ISRAELI SPY REPORTS PROBED IN 1950S

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504050005-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: December 15, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - SaLnitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504050005-6
_-, ~ 1S BOSTON GLOBE
15 ~Deceritber 1985
Israeli spy reports probed in
1950s
By Richard Higgins
Gbbe Staff
and Jeffrey McConr~eil;
Special to the Globb "~
The US government investigat-
ed reports that Israel! dipbmats"
tried to recruit Arab and other irr
formanta in the United States
more than 30 years ago. according
to government documents and
former US and Israeli officials
with knowledge of the case.
Documents from US Army In-
telligence and the Federal Bureau
of investigation, obtained undo
the Privacy and Freedom of Infor-
mation acts, also refs to alleged
Israeli espionage activities in the
mid-1950s that occurred outside
the normal channels of cooper-
ation between the two countries.
Among alleged improprieties
cited are reported lsraelf efforts to
obtain information from a State
Department source outside those
channels. Also cited are Israeli for-
eign service efforts to recruit US
Embassy employees stationed in
Israel.
The FBl investigated one report
that former Israeli President
Chaim Herzog sought to "obtain
information" from an Arab Le-
gion soldier when Herzog was Isra-
el's defense attache in Washing-
ton.
In Jerusalem, a spokesman for
Herzog, who was Israel's first
chief of military intelligence, said
he was "never involved in recruit-
ing agents." Sources close to Her-
zog said he acknowledges meeting
with a Jordanian soldier who "of-
fered information about his coun-
try," but that he replied that he
didn't recruit agents.
In a classified statement to the
State Department in 1954, an
Army intelligence major reported
that Herzog told a political officer
in the State Department that he
"turned the matter ova" to an Is-
raeli "security officer." Sources in
Israel who did not wish to be iden-
tified recently said they believed
the Arab Legion soldier was later
recruited by the security officer.
The disclosure of the FBI inves-
tigations comes as US officials
were in Israel questioning diplo-
matic and intelligence officials
about Jonathan Jay Pollard. the
31-year-old naval intelligence offi-
cer charged with passing classi-
fied data to Israel.
The years 1953 to 1955 were a
time of increased FBI concern over
the threat of possible infiltration
by "friendly" intelligence services.
according to a previously undis-
closed 1978 report of the Senate
Intelligence Committee.
In 1954, according to a C1A
study of Israeli Intelligence found
by the Iranians who seized the
American Embassy in 1979 and
later disclosed by the Globe. "a
hidden microphone planted by the
Israelis was discovered in the of-
fice of the US Ambassador to Tel
Aviv." In 1956, the report adds.
r "tip ftlwne taps were found in the
resid~hce of the US military atta-
che."
In a new book on the activities
of Israel's supporters in the United
States. Paul Findley, a former Illi-
nois congressman and historian
of intelligence, matters, reports
that the United States and Israel
reached an informal agreement in
1956 to share classified informa-
tion "and to restrict sharply clan-
destine operations each conducted
in the other's territory."
Such espionage activities were
not cone-way street, however.
A 1954 FBl memo reports that
a former American consul to
Haifa "jokingly" remarked to an
lsraelf diplomat that "several" Is-
raelis had been in his employ.
Wolf Blitzes, chief US corm
spondent for The Jerusalem Post.
charges to a new book, "Between
Washington-and Jerusakm," that
the Americads engaged in espio-
nags arg~t4s.st. ra~srad in the 1950s.
Citing U~ ?'~h li sources. he
says suC~~~~foncluded wire-
tappln~:~lt'? Israel and against Is-
raeli facilities abroad, as well as
unsuccessful efforts to recruit ls-
raell army offictrs xnt to America
for military training.
The details of Herzog's alleged
meeting with an Arab Legion sol-
dier; and other episodes, are con-
tained in a March 20. 1954, state-
ment by Wilbur Crane Eveland, a
forma US Army intelligence offi-
cer. Acopy of the sworn state-
ment, which was used against a
State Department official later dis-
ciplined in connection wtth~ the
cax. was obtained by the Gbbe.
In it. F,yeland, who was then a
major !n the Near East section of
Army intelligence, said that Her-
zog had told the Israel-Jordan po-
Iitical officer of the State Depart-
ment that Herzog had met with a
soldier who "offered to glue Herzog
any information he might require
on the Arab Legion."
Another report investigated by
the FBI concerned an alleged Is-
raeli success in recruiting as a
paid informant the first secretary
of the Jordanian embassy in
Washington.
A Jan. 13, 1954, FBI memo
notes Eveland's account of a dis-
cussion between the State Depart-
ment official who was later disci-
plined. Fred Waller,. and the first
secretary of the Israeli embassy.
Esther Herlitz, about Israel's ai-
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504050005-6