American arrested for spying for Israel

[Scurrilous]

U.S. authorities arrested an American for spying for Israel

<snip>

"The Justice Department disclosed Tuesday that Ben-Ami Kadish, a mechanical engineer at a U.S. Army facility in Dover, N.J., was arrested on charges of relaying secrets to Israel from 1979 to 1985, including nuclear secrets. Kadish speaks Hebrew and has an Israeli brother, according to the Justice Department.

Kadish allegedly "borrowed" classified documents from the facility's library and took them home to be copied by an Israeli diplomat employed at Israel’s consulate in New York, according to a sealed complaint filed Monday in a federal district court in New York.

One of the documents "contained information concerning nuclear weaponry and was classified as 'Restricted Data,' a specific designation by the U.S. Department of Energy, because the document contained atomic-related information," said a statement Tuesday from the Justice Department.

Another classified document "contained information concerning a major weapons system -- a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet that the United States had sold to another country. This document was classified by the Department of Defense as 'Secret' and was further restricted as 'Noforn,' or 'Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals.'"

Kadish, who allegedly was not paid for relaying the documents, is due to appear in court Tuesday."

more

[ORDagnabbit]

1. so how many people have stolen secrets from USA and given to Isreal? with friends like these.....

[bemildred]

2. Breaking The "Unwritten Rule" In Israeli Espionage

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 attaché 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.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/04/22/couricandco/entry4035870.shtml

[Scurrilous]

3. Ex-Mossad Chief: Spy case hits nerve in U.S.

<snip>

"Former head of the Mossad espionage agency MK Danny Yatom on Wednesday said the arrest Tuesday of a former United States Army mechanical engineer on charges that he spied for Israel over 20 years ago had touched a nerve with Washington.

"I think what primarily bothers the Americans is the feeling that Israel didn't tell them the whole truth two decades ago, in 1985, when the Pollard affair exploded," Yatom told Army Radio.

Ben-Ami Kadish, 84, was to be charged with slipping classified documents about nuclear weapons, fighter jets and air defense missiles to an Israeli Consulate employee who also received information from convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, authorities said.

Kadish acknowledged his spying in FBI interviews, and said he acted out of a belief that he was helping Israel, court papers said

Yatom added: "The Americans asked if there are additional people that Israel ran or are running in the United States. The answer, to the best of my knowledge, was always no," Yatom said.

"If what has been reported is true, and it appears it is true, and Ben-Ami Kadish kept in touch with what the Americans described as his old handler in Israel, I can call it unnecessary stupidity," the Labor MK said."

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[subsuelo]

4. Juan Cole's Informed Comment

www.juancole.com/

The Israeli spy ring that penetrated the US Pentagon to steal high-tech secrets including nuclear ones was bigger than just Jonathan Pollard. It is an open secret in US security circles that no foreign country spies on the US more intensively than Israel. And, apparently, none has been more successful in actually prying loose top secret documents. Sy Hersh's sources alleged to him that secrets that went to Israel were either in turn picked up by Soviet moles in Israel or were sold on the black market and ended up with the Soviet Union.

The damage that Israeli spying has done to US security is immense, not only because of such leaks but also because of Israeli reverse engineering of US technology and the pirating of it. Further, the nuclearization of the Middle East that the Israelis initiated has the potential to drag us all into Armageddon.

The Israeli Right is always going on about threats to Israel's existence, even though it is the most powerful country in the Middle East. But no one ever brings up its strangulation of the Palestinian nation, its siege of Gaza, its dispossession of the West Bankers. The right makes an imagined future threat the basis for actual victimization of others in the present. America's security is deeply threatened by the ongoing Israeli colonization projects in the Middle East, as should have been clear for some time.

How dangerous the phantasms of the Right really are is underscored by Hillary Clinton's remarks yesterday:


' In an interview with ABC's Good Morning America, Clinton was asked what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons.

