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summary: "Israeli founder and chief executive of Carbyne, formerly Reporty Homeland Security, whose board included Ehud Barak and a former Unit 8200 commander and in which Jeffrey Epstein invested."
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location: "Tel Aviv, Israel"
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created: 2026-09-25
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updated: 2026-09-25
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updated: 2026-10-12
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relations:
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- type: director_of
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with: "[[Carbyne]]"
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start: 2015-12-23
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role: "director of Reporty Homeland Security Ltd., later chief executive"
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fn: 1
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fn: 2
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---
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Amir Elichai is an Israeli entrepreneur, the founder and chief executive of [[Carbyne]], an emergency-call and 911-dispatch technology company incorporated as Reporty Homeland Security Ltd. In December 2015 he sat on Reporty's board with the former Israeli prime minister and defense minister [[Ehud Barak]] and [[Pinhas Buchris]], a former commander of the signals-intelligence [[Unit 8200]]. [[Jeffrey Epstein]] invested about one million dollars in Reporty in 2015 through an arrangement Barak brokered, and increased his stake through an Israeli limited partnership in 2019. In January 2019 Elichai prepared the Carbyne presentation that Barak sent to [[Jabor Al Thani]] of [[Qatar]], with Epstein copied, for security work at the [[2022 FIFA World Cup]]. [[Axon Enterprise]] bought Carbyne for 625 million dollars in February 2026.[^1][^2][^3][^4]
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Amir Elichai is an Israeli entrepreneur, the founder and chief executive of [[Carbyne]], an emergency-call and 911-dispatch technology company incorporated as Reporty Homeland Security Ltd. In December 2015 he sat on Reporty's board with the former Israeli prime minister and defense minister [[Ehud Barak]] and [[Pinhas Buchris]], a former commander of the signals-intelligence [[Unit 8200]].[^1] [[Jeffrey Epstein]] invested about one million dollars in Reporty in 2015 through an arrangement Barak brokered, and increased his stake through an Israeli limited partnership in 2019. In January 2019 Elichai prepared the Carbyne presentation that Barak sent to [[Jabor Al Thani]] of [[Qatar]], with Epstein copied, for security work at the [[2022 FIFA World Cup]]. [[Axon Enterprise]] bought Carbyne for 625 million dollars in February 2026.[^2][^3][^4][^5]
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### Reporty Homeland Security
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The minutes of a meeting of the board of directors of Reporty Homeland Security Ltd. held on December 23, 2015 list as directors present "Mr. Amir Elichai, Mr. Alex Dizengof, Mr. Ehud Barak, Mr. Pinchas Bouchris," with the company's lawyer also attending. The board watched a demonstration of "the Reporty system (version 0.7/0.8 noncommercial version)," discussed the company's "current business relationships and partners such as Haifa Municipality, Microsoft, Taldor as well as integrators," and resolved to explore non-exclusive partnerships with integrators and to buy demonstration equipment. The minutes were preserved among Epstein's records.[^1]
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The minutes of a meeting of the board of directors of Reporty Homeland Security Ltd. held on December 23, 2015 list as directors present "Mr. Amir Elichai, Mr. Alex Dizengof, Mr. Ehud Barak, Mr. Pinchas Bouchris," with the company's lawyer also attending. The board watched a demonstration of "the Reporty system (version 0.7/0.8 noncommercial version)," discussed the company's "current business relationships and partners such as Haifa Municipality, Microsoft, Taldor as well as integrators," and resolved to explore non-exclusive partnerships with integrators and to buy demonstration equipment. The minutes were preserved among Epstein's records.[^2]
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Buchris later served as director general of the Israeli [[Ministry of Defense (Israel)|Ministry of Defense]]. Barak served on the boards of Reporty and Carbyne and left in 2019.[^2][^4]
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Buchris, whom Calcalist described in 2019 as "the former director of Israel's Unit 8200," sat on Carbyne's board in 2017 with Barak and Elichai, and later served as director general of the Israeli [[Ministry of Defense (Israel)|Ministry of Defense]].[^1][^6] Barak served on the boards of Reporty and Carbyne and left in 2019.[^3]
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### The Epstein Investment
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*[[Forbes]]* reported in February 2026 that Barak helped Epstein invest about one million dollars in Reporty in 2015, after Epstein's 2008 guilty plea and his registration as a sex offender in [[Florida]], and that the stake could have grown in value to as much as 100 million dollars.[^2] The stake was held through SUM (E.B.) Limited Partnership, whose general partner was Ergo (E.B. 2014) Ltd. On February 28, 2019 the partnership's lawyer, [[Tomer Toor]], wrote to Epstein's attorney [[Darren Indyke]] that at the time of the initial investment "in Carbyne Ltd. (formerly Reporty Ltd.)" the partnership had received warrants for 61,251 Preferred A shares at an aggregate exercise price of 3.5 million dollars, and that exercising them would raise its holding "from about 13% to about 26.33%, on a fully diluted basis." In March 2019 Epstein's Virgin Islands company [[Southern Trust Company]] signed the Additional Investment Agreement and transferred 2.4 million dollars of the 3.6 million dollars raised, and Indyke confirmed to the partnership's bank that Epstein was "the controlling person" of Southern Trust.[^5] On February 18, 2019 [[Nicole Junkermann]], whose firm had taken part in Carbyne's Series A round, wrote to Epstein: "Carbyne invested 1.5 m (1m you and 0.5m me) net of fees is3.9m your share, Ehud carry1.5 m and my share 2m."[^6]
