U.S. VOICES 'DISMAY' AT ISRAEL'S RESPONSE TO POLLARD SPY CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900061-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 61
• Publication Date: November 30, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900061-9
WASHINGTON POST
30 November 1985
U.S. Voices `Dismay'
At Israel's Response
To Pollard Spy Case
' By David B. Ottaway
Washington-Post-Staff_Writer
The United States expressed
"dismay" yesterday that Israel had
not given its "full and prompt coop-
eration" to the American investiga-
tion of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the
Navy employe who allegedly sold
U.S. military secrets to the Israelis.
State Department spokesman
Charles E. Redman revealed that
the United States requested Is-
rael's cooperation in the Pollard
matter a week ago Thursday, but
that Israel waited five days to in-
form the United States that two
Israeli officials apparently connect-
ed to Pollard had left this country
the day after that cooperation was
sought. Redman said yesterday that
the Israelis "have not yet provided
the full and prompt cooperation we
requested."
"We regret this delay and are
urging the Israeli government to
respond promptly," he said.
Addressing the departure of the
two Israeli officials on Nov. 22, one
day after FBI agents arrested Pol-
lard outside the Israeli Embassy
here, Redman said: "We have no
explanation fok that departure. We
were not informed .... We are
dismayed that the government of
Israel was not as forthcoming as we
would have hoped and expected."
Later, a U.S. official said that
U.S. authorities had perhaps not
made it explicit to Israeli officials
here that they expected no Israeli
involved with Pollard would be al-
lowed to leave this country when
they first asked for Israel's coop-
eration in the case a week ago
Thursday, the day of Pollard's ar-
rest. By last Monday, however, "it
was certainly perfectly clear to
them that we thought no one should
leave," he said.
Redman said that the "crucial
point" now was that U.S. authorities
be given "prompt access" to those
Israeli officials involved so that the
United States could obtain "the full
facts" in the Pollard case.
While the government of Israel
has indicated it may allow U.S. au-
thorities to talk to the two Israeli
officials who left the United States,
State Department officials said yes-
terday that no arrangements had
been made yet for such access.
Various U.S. officials in the past
few days have privately expressed
irritation over the lack of Israeli
cooperation in the Pollard case. But
this was the first time the State
Department has issued a formal
statement sharply criticizing Is-
rael's performance and specifically
its refusal so far to make its diplo-
mats available for questioning by
U.S. authorities.
In most spy cases involving a
U.S. citizen and a foreign diplomat,
the United States has declared the
foreign diplomat involved persona
non grata without expecting the
diplomat to cooperate with U.S.
authorities. But because of the es-
pecially close relationship between
the United States and Israel, U.S.
authorities appear to expect con-
siderably more cooperation this
time.
The New York Times reported
from Jerusalem yesterday that
Prime Minister Shimon Peres, For-
eign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin,
acting as a committee, had inves-
tigated the Pollard matter, and coal-
cluded that the Israelis responsible
had kept it to themselves, not ill--
-forming ministers "on the political
level" that they had an American
agent providing secret U.S. infor-
ncition to them.
As reported earlier; those re-
sponsible were descrihcd as nte.nt-
hers of a special antiterrorism bu-
reau outside normal Israeli intelli-
gence agencies.
Israeli diplomats in Washington
yesterday recommended that con-
cerned friends of Israel asking for
guidance on the Pollard case read
the New York Times account, not-
ing particularly the report's sugges-
tion that Israel had used Pollard
because it learned the United
States had been spying on the Is-
raeli military.
The Times quoted a "highly
placed Israeli source" as saying that
the information provided by Pollard
"related to Israel's national secu-
rity. It appeared . . . that the Unit-
ed States was clearly running an
intelligence operation with regards
to matters of Israel's national se-
curity," the source told The 'l'imes.
I'ollard's information indicated
that the United States had "pene-
trated" the Israeli military, The
Times was told, so the Israeli offi-
cials involved decided that they had
to seek more information front him
to try to identify and their close the
leak.
Re