, said
one source, it does not provide
details on the capabilities of mili-
tary hardware it sells to the Arab
countries. It also has satellite and
other information about the de-
ployment, movements and capabil-
ities of Arab armies that is not
regularly shared.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890020-7