She replied: "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them. That's a terrible thing to say but those people who run Iran need to understand that, because that perhaps will deter them from doing something that would be reckless, foolish and tragic." '



Clinton has unfortunately fallen in typical Washington fear-mongering fantasy. Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. As of last fall, US intelligence determined that it was not trying to get a nuclear weapon. There is no realistic likelihood of Iran having a bomb 'in the next ten years.' Israel on the other hand has hundreds of bombs and has threatened to use them.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

5. American charged with giving secrets to Israel

Justice Department: Engineer employed by U.S. Army spied from 1979-1985
April 22: An American military analysit is accused of giving Israel secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missile systems. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

NEW YORK - A former U.S. Army mechanical engineer was arrested Tuesday on charges he slipped classified documents about nuclear weapons to an employee of the Israeli Consulate who also received information from convicted Pentagon spy Jonathan Pollard, authorities announced.

Ben-ami Kadish faces four counts of conspiracy, including allegations that he conspired to disclose U.S. national defense documents to Israel and that he acted as an agent of the Israeli government, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia and FBI officials said.

A criminal complaint said the activities occurred from 1979 through 1985 while Kadish worked at the Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center in Dover, N.J.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24256527/

[ProgressiveMuslim]

6. Closest ally my ass. Hillary & Barack would take us to war to protect them, tho... WHY? nt

[guyanakoolaid]

7. How the hell will Obama take us to war ???

I'm dying to see you try to back this slander up with facts or links.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

9. First of all, I am an Obama supporter

But did you see the debate when asked what he'd do if Iran attacked Israel???

[Vegasaurus]

10. Obama is merely speaking through his constituents

and the majority of the US Congress.

The US will protect Israel from its adversaries in the middle east.

[guyanakoolaid]

11. He knows... and we know... that Iran has no nuclear weapons and no intention of making them.

He worded his answers very clearly. You can't take any option off the table when discussing hypotheticals, especially a mostly-dove running for political office being force-fed hawkish questions about Iran.

He does need to come out and speak more clearly that Iran has no nukes, though, however his approach is obviously about communication and open dialog, a 180 degree stance on the current rhetoric of Clinton and the neocons.

The one war/ military attack he HAS talked about supporting I fully endorse as well: a mission to get Al Qaeda in Pakistan. But this is supported by most people willing to look through the fog of rhetoric in the "war on terror".

[subsuelo]

13. We need to drop this whole pretense of "protecting" Israel

What the US really supports is Israeli aggression, war crimes and illegal occupation. What we are constantly lied to about is that this is merely "protection" and that the US will always "protect" Israel's "right to defend" itself from attack. But this is total deception. We're not "protecting" Israel, we're supporting criminal atrocities and theft of land from a native indigent population. That is what is really going on. So when you voice opposition against those crimes, the spin that is hurled back is that you are somehow this Israel hater because you argue against "protecting" Israel.

We need to see through these deceptions.

[whistle]

8. That was during Reagan's watch....but I suppose after the John Hinckley

....shooting incident Ronnie was no longer himself or even responsible, you might say he became a totally different person

[bemildred]

12. Eh, I don't suppose this will help Pollard get out of jail anytime soon. nt

[Scurrilous]

15. Lying worse than spying

Washington more infuriated by cover-up attempts than by espionage charges

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3534954,00.html

<snip>

"It turns out that the almost-obsessive American suspicions were justified: Ever since the Pollard Affair was uncovered, senior American officials have argued that this was not a one-time case and that Israel utilized additional agents that spied on US soil.

On the other hand, Israeli prime ministers claimed that Pollard was a unique and regrettable case. On Tuesday, with a delay of 25 years, the American prosecutor placed the smoking gun on the table.

The offenses attributed to Kadish were allegedly carried out 25 years ago, yet the cover-up work was done by his handler, an official representative of the State of Israel, only two weeks ago.

In a conversation recorded by the FBI, Kadish’s Israeli handler is heard instructing him in Hebrew and guiding him to lie to his interrogators. While we could say that the offences Kadish is charged with cause embarrassment but not damage, because they were committed many years ago, the cover-up took place these days. The result is that Israel not only spied, it also lied."

<snip>

"The fury in Washington is focused on the cover-up rather than on the espionage. This, more than any other aspect of the affair, is where the greatest potential for damage lies. When the Pollard Affair was exposed, ties between Israel and the US suffered a harsh blow. Over the years, the relationship was mended, but the suspicions remained, and this sense of wariness was boosted Tuesday when Kadish’s story was revealed.

