ISRAEL GRANTS AMNESTY TO ITS TOP SPY-CATCHER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504370002-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 26, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504370002-4
a'f PAGE IS'd
WASHINGTON TIlIES
26 June 1936
FILE ONLY
Israel grants amnes
to its top spy-catcher
S BrcAndrew Meisels
SP ", TO THE NMSHMWTON TIMES
JERUSALEM - Seeking to head
off a potentially damaging investiga-
tion of its top-secret General Secu-
rity Services, Shin Bet, the Israeli
government granted immunity from
prosecution to its chief spy-catcher
yesterday - without waiting for any
charges to be filed.
After a month of public wran-
gling, President Chaim Herzog
granted the blanket amnesty to Shin
Bet chief Avraham Shalom and
three of his operatives, for whatever
they did, or did not do, in connection
with the deaths of two captured bus
hijackers two years ago.
The hijackers were captured alive
but died a short time later. TWo com-
mittees subsequently investigated
the affair, and the brigadier who
commanded the storming of the bus
was put on trial and acquitted.
President Herzog's action ap-
peared to make any investigation
into the affair pointless. Israeli At-
torney General Yosef Harish, who
had earlier said there was no way out
of a police probe, commented that
there was no sense in one now.
Immediately after the president's
move, Mr. Shalom informed Prime
Minister Shimon Peres that he
wished to be relieved of his post, as
the exposure of his identity and the
wide publicity surrounding the inci-
dent would not enable him to con-
tinue functioning effectively.
Mr. Peres accepted the resigna-
tion, with regret, and announced
that he would set up a special com-
mittee to set future norms and pro-
cedures for Shin Bet.
The legal maneuvers came after
more than 10 hours of consultations
between Mr. Peres, his top ministers
and the attorney general. While this
may eventually end the affair, in the
short run it has set off a political
storm.
Four small left-wing parties sub-
mitted motions of no-confidence in
the government and there were re-
bellious rumblings within Mr. Peres'
own Labor Party. Many Laborites
had hoped an investigation would
harm Deputy Prime Minister Yitz-
hak Shamir of the right-wing Likud
Party.
Mr. Shamir was prime minister
when the bus was hijacked - and is
due to take over again in October
under the "rotation agreement" of
the National Unity Government.
So vocal was the political
criticism that President Herzog -
himself a Labor Party member -
went on Israeli television to explain
the motives for his action.
"The welfare of the public and the
welfare of the state required me to
protect our security and to save the
(Shin Bet] from the damage that
would be involved in the continu-
ation of the affair," Mr. Herzog said.
He said the security service had
saved many Israeli lives and dis-
closed that, over the past year alone,
it had uncovered some 320 terrorist
cells.
Mr. Herzog. a Form chief of Is-
raeli rml tare intellirtence, said that
an investi ation would have left Shin
Bet officials with no way to de en
themselves "exce t bb disclosin se-
curity secrets of the most sensitive
kind.'
Under the circumstances;' he
said, "I acted for the good of the pub-
lic and the security of the state."
The incident that sparked the con-
troversy occurred in April 1984,
when an Israeli bus was hijacked
outside Ashkelon by four Palestinian
terrorists who held it and its passen-
Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The Israeli army and Shin Bet
rushed to the scene and a military
unit stormed the bus and freed the
civilian passengers. Two of the four
hijackers were killed in the storming
of the bus, and two others were cap-
tured alive. They died ahortly after-
ward, allegedly after being pistol-
whipped while in custody.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504370002-4