POLLARDS ADMIT SPYING; OTHERS MAY BE CHARGED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807490028-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: June 5, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807490028-7
LOS ANGELES TIMES
5 June 1986
FILE ONLY
Pollards Admit Spying
the Israeli consulate in New York;
Irit Erb, an Israeli Embassy secre-
tary in Washington, and Rafael
(Raft) Eitan, a long-time Israeli
intelligence expert who is said to
head a secret government bureau
that oversaw United States intelli-
gence operations.
However, the indictment and
other court documents cite as pos-
sible Pollard contacts another un-
named Israeli diplomat in Wash-
ington, a second Israeli known only
as Uzi and an unidentified Ameri-
can who arranged a meeting be-
tween Pollard and Sella in which
Pollard apparently was recruited to
the Israelis' service.
Government sources said that
the four Israelis, the American and
others remain targets for possible
later indictment. Although the
United States and Israel have an
extradition treaty, a Justice De-
partment spokesman said that Isra-
el does not send its nationals to the
United States for trial.
Others May Be Charged
4 Israelis Named as Unindicted Co-Conspirators;
Investigation of Espionage Network Continuing
By MICHAEL WINES and RONALD J. OSTROW, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON-In what fed-
eral prosecutors called "a continu-
ing investigation" of Israeli espio-
nage in the United States, a former
Navy intelligence analyst and his
wife pleaded jj4W Wednesday to
P (0'-secret U.S. intelli-
gence documents to Israeli officials.
The prosecutors, giving the first
official indication that the espio-
nage network was more wide-
spread than had been believed, said
that others may be indicted in an
investigation that has mushroomed
into a stinging embarrassment to
the Israeli government.
Pair Plea-Bargained
Navy civilian analyst Jonathan
Jay Pollard and his wife, Anne
Henderson-Pollard, entered their
pleas in U.S. District Court here
only hours after charges were
formally brought against them.
The guilty pleas were part of
bargains in which the Pollards
cooperated.with prosecutors in ex-
change for recommendations of
reduced sentences.
In the indictments, the Pollards
were accused of conspiring with
four Israeli officials-who were
named as unindicted co-conspira-
tors-"and with other persons
known and unknown" in an organ-
ized spy scheme that was to have
netted the couple at least $345,000
over 10 years, much of it to be
deposited by the Israelis in a secret
Swiss bank account.
The well-organized operation
included a Paris meeting between
the Pollards and their Israeli "han-
dlers," an extensive Mideast vaca-
tion that the Pollards took at Israeli
expense and an Israeli passport
given to Pollard under the name of
"Danny Cohen," the name attached
to his Swiss bank account.
The Pollards' attorney, Richard
A. Hibey, said that his client spied
for Israel "because he believes in
the state of Israel."? Pollard is "not
anti-American," Hibey said. "He is
a passionate anti-communist and
anti-terrorist."
So valuable was Pollard's data,
the documents state, that one of his
Israeli contacts began "tasking"
him to retrieve classified docu-
ments in which the Israelis took
special interest. The information
sought by the Israelis dealt with
the defense capabilities of Egypt,
Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other
Arab countries, according to gov-
ernment sources, who asked not to
be idlent91ed.
In addition, material that U.S.
agents recovered from the Pollards
included data on missiles systems
designed or made by non-Commu-
nist nations "which might be avail-
able for sale to Iran."
In Jerusalem, the Israeli Foreign
Ministry immediately denied that
the pleas were evidence of broader
Israeli espionage operations within.
the United States and reiterated
statements that Israeli officials
have vestigators. fully with Ameri-
can intaeasil Stuee Qwdies d
But U.S Atty. Joseph E, diGeno-
va, questioned repeatedly by re-
portes, refused to say explicitly
that Israeli officials had given his
staff full cooperation in its six-
month investigation of the Pollard
affair. Other sources complained
that the Israelis' claim of complete
openness, first made last Dec. 20
after a U.S, inquiry team visited
Israel, was misleading, at best.
"It's like finding your wife has
been fooling around behind your
back," one government source fa-
miliar with the investigation said.
"They' (the Israelis) rely on us
heavily and they shouldn't be doing
t#t
One of the four Israeli officials
named as unindicted co-conspira-
tors is Air Force Col. Aviem (Avi)
Sella, who was a graduate student
at New York University and has
been named by one government
source as a "case officer" for Israeli
espionage in the United States.