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*[[Forbes]]* reported in February 2026 that Barak helped Epstein invest about one million dollars in Reporty in 2015, after Epstein's 2008 guilty plea and his registration as a sex offender in [[Florida]], and that the stake could have grown in value to as much as 100 million dollars.[^3] The stake was held through SUM (E.B.) Limited Partnership, whose general partner was Ergo (E.B. 2014) Ltd. On February 28, 2019 the partnership's lawyer, [[Tomer Toor]], wrote to Epstein's attorney [[Darren Indyke]] that at the time of the initial investment "in Carbyne Ltd. (formerly Reporty Ltd.)" the partnership had received warrants for 61,251 Preferred A shares at an aggregate exercise price of 3.5 million dollars, and that exercising them would raise its holding "from about 13% to about 26.33%, on a fully diluted basis." In March 2019 Epstein's Virgin Islands company [[Southern Trust Company]] signed the Additional Investment Agreement and transferred 2.4 million dollars of the 3.6 million dollars raised, and Indyke confirmed to the partnership's bank that Epstein was "the controlling person" of Southern Trust.[^7] On February 18, 2019 [[Nicole Junkermann]], whose firm had taken part in Carbyne's Series A round, wrote to Epstein: "Carbyne invested 1.5 m (1m you and 0.5m me) net of fees is3.9m your share, Ehud carry1.5 m and my share 2m."[^8]
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Forbes reported that Carbyne's website listed Junkermann as a director until 2020. Elichai said that "she is not and was never a board member," attributed the listing to a mistake by the company's marketing team, and said she no longer held a stake.[^2]
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Forbes reported that Carbyne's website listed Junkermann as a director until 2020. Elichai said that "she is not and was never a board member," attributed the listing to a mistake by the company's marketing team, and said she no longer held a stake.[^3]
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### The Qatar Pitch
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On May 21, 2018 Epstein wrote to [[Peter Thiel]], whose [[Founders Fund]] was a Carbyne investor: "FYI trae is meeting carbyne Ehud Barak co."[^7] On January 1, 2019 Barak forwarded to Jabor Al Thani, with Epstein copied, a presentation prepared by Elichai, writing: "Please find attached short presentation of Carbine. Public safety company of which I'm the chairman and leading investor. We are interested in participating in the security effort for the 2022 Games. We can work through a European company of your choice and minimize Israeli profile."[^3] Jabor Al Thani replied on January 20 that "Our security services company" wished to begin discussions and asked for help with "any anti-drone services or technologies." On February 3 Barak, signing "Ehud Barak, Carbyne, Chairman," named Elichai as the contact and promised a separate email on "the anti-drone issue"; Elichai wrote, "Ehud, thanks for the intro." On February 4 Jabor Al Thani named the country manager of [[Lysys WLL]] as his side's contact. Epstein was a recipient of the January 1, February 3 and February 4 messages.[^8]
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On May 21, 2018 Epstein wrote to [[Peter Thiel]], whose [[Founders Fund]] was a Carbyne investor: "FYI trae is meeting carbyne Ehud Barak co."[^9] On January 1, 2019 Barak forwarded to Jabor Al Thani, with Epstein copied, a presentation prepared by Elichai, writing: "Please find attached short presentation of Carbine. Public safety company of which I'm the chairman and leading investor. We are interested in participating in the security effort for the 2022 Games. We can work through a European company of your choice and minimize Israeli profile."[^4] Jabor Al Thani replied on January 20 that "Our security services company" wished to begin discussions and asked for help with "any anti-drone services or technologies." On February 3 Barak, signing "Ehud Barak, Carbyne, Chairman," named Elichai as the contact and promised a separate email on "the anti-drone issue"; Elichai wrote, "Ehud, thanks for the intro." On February 4 Jabor Al Thani named the country manager of [[Lysys WLL]] as his side's contact. Epstein was a recipient of the January 1, February 3 and February 4 messages.[^10]
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### The Axon Sale
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Axon Enterprise, the maker of the [[Taser]] and police body cameras, agreed to buy Carbyne for 625 million dollars in cash, and the purchase closed in February 2026. Axon's founder and chief executive, [[Rick Smith]], described the deal as "uniting cloud infrastructure and AI to redefine the 911 experience." Carbyne's product has been used by U.S. police and emergency agencies including the [[Miami-Dade Police Department]].[^2][^4][^9]
