WHITE HOUSE SIDES WITH STATE DEPARTMENT ON ISRAELI SPYING ISSUE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630022-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: June 11, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ii
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630022-7
PfraE ---1:11A14 11 June 1986 -
White House Sides With State Department
on Israeli Spying Issue
/../.) By BERNARD GWERTIMAN
Spacial to The Now York Thmie
WASHINGTON, June 10 ? The
White House today publicly took the
side of the State Department in its dis-
pute with the Justice Department over
whether there is evidence of wide Is-
raeli spying in this country.
The State Department, asserting it
spoke for the whole Government, said
Monday that there was "no evidence of
any espionage ring involving Israeli of-
ficials" other than those implicated in
the case of a Navy analyst who admit-
ted to spying for Israel.
Today, Larry Speakes, the White
House spokesman, suggested that At-
torney General Edwin Meese 3d origi-
nally agreed to the wording of the state-
ment, meant to mollify/ the Israeli Gov-
ernment, but withdrew his support late
in the day.
In the aftermath of the guilty plass
made by Jonathan Jay Pollard, the
analyst, and his wife, Anne Henderson
Pollard, Justice Department and White
House officials have said that Mr. Pol-
lard was supplying information that
could lead to the arrest of other Israelis
involved in other spying cases. The Is-
raeli Government denied any involve-
ment in spying on the United States and
denied accusations that it was not coop-
erating fully with the investigation.
State Department Attitude
The State Department, while not
denying that it was possible further ar-
rests might result, has taken the posi-
tion that in the absence of firm evi-
dence contradicting the Israeli Govern-
ment assertions, it made no sense to
engage in a public dispute with Israel
at a time when the United States had
close and important ties with that gov-
ernment cutting across diplomatic, in-
telligence and other relations.
Another distinction drawn by the
State Department is that despite wide-
spread skepticism within the Reagan
Administration, there was no evidence
to prove that the Israeli Government
was itself involved in espionage opera-
tions against the United States and not
simply an unauthorized "renegade" in-
telligence group headed by Rafael
Eitan, a veteran intelligence agent,
who was one of four Israelis listed as
co-conspirators last week but who were
not indicted.
Senator David Durenberger, Repub-
lican of Minnesota, the chairman of the
Senate Intelligence Committee, told re-
porters today that the United States
still did not know the extent of Israeli
spying in this country.
"What we know today that we didn't
know a year ago is that we need more
information," he said at a National
Press Club breakfast. "In other words,
we're not taking people's word for the
fact there's nothing going on."
House Inquiry Opening
In another development, a spokes-
man for Representative John Conyers
Jr., Democrat of Michigan, chairman
of the Subcommittee on Criminal Jus-
tice of the House Judiciary Committee,
said today' that the committee was
opening an inquiry on Israeli espionage
practices in the United States.
White House and State Department
officials said today that a meeting at
the White House on Monday morning
was called to assure that the Adminis-
tration spoke with one voice on the Pol-
lard case.
Secretary of State George P. Shultz,
armed with a statement drafted by his
i legal adviser, Abraham D. Sofaer, pre-
sented the document to the other senior
officials: Mr. Meese, Donald T. Regan,
the White House chief of staff, and
Adm. John M. Poindexter, the National
Security Adviser.
Mr. Speakes said "the assumption at
the end of the meeting" was that Mr.
Meese had agreed it would be "appro-
priate" to issue the statement.
The statement, read by Bernard
Kalb, the State Department spokes-
man, said in part:
"The U.S. has no evidence of any es-
pionage ring involving Israeli officials
other than the ones described in the in-
dictment of the Pollards. We also wish
to note that the indictment and success-
ful prosecution was made possible
through the cooperation of the Govern-
ment of Israel."
He also said that he was speaking for
the Administration as a whole.
But late Monday, the Justice Depart-
ment spokesman denied that Mr.
Meese had approved the statement. To
explain the contradiction, Justice De-
partment officials contended that there
was a misunderstanding over whether
Justice Department officials had
agreed to Mr. Sofaer's draft.
Today, Mr. Speakes said, "We stand
by exactly what the State Department
said yesterday and have nothing new to
add to it."
When asked about the Justice De-
partment denial, Mr. Speakes said:
'Well, I don't think they differed from
it except to say that they had not ap-
proved of this statement."
How Two Agencies Differ
Mr. Kalb said today, "Everything
I'm going to say on this subject, I said
yesterday." The Justice Department
also had no new statement to make.
The upshot of the different state-
ments was to leave matters where they
have been since the arrest of the Pol-
lards last November. The Justice De-
partment has sensed that they were
only part of a larger spying network in
this cotmtrj and has been extremely
skeptical of the Israeli Government tufs
sertions that the., spying was a "rene-
gade" operation contrary to Israel?
Government policy of not conducting.
espionage against the United States;
and was unauthorized by Government.
officials.
The State Department, which has Iv
dose working relationship with Israel:
in part the result of the friendship of!
Mr. Shultz for Prime Minister Shimoti
Peres, has tended to give the Israeli
Government the benefit of the doubt.*
At the same time, the State Depart-,
ment has told the Israelis that they:
must provide full cooperation until that
case was closed.
The White House throughout has said,
very little about the case, tending to gd
along with the approach favored by the.
State Department.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630022-7