Breaking The "Unwritten Rule" In Israeli Espionage

By: Dan Raviv
Topics: Observations

(CBS)
Dan Raviv is a National Correspondent for CBS News Radio and co-author of Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community.

I've been covering Israel's espionage agencies for almost 20 years, and suddenly this morning there was a blast from the past – an arrest in what FBI personnel for years had called "the hunt for Agent X." American investigators refused to believe Israel's official contention that the Jonathan Pollard affair – running an agent with U.S. Naval Intelligence, who delivered thousands of secret documents to the Israelis – was an isolated incident.

The long memory and long arm of the law finally grabbed Ben-Ami Kadish, whose alleged crimes apparently took place before Pollard was arrested in November 1985. According to prosecutors, Kadish and Pollard were tasked by the same "handler" – a science attach? at Israel's Consulate-General in New York. That man vanished from the U.S. within hours of Pollard's arrest. Pollard eventually was sentenced to life in prison.

The diplomat's boss was Rafi Eitan, a legendary intelligence agent who took part in Israel's capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960. Eitan, a man who pushes the envelope in many ways, is now an Israeli cabinet minister.

Eitan, the ex-attache (named Yossi Yagur), and other Israelis who ran Pollard – and now allegedly also ran Kadish – have all stayed well away from America. They fear that they would be arrested if they set foot in the United States.

Even though Eitan's then-secret agency – the Science Liaison Bureau – which had a major focus on acquiring technology and equipment for Israel's unacknowledged nuclear weapons program – was disbanded after Pollard's arrest, it seems only logical that someone in Israeli intelligence is still doing similar things.

But in the U.S.? Only to the slightest degree, I would think – such as asking Israelis who do some work in the U.S. if they've seen anything "interesting" that perhaps they want to share with their government.

Would Israel again run an American Jew as an agent in America? Probably not. The Mossad has had a rule against that for half a century, knowing that it would likely lead to horrible conflicts of dual loyalty – and perhaps oppression of Jewish minorities in a certain country if they all came under suspicion of being "Israeli spies." The Mossad might use a British citizen to spy in India, or a U.S. citizen to spy in China. But not a U.S. citizen to spy in the U.S.

Eitan's Science Liaison Bureau didn't follow the unwritten rule. And now Kadish – a man in his early 80s who worked for the U.S. military but is alleged to have shown unforgivable disloyalty – will be a new example. Prosecuting him serves as a warning to others doing classified work in America's defense structure not to share secrets with any foreign country – not even with an ally such as Israel.

Dan Raviv
Dan Raviv is a correspondent for CBS Radio News, based in Washington, and host of CBS News Weekend Roundup.
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by Sweejak1 April 25, 2008 4:03 AM EDT: I seem to recall that Douglas Feith was fired for passing intelligence to the Israeli Embassy in the ''80s. Perle, Wofowitz, Ledeen also suspect.
See:
http://www.counterpunch.org/green02282004.html; Reply to this comment


by ArchieHaase April 24, 2008 12:50 PM EDT: If the Bush Administration thinks we think they are getting serious about Israeli spies by arresting this old man.They must be joking.
At best he was a low level spy. Nice try.; Reply to this comment


by andy19481 April 23, 2008 4:14 PM EDT: I seem to recall that Larry Franklin (who worked for Douglas Feith at the Pentagon) was convicted in 2005 of giving classified material to an Israeli diplomat in the 2002-2003 timeframe. I think Franklin is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence.; Reply to this comment


by Sweejak1 April 22, 2008 11:51 PM EDT: Indeed arturdecco, every government is prepared to sacrifice her pawns. It''s historically absurd to propose otherwise.
Naem Giladi comes to mind.
And I wouldn''t trust Wikipedia to look him up.
See: EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group''s plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia; Reply to this comment


by arthurdecco April 22, 2008 11:19 PM EDT: Mr. Raviv, Thank you for fleshing out the story behind the arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish on charges of spying for Israel. Your story is one of the few that actually identifies his handler and his handler%u2019s superior by name.

But I take exception to the following excerpt from your story: "Would Israel again run an American Jew as an agent in America? Probably not. The Mossad has had a rule against that for half a century, knowing that it would likely lead to horrible conflicts of dual loyalty %u2013 and perhaps oppression of Jewish minorities in a certain country if they all came under suspicion of being %u201CIsraeli spies.%u201D The Mossad might use a British citizen to spy in India, or a U.S. citizen to spy in China. But not a U.S. citizen to spy in the U.S."

Every word in this paragraph could have been written by an Israeli press agent/spin master rather than an American journalist ostensibly digging for the REAL STORY behind the headlines.

Perhaps it was%u2026 because of course Israel is employing American Jews to spy on the USA. Who%u2019s better placed?; Reply to this comment