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Axon Enterprise, the maker of the [[Taser]] and police body cameras, agreed to buy Carbyne for 625 million dollars in cash, and the purchase closed in February 2026. Axon's founder and chief executive, [[Rick Smith]], described the deal as "uniting cloud infrastructure and AI to redefine the 911 experience." Carbyne's product has been used by U.S. police and emergency agencies including the [[Miami-Dade Police Department]].[^3][^5][^11]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01074544, DataSet 9, minutes of the meeting of the board of directors of Reporty Homeland Security Ltd., December 23, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01074544.pdf
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[^2]: Brewster, Thomas. "Epstein Could Have Made $100 Million On A Secret Police Tech Investment With Ehud Barak." *Forbes,* February 10, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2026/02/10/epstein-police-surveillance-investments-with-ehud-barak/
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[^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02607775, DataSet 11, email from Ehud Barak to Jabor Al Thani, copied to Jeffrey Epstein, "Fwd: Qatar Presentation <> Carbyne 911," January 1, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02607775.pdf
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[^4]: *Coverager,* on Axon's agreement to acquire Carbyne for 625 million dollars. https://coverager.com/axon-to-acquire-carbyne-for-625-million/ ; *CTech (Calcalist),* on the Axon acquisition. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rj4vnuokwg
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[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02634615, DataSet 11, email chain "Carbyne warrants" among Tomer Toor, NJF Capital, Darren Indyke, and Jeffrey Epstein, February 28 to March 14, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02634615.pdf
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[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02630791, DataSet 11, email exchange between Jeffrey Epstein and Nicole Junkermann, February 18, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02630791.pdf
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[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01052344, DataSet 9, email from Jeffrey Epstein to Peter Thiel, May 21, 2018. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01052344.pdf
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[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02628648, DataSet 11, email thread among Ehud Barak, Jabor Al Thani, Amir Elichai, and Jeffrey Epstein, "Qatar Presentation <> Carbyne 911," January 1 to February 4, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02628648.pdf
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[^9]: Axon Enterprise. "Axon to Acquire Carbyne, Uniting Cloud Infrastructure and AI to Redefine the 911 Experience." Press release, *PR Newswire.* https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/axon-to-acquire-carbyne-uniting-cloud-infrastructure-and-ai-to-redefine-the-911-experience-302604614.html
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[^1]: "The Ties That Bind: Ehud Barak's Business Network," *CTech (Calcalist)*, July 18, 2019. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3766639,00.html
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[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01074544, DataSet 9, minutes of the meeting of the board of directors of Reporty Homeland Security Ltd., December 23, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01074544.pdf
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[^3]: Brewster, Thomas. "Epstein Could Have Made $100 Million On A Secret Police Tech Investment With Ehud Barak." *Forbes,* February 10, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2026/02/10/epstein-police-surveillance-investments-with-ehud-barak/
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[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02607775, DataSet 11, email from Ehud Barak to Jabor Al Thani, copied to Jeffrey Epstein, "Fwd: Qatar Presentation <> Carbyne 911," January 1, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02607775.pdf
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[^5]: *Coverager,* on Axon's agreement to acquire Carbyne for 625 million dollars. https://coverager.com/axon-to-acquire-carbyne-for-625-million/ ; *CTech (Calcalist),* on the Axon acquisition. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rj4vnuokwg
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[^6]: "A Buchris story: The rise, fall, and comeback of an Israeli hero," *CTech (Calcalist)*, December 16, 2022. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/lwigv8m1o
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[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02634615, DataSet 11, email chain "Carbyne warrants" among Tomer Toor, NJF Capital, Darren Indyke, and Jeffrey Epstein, February 28 to March 14, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02634615.pdf
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[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02630791, DataSet 11, email exchange between Jeffrey Epstein and Nicole Junkermann, February 18, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02630791.pdf
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[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01052344, DataSet 9, email from Jeffrey Epstein to Peter Thiel, May 21, 2018. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01052344.pdf
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[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02628648, DataSet 11, email thread among Ehud Barak, Jabor Al Thani, Amir Elichai, and Jeffrey Epstein, "Qatar Presentation <> Carbyne 911," January 1 to February 4, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02628648.pdf
