ISRAELI OFFICIAL WHO PUSHED COVER-UP PROBE IS REPLACED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605630002-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 2, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/04/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605630002-3
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LOS ANGELES TIMES
2 June 1986
fILE ONLY
Israeli Wicial Who Pushed
Cover-up Probe Is Replaced
By MICHAEL ROSS, Times Staff Writer and high-level involvement is al-
JERUSAI#EM-The Israeli Cab-
inet on Sunday replaced Atty. Gen.
Yitzhak Zamir, who has come. un-
der heavy political fire in recent
days for ordering an investigation
into a politically explosive security
scandal involving allegations of a
cover-up by top-level government
and intelligence agency officials.
In a terse statement read to
reporters after a weekly Cabinet
meeting, government spokesman
Yossi Benin said the Cabinet' ap-
pointed Yosef Harish, a Tel Aviv
circuit court judge; to succeed Za-
mir, effective Wednesday.
Beilin added that the Cabinet
decided to impose secrecy and
prevent future leaks by dgreeing
that only Prime Minister Shimon
Peres and his appointed spokesmen
will henceforth be authorized to
comment on the security scandal,
which involves allegations that
senior officials conspired to cover
up the circumstances of an incident
two years- ago in which two Arab
terrorists were beaten to death by
their Israeli interrogators.
Beilin, however, asserted there
was "no connection" between the,
affair and-the decision to replace
Zamir, who he noted had aw.
pounced earlier this year that he
intended to resign as soon as a
successor was selected.
"The attorney general said four
months ago that he would resign
the moment someone was found to
replace him," Bailin said "This was
done today."
He added that he expected the
cover-up investigatia to proceed
under Harish, a respcted jurist
who is described by both left- and
right-wing politicians as a tough,
"independently minded person"
who is not likely to allow his
juridical integrity to be compro-
mised by "political pressures."
Despite these assurances and
those of Zamir-who told reporters
that he is glad to be leaving the
office he has held for seven
years-the timing of the attorney
general's replacement was expect-
ed to add fuel to the cover-up
scandal, which in terms of scope
ready being referred to as an Israeli
version of Watergate.
According to observers here, the
search for Zamir's successor was
accelerated only after the attorney
general decided to order a police
investigation of the security scan-
dal over the strong objections of
Peres, Foreign Minister Yitzhak
Shamir and other members of both
the Labor and Likud factions of the
coalition government, who fear
that the investigation could com-
promise national security as well as
lead to embarrassing disclosures.
These suspicions were not laid to
rest by Harish, who, in the first
interview after his appointment,
told Israel television that, in his
opinion, the details of the scandal
should be kept "secret and not
publicized."
`Behind Closed Doors'
"I think a discussion (of the
affair) is important, but I think it
should be held behind closed
doors," he said.
The affair-which highly placed
sources say could implicate Shamir
and, to a lesser extent, Peres in an
alleged cover-up of deception and
destruction of evidence-is one of
two sensitive, security-related
scandals in which the government
now finds itself mired.
The other involves icions b
the U.S. Justice . Department that
Israel deceived the United States
when
December that Jonathan Jay Pol-
lard,
a Navy employee caught
spying-for Israel, was not part of a
significant Israeli espionage net-
work in the United States.
Although Israeli officials initially
denied any connection to Pollard,
they Iater said that he had been
workina for a "renegade" branch of
Israeli security and that he was
recruited wl Out f We govern-
ment's knowledge or approval. It
has since been disclosed
operation was part of a previously
secret espionage organization
known b its Hebrew acronym as
LEKEM. which o rated
Israeli science attaches in the Unit-
ed States and elsewhere. Israeli
officials have said that the U.S.
Tl^. as Deenclo-oandew
Peres apologized to the United
States. saving it is strictly against
his government's policy to spy on a
close friend and ally.
U.S. Officials accepted these as-
surances, u ce par men
sources told The Tim last week
that Pollard's subs cent testimo-
ny revealed the t nee of -
much larger Israeli rin run by
a senior sra i air force o icer who
ilia a reauen vun tote Unit d
States. The sources added that the
size an scope o the srae ' net
work made it unpossible for it to
have peen run without "hi h-lev-
e a rov .
~o g
to these allegations,
the Israeli Foreign Ministry's offi-
F spo esman on ur y rei er
aged the government's earlier d yL
als of th e existence of a broad _
Israeli soy network in the United
States ut would neither confirm
nor deny reports that Washington
had presented Israel with new
eviaence in the case.
Although State Department offi-
cials, at odds with the Justice
Department, are said to fear that
disclosure of more details could
affect the stability of Peres' gov-
ernment, the Pollard affair has so
far taken a back seat in Israel to the
internal security scandal, which
senior political sources describe as
potentially far more damaging to
both Peres and Shamir.
The scandal centers on allega-
tions that Avraham Shalom, the
head of the Shin Bet, the Israeli
equivalent of the FBI, misled in-
vestigators, falsified evidence and
ordered his subordinates to lie
about the beating deaths of two
Palestinians captured after hijack-
ing a passenger bus from Tel Aviv
to the southern town of Ashkelon
on April 12,1984..
Initial investigations concluded
that the two terrorists died of blows
suffered when the bus was stormed`
by Israeli paratroops. However, a
newspaper photo, published in de-
fiance of government censorship
rules, showed the two Arabs, alive
and apparently uninjured, being led
away from the bus, and there was
speculation that they were beaten
to death by their Shin Bet interro-
gators. Accusations against Shalom
made to Atty. Gen. Zamir's office
by three former Shin Bet officials
Prompted Zamir to order his own
investigation of the episode, ac-
cording to various sources.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/04/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605630002-3 !_
 "There is no question of a cov-
er-up," a senior security source
told The Times. "The only question
now is to what extent the political-
leadership participated in it."
Although the government has
subjected most the details of the
affair to censorship-and moved
Sunday to toughen security around
the affair-details continued to'
emerge.
A former senior military official,
who was present- when the two
terrorists were taken from the bus
to a nearby wheat field, told The'
Times that Shalom presided over
their interrogation.
"He was there. He was the
official in charge," the source said.
"The only question is whether he
ordered his subordinates to finish
them off or merely bore responsi-
bility for their deaths because he
was the official in charge."
Several Israeli newspapers re-
ported Sunday that Foreign Minis-
ter Shamir, who was prime minis-
ter at the time and in that capacity
directly responsible for the Shin
Bet, both knew of the subsequent
cover-up and participated in it.
One newspaper, the Jerusalem
Post, quoted government sources
as saying that Shamir "might have
given the alleged order to kill the
two terrorists by radio telephone
while they were being interrogat-
ed."
The former senior military offi-
cial interviewed Saturday by The
Times said that "there is no ques-
tion that Shamir knew of the
cover-up. He authorized it."
The main question now, he add-
ed, "is, what Peres knew" when he
later assumed office.
The most serious allegations
against Peres to date stem from
reports that three senior Shin Bet
officials approached him six months
ago with their allegations against
Shalom but that he took no action.
The three officials, who were re-
ported subsequently to have either
been fired or pressured into resign-
ing, then took their assertions to
Zamir.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/04/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605630002-3
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/04/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605630002-3