The American wariness is not only directed at the State of Israel, but rather, also at Jews who live in the US and hold senior and sensitive posts in the military and defense establishment there. The stain left by Pollard accompanied all of them. If it turns out that he was not the only one, the level of wariness will increase accordingly.

Meanwhile, the hopes for commuting Pollard’s sentence one of these days have completely evaporated Tuesday."

[bemildred]

16. Which raises the question as to whether it's a coincidence this is coming out now?

Are there other agendas at work than noble, selfless crime-fighting? This horse is long gone from the barn, the person in question in in his 80s. I'd like to know more about how this case was developed so as to become public now? And of course there is that sentence:

"the hopes for commuting Pollard’s sentence one of these days have completely evaporated".

[azurnoir]

14. Imagine for a moment if thia had been an Arab

Any Arab country, our closest ally in the Arab world, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia take your choice. The media would be crazy there would be no other nooz out there, there would be onlyoverblown uproar and renewed threats to intern or expel every Arab in the US.

However because it is Israel and it's an election year no it's all Reagan was somehow at fault not paying attention, or an implicit maybe we should have been "nicer" to Israel, we weren't protecting them enough, but actual outrage, nope look over there, waiting for a convenient "press release" from Iran or Hamas, or Hezbollah, it will be coming.

[subsuelo]

17. Great point

Actually if it was Saudi Arabia there might not be as much noise as you suggest, but still your observation is excellent

[LeftishBrit]

19. Quite possibly - but that wouldn't mean they were justified...

just that the current American regime has a hate-on about (many groups of) Arabs.

The (from what I can see here) low-key reaction to the present case is the appropriate one IMO - and would be the appropriate one if an Arab country were involved. (Direct involvement of an enemy would make the situation more serious of course; but that would nowadays mean Al Quaeda, not a specific country.) Revealing state secrets is a crime, and should be treated as such, but not as an excuse for whipping up hatred and distrust against other countries/ ethnic groups/ reducing civil liberties for one's own citizens. One of the most disastrous episodes in American politics occurred when McCarthy and his cohorts used a few cases of spying for the Soviet Union as a justification for whipping up anti-leftist hysteria and all manner of false allegations. That should be a cautionary tale for us all.

With regard to Saudi Arabia: I am not sure whether there'd be a huge outcry. At least in Britain, there have been outrageous events relating to our links with that country (suspicions of serious bribery that the prosecution service was told not to investigate, in case the Saudis got pissed off with us and at best failed to co-operate in preventing terror attacks like the one in London - can you say BLACKMAIL?) and there has been surprisingly little outrage.

[Scurrilous]

18. Ex-prosecutor: New arrest shows reach of 1980s spy ring

<snip>

"New charges that an Army veteran passed military secrets to the same Israeli handler as convicted spy Jonathan Pollard confirms the espionage ring reached further than initially thought, and that the Israelis lied about it, a former prosecutor said Wednesday.

"The similarities are quite eerie," said Joseph E. diGenova, who as U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia oversaw the 1980s-era Pentagon spy scandal that ensnared Pollard, an ex-Navy analyst serving a life sentence for revealing defense secrets to Israel.

A criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court "clearly indicates there were other Americans being asked at other military installations to do the same things the same way," diGenova said. "This was a much larger espionage operation ... than we understood or could have known at the time."

<snip>

"The link between Pollard and Kadish is a now-defunct Israeli intelligence agency known as the Scientific Relations Office, Israeli intelligence expert Yossi Melman said Wednesday. The office was run by Rafi Eitan, a former agent with Israel's Mossad spy agency who is now an Israeli Cabinet minister.

According to court documents, Kadish and Pollard shared the same handler — Yosef Yagur, who Melman said is now retired and living in Tel Aviv. His telephone number is unlisted.

During the period outlined in the complaint against Kadish, Yagur was working in the Israeli consulate in Manhattan.

"For years, Israel was involved in technological espionage in the U.S.," Melman said. "Kadish and Pollard were not the only ones."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h002o_ai2v68s57ia6xLKXf-GZ5AD907R8DG0