THE SUPER-SPY BEHIND THE POLLARD CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100110156-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 156
• Publication Date: January 13, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100110156-0
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G13
'- 13 January 1986
LACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATTA
The Super-Spy Behind the Pollard Case
mong the espionage cases that shook the
Washington establishment last year, none
was more surprising than the revelation that
Jonathan Jay Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst
for the Navy, had been spying for Israel.
After first denying that Pollard had been
furnishing them with secrets, embarrassed Israeli
officials admitted the charges and allowed U.S.
investigators to interrogate the Israeli Embassy
personnel involved.
The mystery man behind the Pollard caper was a
swashbuckling super-spy, Rafi Eitan (not to be
confused with former chief of staff of the Israeli
army, Rafael Eitan). He has served his country
effectively in the shadowy world of espionage and
covert operations for over 35 years.
Those who know Eitan well assured us that he
would never intentionally harm the United States
or deliberately endanger U.S.-Israeli cooperation.
But he is an Israeli patriot first and has never
shrunk from using extreme methods to achieve his
goals, regardless of legal or diplomatic niceties. [n
this case, he was after technological information
that he felt was vital to Israel's security.
tt's not widely known, but Eitan was responsible
for one of Israel's intelligence's most famous coups:
the tracking, capture and kidnaping of Nazi war
criminal Adolph Eichmann in Buenos Aires 25 years
ago. The operation was undeniably illegal and
caused an outcry from the Argentine governm::nt.
Eitan's mentor, Isar Harel, then chief of Israeli
intelligence, told the story of the Eichmann capture
in a book, "The Ilouse on Garibaldi Street." Harel
identified the agent-in-charge by his code-name,
Gabi, but our associate Lucette Lagnado has
learned that he was Eitan.
Gabi/Eitan was put in charge of the Eichmann
mission, and he supervised every detail, from
setting up the safe house and tracking Eichmann's
every move, to snatching him on the streets of
suburban Buenos Aires and smuggling him to
Israel. Eichmann was hanged after a trial that
revealed him as the unrepentant technician who
arranged for the transportation of millions of
European Jews to the death camps.
Another Nazi fugitive on Gabi/Eitan's list was Dr.
Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death" who decided
whether Jews at Auschwitz were gassed
immediately or consigned to the living hell of his
experiments.
In fact, while Eichmann was being interrogated
in the Buenos Aires safe house, one of the key bits
of information the Israelis pried out of him was
Mengele's address in Argentina. However, the
address was cold; Mengele had moved.
After taking Eichmann to Israel, Eitan returned
to South America to continue the search for
Mengele. His team of agents located the doctor in a
hideout in Paraguay. With characteristic coolness,
Eitan weighed the odds of a successful attack on
the villa and decided they were too great: There
was a substantial chance of failure, and even if the
Israeli commando team could overpower Mengele's
Paraguayan guards, it would be a bloody operation.
The plan was dropped.
Eitan is Skeptical that the bones unearthed last
year were Mengele's. He believes it was a hoax and
assumes that Mengele is still living-in Paraguay.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100110156-0