US authorities announced on Tuesday the arrest of a US Army veteran on charges he disclosed secret defense information, including on nuclear weapons, to Israel in a case linked to the huge 1980s Jonathan Pollard spy scandal.
Ben-Ami Kadish, now 84, worked as a mechanical engineer at a US Army weapons center in New Jersey, from where he provided classified documents to Israel’s consul for science affairs in New York from 1979 to 1985, the Justice Department said.
US authorities also accused Kadish of illegally acting as an agent for the Jewish state without notifying the US Attorney General’s office.
A criminal complaint stated Kadish’s Israeli contact was one of the agents whom convicted Pentagon spy Pollard used to pass thousands of secret documents to Israel in 1984 and 1985, in a case that rocked US-Israeli relations.
“In or about November 1985, Jonathan Jay Pollard was charged with espionage-related offenses in relation to his having provided classified information to CC-1, among other people,” the complaint said, referring to the same unnamed Israeli “co-conspirator” who was Kadish’s contact.
A State Department spokesman acknowledged on Tuesday that the Kadish case was “in some ways connected” to that of Pollard, who is serving a life term after being convicted on a charge of spying for Israel while working as a US naval officer.
The Israeli government publicly admitted in 1998 that Pollard had been their agent, and awarded him Israeli citizenship the same year.
Tuesday’s complaint alleges that Israeli consular official CC-1 gave Kadish lists of defense documents to obtain from the US Army’s Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey, where Kadish worked.
Between 1979 and 1985, Kadish took between 50 and 100 classified documents to his home in New Jersey, where CC-1 would photograph them, US prosecutors charged.
One of the documents Kadish provided to CC-1 “contained information concerning nuclear weaponry and was classified as ‘restricted data’” — a specific designation by the US Department of Energy for documents containing atomic-related information — the complaint filed in a Manhattan federal court said.
Other documents provided by Kadish and classified as “secret” by the Pentagon contained information on a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet as well as the Patriot missile air defense system.
Kadish was released on US$300,000 bail and his travel was restricted.
Washington registered its concern over spying on Tuesday with its key Middle East ally.
“We have spoken to the Israelis at the senior level,” said US State Department spokesman Gonzo Gallegos, referring to diplomats at the Israeli embassy in Washington.
Another State Department official’s terse comments over the latest case reflected renewed concern over espionage.
“Twenty-plus years ago during the Pollard case, we noted that this was not the kind of behavior we would expect from friends and allies, and that would remain the case today,” Tom Casey said. “We would expect that Israel would not be engaged in such activities.”
An Israeli defense ministry official reportedly told the Jerusalem Post that the ministry had no knowledge of the incident and learned about it from US media.
Kadish, who worked at the arsenal from 1963 to 1990, kept in touch with CC-1 via telephone and email and met the consular official in Israel in 2004, authorities said.
CC-1 left the US in 1985 and has never returned, they said.
On March 20 this year, CC-1 called Kadish to tell him to lie to US officials who had begun investigating him over the documents, an FBI wire-tap cited by authorities said.
“Don’t say anything. Let them say whatever they want. You didn’t do anything,” CC-1 told Kadish. “What happened 25 years ago? You didn’t remember anything.”
Israeli media identified Israel’s CC-1 consular attache as Yosef Yagur.
US officials said the Israeli diplomat worked during the 1970s for Israel Aircraft Industries, which at the time made weapons for Israel.
Kadish was charged with conspiring to disclose documents related to US national defense to the Israeli government and conspiring to act as an Israeli agent.
He was also charged with conspiring to hinder communication to a law enforcement officer and conspiring to make a materially false statement to an officer.
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