US MILITARY SECRETS STOLEN BY ISRAEL
R.
Jeffrey Smith
A
Defense Department security official issued a confidential warning to many
military contractors in October that the Israeli government in October that the
Israeli government was "aggressively" trying to steal US military and
intelligence secrets, by trading in part on it's "storing ethnic
ties" to the United States to recruit spies.
The warning, which described Israel as a "non-traditional adversary" in the world of espionage, was circulated by the Defence Investigative Service with a memo noting similar intelligence "threats" from other close US allies. The warning about Israel was "cancelled" and withdrawn by the Pentagon in December last year after senior officials decided it's author had improperly singled out Jewish "ethnicity" as a specific counter-intelligence concern.
The warning nonetheless provoked a vigorous protest on by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith, a prominent Jewish organisation, which made the matter public and called on the Pentagon to conduct an internat investigation. "This is a distressing charge which impugns American Jews and borders on anti-Semtism," said ADL director Abraham H. Foxman in a letter to Defense Secretary William J. Perry.
The government memo, and ADL's angry reaction to it, highlight a particularly delicate issue for the Defence Department. Many military counter-intelligence officials remain scarred by the 1985 revelation that Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard stole what the memo refers to as "vast quantities of classified information" on Israel's behalf over a 17-month period.
Pollard, who is Jewish, said he was motivated partly by sympathy for Israel. The Israeli government since then has granted him citizenship and unsuccessfully appealed to senior US officials for his early release from a sentence of life in prison. The appeal has been supported by the some US Jewish groups, although not by B'nai B'rith, which said to found no evidence of ethnic bias in the US government's handling of the case.
A cover letter to the Defence Investigative Service memo described it's dissemination as part of a new effort by the Pentagon to alert military contractors to the dangers of attempted spying by what it refers to as "military friends" such as France, Italy, Japan, Germany, and Britain.
"It is obvious that their is far more economic and industrial espionage than previously suspected," said the memo, which Pentagon officials said was drafted by an industrial security specialist at the Defence Investigative Service office in Syracuse, New York, and sent to 250 facilities military work.
The service is responsible for overseeing securing programmes at such contractors and conducting background checks on both civilian and military employees in sensitive posts. The employee sent similar memos detailing intelligence threats from the other US allies.
The confidential memo on Israel began by noting that the country, a major recipient of US military and economic aid, "is a political and military allly." But it continued, "the nature of espionage relations between the two governments is competitive." It said Israel "aggressively collects US military and industrial technology," including spy satellite date, missile defence information, and data on military aircraft, tanks, missile boats, and radars.
Drawing on the example of the Pollard case and four other Israeli espionage operations in the United States, the memo said that the country's recruitment techniques include "ethnic targeting, financial aggrandisement, and identification and exploitation of individual frailties" of US citizens. "Placing Israeli nationals in key industries.... is a technique utilised with great success," the memo said.
It alleged that Israeli agents stole "proprietary information" from an Illianois optics firm in 1986 and test equipment for a radar system in the "mid-1980s." The memo also repeated previously publicised charges - denied by Israel and never officially proven by US investigators - that Israel may have provided China with sensitive fighter jet technology obtained from the United States.
In publicising the memo, which was first obtained by the Jewish weekly Moment magazine, ADL director Foxman complained not only about it's reference to Israeli recruitment techniques but also it's harsh tone regarding an ally that "only five years ago ... refrained from taking military steps against Iraq despite Scud missile attacks because it's US ally asked for restraint." Assistant Secretary of Defence Emmett Paige Jr., who has responsibility
The warning, which described Israel as a "non-traditional adversary" in the world of espionage, was circulated by the Defence Investigative Service with a memo noting similar intelligence "threats" from other close US allies. The warning about Israel was "cancelled" and withdrawn by the Pentagon in December last year after senior officials decided it's author had improperly singled out Jewish "ethnicity" as a specific counter-intelligence concern.
The warning nonetheless provoked a vigorous protest on by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith, a prominent Jewish organisation, which made the matter public and called on the Pentagon to conduct an internat investigation. "This is a distressing charge which impugns American Jews and borders on anti-Semtism," said ADL director Abraham H. Foxman in a letter to Defense Secretary William J. Perry.
The government memo, and ADL's angry reaction to it, highlight a particularly delicate issue for the Defence Department. Many military counter-intelligence officials remain scarred by the 1985 revelation that Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard stole what the memo refers to as "vast quantities of classified information" on Israel's behalf over a 17-month period.
Pollard, who is Jewish, said he was motivated partly by sympathy for Israel. The Israeli government since then has granted him citizenship and unsuccessfully appealed to senior US officials for his early release from a sentence of life in prison. The appeal has been supported by the some US Jewish groups, although not by B'nai B'rith, which said to found no evidence of ethnic bias in the US government's handling of the case.
A cover letter to the Defence Investigative Service memo described it's dissemination as part of a new effort by the Pentagon to alert military contractors to the dangers of attempted spying by what it refers to as "military friends" such as France, Italy, Japan, Germany, and Britain.
"It is obvious that their is far more economic and industrial espionage than previously suspected," said the memo, which Pentagon officials said was drafted by an industrial security specialist at the Defence Investigative Service office in Syracuse, New York, and sent to 250 facilities military work.
The service is responsible for overseeing securing programmes at such contractors and conducting background checks on both civilian and military employees in sensitive posts. The employee sent similar memos detailing intelligence threats from the other US allies.
The confidential memo on Israel began by noting that the country, a major recipient of US military and economic aid, "is a political and military allly." But it continued, "the nature of espionage relations between the two governments is competitive." It said Israel "aggressively collects US military and industrial technology," including spy satellite date, missile defence information, and data on military aircraft, tanks, missile boats, and radars.
Drawing on the example of the Pollard case and four other Israeli espionage operations in the United States, the memo said that the country's recruitment techniques include "ethnic targeting, financial aggrandisement, and identification and exploitation of individual frailties" of US citizens. "Placing Israeli nationals in key industries.... is a technique utilised with great success," the memo said.
It alleged that Israeli agents stole "proprietary information" from an Illianois optics firm in 1986 and test equipment for a radar system in the "mid-1980s." The memo also repeated previously publicised charges - denied by Israel and never officially proven by US investigators - that Israel may have provided China with sensitive fighter jet technology obtained from the United States.
In publicising the memo, which was first obtained by the Jewish weekly Moment magazine, ADL director Foxman complained not only about it's reference to Israeli recruitment techniques but also it's harsh tone regarding an ally that "only five years ago ... refrained from taking military steps against Iraq despite Scud missile attacks because it's US ally asked for restraint." Assistant Secretary of Defence Emmett Paige Jr., who has responsibility
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