April 24, 2008 (LPAC)--The arrest this week of an American-born Army engineer on charges that he spied for Israel, has revived the hunt for the "X Committee," the high-level apparatus of Israeli spies and agents-of-influence who worked with Jonathan Pollard, the convicted Israeli spy, who stole vast amounts of U.S. national security secrets during the 1980s, and passed them to Israel. On April 22, Ben-Ami Kadish was arrested at his home in New Jersey, and charged with delivering U.S. nuclear weapon and other military secrets to Israel. The affidavit from the FBI, which was the basis for his arrest, linked Kadish directly with the Pollard apparatus, through a former Israeli science attache in New York, Yosef Yagur, who was one of Pollard's controllers and also managed Kadish's espionage activities.
U.S. intelligence sources have underscored the importance of the Kadish arrest, including the fact that the initial tip-off of his spying activities came from Israel. The sources linked the revival of the Israeli espionage issue to efforts from within the U.S. military and intelligence community to prevent a new war in the Middle East -- a war that Vice President Dick Cheney is aggressively promoting at this time.
According to one Israeli source, the leaking of Kadish's identity as an Israeli spy was aimed at diverting attention away from other, far more high-level Israeli assets in the U.S., who have been targets of American counterespionage investigation since the November 1985 arrest of Pollard. The source reported that top Israeli government officials fear that the search for the so-called "Mr. X" or "X Committee" of Israeli spies and agents still in place in the U.S. government, has recently advanced, and that there could be a major new scandal, far more damaging than the Kadish case. Kadish is 84-years old, and ended his career as an Army engineer at a key research and development facility in Dover, New Jersey in 1990. However, Kadish's handler, Yagur, has been a target of U.S. investigation since the Pollard arrest, and the renewed focus on his activities could have produced the long-anticipated breakthrough in the case.
EIR was the first publication in the world to reveal that Pollard was part of a much larger spy ring. While there was a broad recognition that there was another spy, "Mr. X," still on the loose, EIR documented the much larger apparatus, labelled the "X Committee." In the Spring 1986 special report, "Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Mafia: Moscow's Secret Weapon," EIR identified a number of leading "X Committee" suspects, including Paul Wolfowitz, Michael Ledeen, Richard Perle, Frank Gaffney, and Albert Wohlstetter. Many of these individuals emerged as key neo-conservative policymakers in the George W. Bush administration, who all played a pivotal role in fabricating the case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Today, these same neo-cons are pushing, along with Vice President Cheney, for U.S. military action against Iran and Syria -- before Bush leaves office. Were any of the real key members of the "X Committee" to be revealed or indicted, this could greatly reduce the prospect that Cheney gets his way and convinces President Bush to order military strikes on Iran, and could destroy the political clout of the neo-cons forever.
| U.S. to demand Jerusalem acknowledge Kadish was an Israeli agent | |
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| By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent | |
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Tags: Israel, U.S.  | |
The United States' demands of Israel following the arrest and subsequent indictment Tuesday in the U.S. of Ben-Ami Kadish on charges of spying for Israel recalled similar demands following the 1985 arrest of Jonathan Pollard, American sources familiar with the case have told Haaretz. At that time, Israel announced its full cooperation and handed over information to the American investigators, in effect greatly aiding the case against Pollard. According to the American sources, Israel is currently refusing to repeat this mistake but it eventually will have to admit, to the U.S. government and perhaps also to the public, that Kadish was indeed working for official agents of the State of Israel. Wednesday's Foreign Ministry statement, according to which Israel halted its espionage activities against the United States on U.S. soil in 1985, also hints at this. Its language leaves the door open for Israel's admission that Kadish was an Israeli agent but ceased these activities in 1985, as stated in his indictment. Pollard was arrested that year. | |
Another interesting question, which remains to be answered, is the issue of who will pay for Kadish's legal fees. At the beginning of the Pollard affair, a public committee was founded that was supposedly composed of volunteers who collected money to pay for the defense of Pollard and his wife at the time, Anne Pollard. It later became clear that the public committee was actually a front for the Israeli government and intelligence community.
Jerusalem responds
Barak Ravid adds: "The events date back to the early 1980s," Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Wednesday. "Since 1985, great care has been taken to observe the directives of the prime ministers not to conduct activities of this kind in the U.S."
"Relations between the United States and Israel have always been based on true friendship and mutual values and interests," Mekel added.
According to U.S. court documents, Kadish confessed to the crimes of which he is accused and told the FBI he had sought to aid Israel. The information he allegedly passed to Israel dealt with nuclear weapons, fighter aircraft and defensive missiles.
Kadish, 84, was released on $300,000 bail Tuesday following a brief appearance in a Manhattan federal court.
The Foreign Ministry announcement was one of two exceptions to the official silence that prevailed in Jerusalem Wednesday on the story.
The other was a statement made by Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra, who in an interview to Israel Radio said he did not believe the affair would damage Israel-U.S. relations. He said that Kadish was not another Pollard.
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