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[^11]: Axon Enterprise. "Axon to Acquire Carbyne, Uniting Cloud Infrastructure and AI to Redefine the 911 Experience." Press release, *PR Newswire.* https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/axon-to-acquire-carbyne-uniting-cloud-infrastructure-and-ai-to-redefine-the-911-experience-302604614.html
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@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ summary: "Ehud Barak is the former Israeli prime minister and military intellige
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born: 1942-02-12
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location: "Mishmar HaSharon, Mandatory Palestine (born)"
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created: 2026-06-18
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updated: 2026-09-25
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updated: 2026-10-12
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relations:
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[Aman]]"
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@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ On February 18, 2019 the investor [[Nicole Junkermann]] wrote to Epstein, in a m
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### Carbyne After Epstein
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Barak left the Carbyne board in 2019, the year of Epstein's arrest and death. The company's board also included [[Pinhas Buchris]], a former commander of Unit 8200 and former director general of the Israeli [[Ministry of Defense (Israel)|Ministry of Defense]]. [[Axon Enterprise]], the maker of Taser weapons and police body cameras, agreed to buy Carbyne for 625 million dollars in cash, a deal that closed in early 2026.[^15][^30]
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Barak left the Carbyne board in 2019, the year of Epstein's arrest and death.[^15] The company's board also included [[Pinhas Buchris]], a former commander of Unit 8200 and former director general of the Israeli [[Ministry of Defense (Israel)|Ministry of Defense]].[^30][^31] Minutes of the December 23, 2015 meeting of Reporty's board list Amir Elichai, [[Alex Dizengof]], Barak and Buchris as directors present, and record Barak's expected additional investment of $500,000 by February 1, 2016.[^32] [[Axon Enterprise]], the maker of Taser weapons and police body cameras, agreed to buy Carbyne for 625 million dollars in cash, a deal that closed in early 2026.[^15][^33]
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### Footnotes
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@ -158,4 +158,7 @@ Barak left the Carbyne board in 2019, the year of Epstein's arrest and death. Th
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[^27]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02630791, DataSet 11, email exchange between Jeffrey Epstein and Nicole Junkermann, February 18, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02630791.pdf
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[^28]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02632339, DataSet 11, email from Ehud Barak to Jeffrey Epstein, "Re: Carbyne warrants," March 11, 2019, with forwarded correspondence of Tomer Toor, Darren Indyke, and NJF Capital, February 28 to March 11, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02632339.pdf
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[^29]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02634615, DataSet 11, email exchange between Darren Indyke and Jeffrey Epstein, "Re: Carbyne warrants," March 12-14, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02634615.pdf
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[^30]: *Coverager,* on Axon's agreement to acquire Carbyne for 625 million dollars. https://coverager.com/axon-to-acquire-carbyne-for-625-million/ ; "Axon to Acquire Carbyne, Uniting Cloud Infrastructure and AI to Redefine the 911 Experience." Axon Enterprise press release, *PR Newswire.* https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/axon-to-acquire-carbyne-uniting-cloud-infrastructure-and-ai-to-redefine-the-911-experience-302604614.html
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[^30]: "The Ties That Bind: Ehud Barak's Business Network," *CTech (Calcalist)*, July 18, 2019. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3766639,00.html
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[^31]: "A Buchris story: The rise, fall, and comeback of an Israeli hero," *CTech (Calcalist)*, December 16, 2022. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/lwigv8m1o
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[^32]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01074544, DataSet 9, minutes of the meeting of the board of directors of Reporty Homeland Security Ltd., December 23, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01074544.pdf
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[^33]: *Coverager,* on Axon's agreement to acquire Carbyne for 625 million dollars. https://coverager.com/axon-to-acquire-carbyne-for-625-million/ ; "Axon to Acquire Carbyne, Uniting Cloud Infrastructure and AI to Redefine the 911 Experience." Axon Enterprise press release, *PR Newswire.* https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/axon-to-acquire-carbyne-uniting-cloud-infrastructure-and-ai-to-redefine-the-911-experience-302604614.html
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- Coup1964
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- ColdWar
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- LatinAmerica
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summary: "General Humberto Castelo Branco led the April 1964 military coup that overthrew Brazilian President Joao Goulart and served as Brazil's first post-coup military president from 1964 to 1967, overseeing mass political purges, the suppression of Petrobrás, and the opening of the Amazon to American corporate investment."
