ISRAELI SPY FIGURE MAY BE OUSTED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504160022-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: December 4, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504160022-5
ARTICLE AP7AV
ON PAGE
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
4 December 1985
Israeli spy figure-may
be ousted.
AWWWW MW
JERUSALEM Israel has halted
the secret activity of the intelligence
unit involved in an espionage scan-
dal in the United States and probably
will retire the spymettr who ran it,
Israeli sources said yesterday.
The sources said U.S. investigators
would be allowed to interview two
Israeli diplomats and the spymaster,
Rafael Elton-
A Foreign Ministry official, speak-
ing on condition of anonymity, said
Israel and the United States were still.'
deciding when US _ investigators
might come to Tst'atal to conduct the,
'.nterviews.
The diplomats, Yaef Yager and
Ilan Ravld, were recalled to Israel
shortly after FBI agents arrested a
U.S Navy analyst Nov. 21. and ac-
cused him of passing military secrets
for money. Both were science atta-
ches working for an agency called
the Science Liaison Bureau, known
by the Hebrew acronym "Lekem."
The Foreign Ministry official said
the three men "would be inter-
viewed, not interrogated," indicat-
ing that they could refuse to answer
questions.
The sources also said the suspen-
sion of the spying operation fulfilled
Israel's pledge, included in an apol-
ogy extended to the United States on
Sunday, to "completely and perma-
nently dismantle the unit involved."
The unit has been linked to the
case of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the
civilian Navy intelligence analyst
who was arrested outside the Israeli
Embassy in Washington.
Pollard, 31, was, accused of selling
military secrets to Israel for K5,000
over the last 18 months. His wife,
Anne Henderson-Pollard, 23, was ar-
rested Nov. 22 and charged with ille-
gal possession of national military
documents.
Eitan headed Lekem, a . secret Dd
fense Ministry unit that gathered sci
entific and technological data
through the Israeli Embassy and con-
sulates in the United States, accord-
ing to sources who spoke on condi-
tion of anonymity.
He is also a former operations di-
rector of the Mossad, Israel's foreign
intelligence agency, and was an ad
viler to two prime ministers.
The sources said Eitan would prob.
ably leave government service qui-
etly without public dismissal. The
liberal daily Haaretz newspaper re-
ported Eitan would retire "for health
reasons."
The statement of apology by Prime
Minister Shimon Peres on Sunday
had promised that those responsible
for the affair would be held to ac-
count
During an hour-long telephone
call he received at 3 a.m. Sunday
from US, Secretary of State George P.
Shultz, Peres reportedly agreed to
allow U.% authorities to interview
Elton and the two diplomats.
However, the Israeli sources said
yesterday that dismissing Eitan
could cause. a political furor in the
fragile 13-month-old coalition of
Peres' Labor Party and Foreign Min-
ist Yjinhak Shamir' Likud bloc:
Eitad is a protege of Trade and
Industry Minister Arial Sharon, a key
figure in Likud. Elton has also bead
active in Liked polities as a central
committee member of Shamir's
Herat Parse
In another development on Most
day night, Sharon complained that
there had been attempts to link fot-
mar Prime Minister Menachem Be-
gin and himself to the spy affair.
Sharon was defense minister in Be-
gin's government for several years.
"It's all baseless.... I didn't know
anything, and I wasn't involved,"
Sharon said. "You can't ignore the
feeling that this is exploitation for'-
internal political purposes."
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin,
speaking in Jerusalem to American
Jewish leaders, denied'newspaper re-
ports that Pollard supplied informa?
tion on the location of the Tunis
headquarters of the Palestine Libera.
tion Organization:
Israeli jets bombed the PLO hea&
quarters Oct 1 in retaliation for the
slaying of three Israelis to Cyprus
the previous week. About 70 Palestin-
ians and Tunisians were killed in the
air attack.
"If we reach the point that Israeli
intelligence will not be able by its
own sources to supply this kind of
information for this kind of opera-
tion, then we'll be in really bad
shape," Rabin said.
About 30 Israelis demonstrated for
a half-hour in front of the U.S. Em-
bassy carrying signs urging Ameri-
cans to stop spying on Israel "Take
down, your spying antennas," said
one sign-
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504160022-5