The three others are Joseph
(Yossi) Yagur, a science consul in
Usiaeweved Issins
Any legal action taken against
the American who served as a link
between Pollard and Sella will
depend on what the American
knew of Israeli espionage when he
introduced the two and the extent
to which he cooperates with U.S.
authorities, one source said.
The plea bargains filed Wednes-
day do not answer two key ques-
tions: whether other Americans
were involved in actual espionage
for the Israeli government and
whether high-ranking Israeli gov-
ernment officials had knowledge of
the network.
An official involved in the case
indicated that no other Americans
are known to be working for the
Israelis within the U.S. govern-
ment. However, he added: "I don't
think it begins and ends with these
folks" named as defendants or
unindicted co-conspirators.
"It was a sophisticated espionage
operation that involved Israeli
government funding," he said. "Is-
raeli bureaucrats and their govern -
ment benefited. Somebody had to
know where that money was going
and what was coming in."
Court documents confirm that
the Pollards conducted a long and
richly detailed espionage relation-
ship with Israeli officials, dating at
least to June, 1984, about 17 months
before the couple's arrest.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807490028-7
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807490028-7
Only a few months earlier, an
unnamed Amerign had indicated
to Pollard that he kfltw a high-lev.
el officer in the Israel Air Force-
identified in the documents as
Sella-who was a graduate student
at New York University. Pollard
asked to be introduced to Sella that
June, the documents state, and
volunteered during their first
meeting to give the Israeli govern-
ment U.S. military data,
collard Twle. Pr.amtei
That same month, Pollard was
Promoted from an intelligence re.
sarch specialist with the Navy to
watch officer with the Anti-Ter-
rorist Alert Center, as office of the
Naval Investigative few months later, iOctober, 1~984, a
he was promoted to intelligence
research specialist in the anti-ter-
rorist bureati. where he had access
to tap-secret defense documents.
That summer, using a code based
on the Hebrew alphabet, Pollard
and Sella conversed at pay tele-
phones around Washington and
finally met again, with other '%m- documents once every two weeks
identified individuals," at the sub- to the Washington apartment of
urban Maryland home of an un- Erb, an Israeli Embassy secretary,
named Israeli diplomat. There, they said.
prosecutors contend, Pollard Pollard collected the docu-
turned over the first of a stack of ments-which held government
'classified documents that officials classifications from "conllder*tal"
say Id hhighly l secret military through "top secret" and "special
data
Thus began a tightly scheduled compartmented rem v edm information," a
espionage compact between the sensitive information-from a
Pollards and a series of Israeli range of military and intelligence
handlers. After Sells rt
_..- _ --
urn
k
cw cor
In .Septem-
ber, 1984, the Pollards flew to
Paris-and a first-class hotel-to
meet with Sella. Eltan and Yagur,
Pollsaxi's new "came ' ea-
co to court documents.
Given Dlassea Ring
At that November, 1984, session,
prosecutors say, the Israelis told
Pollard that their government
sought U.S. intelligence data to
."identify and assess threats to
Israel's security" and promised him
$1,500 a month for his spying
services. The Pollard@ were given
$10,000 cash and a diamond-and.
sapphire ring at the end of the
meeting.
On returning to Washington, the
prosecutors stated, Pollard met
with Yagur and the man named Uzi
at the Maryland diplomat's home,
where he delivered a suitcase full
They would be left With Jkb an
weekends copying by
w chose 11C1111111 hoe and
are ua
known to the Vand jwy.- cou-
docume is t and rehumd to
Pollard's office an the am Man.
day.
Prosecutors sy that Pollard..
made "vduminour" deigns of
cant mbarW, which was photo-
graphed and reprodtuced of sophis.
ticated copying egulpotsnt in a
separate apartment sat up for that.
Purpose.
ThO court Erb 14ft the docuaanfa state UM.
aoamtr~- an Nov. 20 and
Yam
,on * the day after arrost.
Pollard, 31, was charged with
conspiring to pass ciaatlfled nation.
al security docimi is to a foreign
power. The charges carry ruma med
$Z60 = fins ta P and a
a set of procedures
his work. and codes for a b Nnm to
Property and being an agw a, to
a week, ter, roughly three times
co of national security ln-
documents from his Naval Invests- could ~~ receive leve tss up to 00 y o10 years I She
gative Service office and trans- eah lm fail
,
ferred them to a briefcase in hidden and steff fines of rep to $600,=
locations "such as a car wash," rusmsinvr4O0 ter ~ now said. And he delivered ry to go-
Prosecutors
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807490028-7
of secret documents and was given