84-year-old Connecticut man arrested as spy for Israel; Case linked to Pollard's
Thursday, April 24, 2008 Free Headline Alerts
WASHINGTON — An elderly American Jew, long retired from the U.S. Army, has been arrested and accused of spying for Israel more than 20 years ago.
The Justice Department said Ben Ami Kadish, a U.S. national born in Connecticut and long active in the Jewish community in New Jersey, was detained and charged with relaying military secrets to Israel in the 1980s.
The department said the 84-year-old Kadish, a former engineer at the U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center in New Jersey, provided Israel with classified data on U.S. nuclear weapons, fighter-jets and air defense systems.
"He participated in a conspiracy to disclose to the government of Israel documents related to the national defense of the United States and, in connection with that unauthorized disclosure he participated in a conspiracy to act as an agent of the government of Israel," the department said on Tuesday.
Israel, responding calmly to news of the arrest ahead of a visit by President George Bush, has denied knowledge of the case, said to be connected to that of former U.S. Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard. At a hearing on Tuesday, the FBI said Kadish confessed to the charges.
"My understanding is that the incident dates back to the mid-1980s and is, at least in some way, connected with the well-known case of Jonathan Pollard who, of course, has been convicted and is serving time in an American jail for having passed on classified information to the Israeli government," State Department deputy spokesman, Tom Casey said.
Federal prosecutors, in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New York, said Kadish, provided Israel with between 50 and 100 classified documents from 1980 through 1985. Kadish, who has not been charged with espionage, was said to have taken classified documents to his New Jersey home and then allowed an unidentified Israeli diplomat, identified as CC-1, to photograph the material. Later, the diplomat was identified as Yosef Yagur.
"One of the classified documents that Kadish provided to CC-1 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," the Justice Department said.
Kadish, who was not believed to have been paid for his services, was accused of relaying to the Israeli diplomat information of an F-15 fighter jet sold to "another country," the department said. Officials said the reference was to Saudi Arabia, the first and only Arab state to have received the advanced fighter.
Another weapons system document allegedly taken by Kadish and photographed by the Israeli diplomat was that of the U.S.-origin Patriot missile defense system. The diplomat was described as a science consul at the Israeli Consulate General in New York and a former employee of the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries.
The Justice Department did not say how the FBI learned of Kadish's activities more than 18 years after his retirement from the U.S. Army. But officials said the FBI interviewed Kadish in March 2008 amid his continued contact with the Israeli diplomat.
"On March 20, 2008, Kadish and CC-1 had a telephone conversation, during which CC-1 instructed Kadish to lie to federal law enforcement officials," the department said. "The following day, during an interview with the FBI, Kadish denied having had the telephone conversation with CC-1."
At the State Department, Casey acknowledged the huge gap between Kadish's alleged activities and his prosecution. The spokesman said this could be explained by the Justice Department.
"You can talk with the Justice Department about why it has taken as long as it has from the original incident to be able to develop and establish enough information to actually be able to move forward with an arrest and prosecution," Casey said.
Kadish was said to have ended his services for Israel in late 1985, days after the FBI arrest of Pollard, also accused of relaying classified information to Israel. The Israeli diplomat, said to have also dealt with Pollard, fled the United States after the arrest and never returned. The CIA has long alleged that Israel had handled agents other than Pollard in the United States.
"It's a fascinating case of another agent in place, another sleeper, with the very same handler," former federal prosecutor Joseph diGenova, who handled the Pollard case in the mid-1980s, told the Washington Post. "We always suspected there were other people. His tradecraft was apparently better than Pollard's."
Kadish, released on $300,000 bail, has been charged with four counts, including conspiracy to disclose national defense documents to Israel and conspiracy to act as an Israeli agent. At his appearance in federal court, Kadish appeared calm and responded to a greeting in Hebrew.
"I would simply say, just as a general matter that 20-plus years ago during the Pollard case, we noted that this was not the kind of behavior we would expect from friends and allies, and that would remain the case today," Casey said.