US man charged with disclosing nuclear information to Israel
NEW YORK (AFP) — US authorities have announced the arrest of a US Army
veteran on charges he
disclosed secret defense information, including on nuclear weapons, to
Israel in a case linked
to the huge 1980s Jonathan Pollard spy scandal.
Ben-Ami Kadish, now 84, worked as a mechanical engineer at a US Army
weapons center in New
Jersey, from where he provided classified do***ents to Israel's consul for
science affairs in
New York from 1979 to 1985, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
US authorities also accused Kadish of illegally acting as an agent for the
Jewish state without
notifying the US Attorney General's office.
Israel on Wednesday played down the impact of the espionage affair.
"This affair is a momentary embarrassment, but it will not harm the
privileged relations
between Israel and the United States," a government official told AFP,
asking not to be named.
"Neither of the two countries has any interest in poisoning things," the
official said, adding
that US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
were both due to visit
Israel at the beginning of May.
"Their wish is to facilitate an Israeli-Palestinian accord before the end
of Bush's mandate and
a crisis would only compromise this project," the official added.
A criminal complaint stated Kadish's Israeli contact was one of the agents
to whom convicted
Pentagon spy Pollard used to pass thousands of secret do***ents to Israel
in 1984 and 1985, in
a case which rocked US-Israeli relations.
"In or about November 1985, Jonathan Jay Pollard was charged with
espionage-related offenses in
relation to his having provided classified information to CC-1, among
other people," the
complaint said, referring to the same unnamed Israeli "co-conspirator" who
was Kadish's contact.
A State Department spokesman acknowledged Tuesday that the Kadish case was
"in some ways
connected" to that of Pollard, who is serving a life term after being
convicted on a charge of
spying for Israel while working as a US naval officer.
The Israeli government publicly admitted in 1998 that Pollard had been
their agent, and awarded
him Israeli citizen****p the same year.
Tuesday's complaint alleges that Israeli consular official CC-1 gave
Kadish lists of defense
do***ents to obtain from the US Army's Armament Research, Development, and
Engineering Center
at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey, where Kadish worked.
Between 1979 and 1985, Kadish took between 50 and 100 classified do***ents
to his home in New
Jersey, where CC-1 would photograph them, US prosecutors charged.
One of the do***ents Kadish provided to CC-1 "contained information
concerning nuclear weaponry
and was classified as 'restricted data'" -- a specific designation by the
US Department of
Energy for do***ents containing atomic-related information -- according to
the complaint filed
in a Manhattan federal court.
Other do***ents provided by Kadish and classified as "secret" by the
Pentagon contained
information on a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet as well as the
Patriot missile air
defense system.
Kadish was released on 300,000 dollars bail and his travel was restricted.
Wa****ngton registered its concern over spying Tuesday with its key Middle
East ally.
"We have spoken to the Israelis at the senior level," said State
Department spokesman Gonzo
Gallegos, referring to diplomats at the Israeli embassy in Wa****ngton.
Another State Department official's terse comments over the latest case
reflected renewed
concern over espionage.
"Twenty-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," said Tom Casey.
"We would expect that Israel would not be engaged in such activities."
An Israeli defense ministry official re****tedly told the Jerusalem Post
that the ministry had
no knowledge of the incident and learned about it from US media.
Kadish, who worked at the arsenal from 1963 to 1990, kept in touch with
CC-1 via telephone and
email and met the consular official in Israel in 2004, authorities said.
CC-1 left the United States in 1985 and has never returned, they said.
On March 20 this year, CC-1 called Kadish to tell him to lie to US
officials who had begun
investigating him over the do***ents, according to an FBI wire-tap cited
by authorities.
"Don't say anything. Let them say whatever they want. You didn't do
anything," CC-1 told
Kadish. "What happened 25 years ago? You didn't remember anything."
Israeli media identified Israel's CC-1 consular attache as Yosef Yagur.
US officials said the Israeli diplomat worked during the 1970s for Israel
Aircraft Industries,
which at the time made weapons for Israel.
Kadish was charged with conspiring to disclose do***ents related to US
national defense to the
Israeli government and conspiring to act as an Israeli agent.
He was also charged with conspiring to hinder communication to a law
enforcement officer and
conspiring to make a materially false statement to an officer.
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