ISRAELI DAMAGE CONTROL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201380001-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 11, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/17: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201380001-0
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11 June 198
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Israeli damage control
Government tackles furor over Pollard
spy affair, alleged secret service cover-up
$psCid b D W ChM~ Sciurws Monitor
Israel's government and the
United States State Department
are quietly coordinating efforts to
limit damage caused by the Jona-
than Jay Pollard spy case, accord-
ing to both Israeli and Western
sources.
The coordina-
tion has included
prior consultation
on statements is-
sued this week by
both Israel's Cabi-
net and the State
Department, aimed
at quelling reports
that Israel has of-
fered less than full
cooperation in in-
vestigating the Pollard case, the
sources say.
"I think the main concern here
now is damage control," says one
Western source, speaking on con-
dition he not be named.
The Israelis were taken aback
by American news media reports
last week - based on leaks from
the Justice Department - alleging
that there might be more "Pol-
lards" operating on behalf of Israel
in the US.
It is a charge the government
here has taken pains to deny, most
recently in a Cabinet statement
Sunday that was coordinated with
the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and
with Assistant Secretary of State
Richard Murphy in Washington.
"During the examination of the
Pollard affair, there was sincere
cooperation on the part of the Is-
raeli government," the statement
said. "The government of Israel is
committed to the continuation of
this cooperation, which is based on
the relations of trust that prevail
between the two countries."
The statement was made after
Federal Bureau of Investigation di-
what he termed Is-
rael's "selective co-
operation" in the
Pollard case. The
State Department,
Particularly Secre-
tary of State
George Shultz, is
inclined to believe
Prime Minister Shi-
mon Peres's assurances that the
Pollard affair was an isolated, un-
authorized breach of the agree-
ment between Israel and the US
not to spy on each other.
After Pollard's arrest last No-
vember by the FBI on suspicion of
passing secrets to Israel, the Israeli
government said he had been hired
by what was described as a
"rogue" spy unit operating from
inside the Israeli Defense Ministry
.
Israel apologized to the US, dis-
banded the unit, and fired its di-
rector, Rata Eitan. The Israelis also
allowed US officials to question, in
Israel, several Israelis connected to
the Pollard case.
Both Israel and the State De-
partment seemed to think that the
matter was behind them - until the Jus-
tice Department's ongoing investigation
revealed that Pollard had been working
with an Israeli Air Force officer. The offi-
cer, Brig. Gen. Aviam Sella, an Israeli Em-
bassy science consul, an embassy secre-
tary, and another Israeli, were all named
in the court documents made public last
week when Pollard and his wife pleaded
guilty to charges related to
spying.
The connection with Gen-
eral Sella made it harder for
US investigators to believe
that Israel's political leaders
knew nothing of Pollard,
Western sources here say.
Senior Israeli officials con-
tinue to insist Mr. Eitan
"ran" Pollard without in-
forming his superiors and
ing his superiors. But US in-
vestigators say that, though
Eltan was dismissed from his
post, he was later given a
senior position at a top Israeli firm.
Pecurlty spices under scrutiny
The Pollard controversy, and another
case involving the head of Israel's super-
secret Shin Beth counter-terrorism force
have deeply embarrassed this nation's se-,
curity services and raised disturbing
questions about their operations.
"The 'real scandal is not in the United
States, but here," says one senior Israeli
official. "These are more examples of
how secrecy and compartmentalization
can damage us enormously."
In both cases, the political echelons
have distanced themselves from particu-
larly grave acts committed by the secu-
rity services. In the Pollard case, hiring an
American to pass secrets to Israel put at
risk the single most important relation-
ship Israel has with another nation.
In the Shin Beth case, at
issue is how two Palestinian
bus hijackers died after they
were captured and. handed
over, handcuffed, to the Shin
Beth two years ago. Israeli
Attorney General Yitzhak
Zamir, who was replaced last
week, insisted he had reason
to believe the men had been
murdered and that Shin Beth
head Avraham Shalom may
have been involved in a
cover-up.
Neither the Pollard- nor
the Shin Beth case sit popu-
lar issues here. Israel, a na-
tion that has been at war
with most of its neighbors for almost 40
Years, allows great leniency to its security
services. Prime Minister Pleres, who has
resisted an investigation of Mr. Shalom,
has said repeatedly that the Shin Beth is
engaged in a deadly, secret war and must
be protected. Peres and Foreign Minister
Yitzhak Shamir seem inclined to protect
the Shin Beth rather than address con-
. "N
rector William that Sella, too, was involved
Webster criticized in the case without inform-
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/17: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201380001-0
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/17: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201380001-0
Z
cerns about possible structural flaws in
the security apparatus.
As one Israeli observer pointed out, "In
a country like Israel, where the work of
the Shin Beth is so important, you can't
even afford to have questions about their
intent or capabilities."
Israeli political analysts and some gov-
ernment officials insist that the Pollard
and Shin Beth cases suggest that Israel
may be, as one put it, "in more danger
from the Shin Beth than from terrorists."
Israeli reporters who have followed
the Shin Beth case and generally sup-
ported Mr. Zamir's insistence on an inves-
tigation say they believe that at most,
only a secret investigation will be con-
ducted "and we will only get, at the end, a
one-sentence conclusion that there was
nothing to the charges,,, says one.
flew here believe that the damage
caused by the Pollard affair or the Shin
Beth case will move the nation's political
leaders to reorganize or clean out the
state's security apparatus,
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/17: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201380001-0