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summary: "General Humberto Castelo Branco led the April 1964 military coup that overthrew Brazilian President Joao Goulart and served as Brazil's first post-coup military president from 1964 to 1967."
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born: 1897-09-20
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died: 1967-07-18
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location: "Fortaleza, Brazil"
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created: 2026-06-05
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updated: 2026-06-05
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updated: 2026-10-12
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---
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Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco (September 20, 1897 - July 18, 1967) commanded the April 1964 military coup that overthrew Brazilian President [[Joao Goulart]] and served as Brazil's first post-coup military president from 1964 to 1967. The intellectual leader of the "Sorbonne Group" of US-aligned Brazilian officers, he had formed a close personal friendship with US Military Attaché [[Vernon Walters]] while the [[Brazilian Expeditionary Force]] fought under US command in Italy during World War II, a relationship that gave Washington direct access to coup planning in the weeks before the military moved.
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@ -47,19 +47,19 @@ The Petrobrás nationalization that Goulart had decreed was reversed. American o
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[[Hanna Mining Company]] had acquired controlling interest in Brazil's St. John D'el Rey Mining Company beginning in 1956, gaining access to what was described as one of the world's richest high-grade hematite deposits in Minas Gerais. President Goulart had issued an expropriation decree challenging Hanna's claim, and the case had reached the Federal Court of Appeals before the coup. On December 24, 1964, Castelo Branco issued a presidential decree endorsing private development of Brazil's iron ore reserves and supporting Hanna's plans, including construction of loading facilities at Sepetiba Bay and a railway cutoff to the government-owned Central do Brasil railroad. [[John J. McCloy]], board chairman of [[Chase Manhattan Bank]], made strategic visits to Brazilian officials at critical moments in Hanna's legal struggle over the concession. On June 15, 1966, the reconstituted Federal Court of Appeals ruled in Hanna's favor.[^13]
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U.S. aid followed immediately after recognition. The [[Agency for International Development]] provided a $50 million contingency loan in June 1964. A $150 million AID program loan was authorized in December 1964 after Brazil submitted formal self-help commitments to [[CIAP]]. By December 1965, Secretary of State Rusk was requesting President Johnson's approval for a further $150 million AID program loan for 1966, which Johnson approved December 11, 1965, with the agreement signed February 10, 1966. The 1965 package also included a $53.6 million Treasury exchange agreement and a $125 million [[IMF]] standby agreement. Gordon's August 1964 assessment (FRUS Document 215) proposed annual capital inflows of $600-700 million from combined U.S. and international sources to sustain Brazil's development program. Between 1960 and 1966, Brazil received approximately $2.5 billion in total foreign assistance, and by 1970 had become the largest recipient of [[World Bank]] funds.[^14]
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U.S. aid followed immediately after recognition. The [[Agency for International Development]] provided a $50 million contingency loan in June 1964. Colby and Dennett write that after the coup the Johnson administration released $200 million in aid previously pledged to Goulart and delivered another $50 million AID loan shortly after Roberto Campos announced that he was reconsidering Goulart's 10 percent limit on profit repatriation.[^14] An editorial note in the Foreign Relations of the United States records that AID Administrator [[David E. Bell]] approved on November 2, 1964 a proposal to provide Brazil with $100 million for project loans and $150 million for a program loan "on the most concessionary terms legally available," and that the United States and Brazil signed the agreement on December 14, 1964.[^15] The program loan followed Brazil's submission of formal self-help commitments to [[CIAP]]. By December 1965, Secretary of State Rusk was requesting President Johnson's approval for a further $150 million AID program loan for 1966, which Johnson approved December 11, 1965, with the agreement signed February 10, 1966. The 1965 package also included a $53.6 million Treasury exchange agreement and a $125 million [[IMF]] standby agreement. Gordon's August 1964 assessment (FRUS Document 215) proposed annual capital inflows of $600-700 million from combined U.S. and international sources to sustain Brazil's development program. Between 1960 and 1966, Brazil received approximately $2.5 billion in total foreign assistance, and by 1970 had become the largest recipient of [[World Bank]] funds.[^14]
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Brazil broke off relations with Cuba in July 1964 and joined the Johnson administration's [[OAS]] condemnation of Cuba in 1965. Castelo Branco supported the U.S. Marine intervention in the [[Dominican Republic]] in 1965, contributing troops to the [[Inter-American Peace Force]] (IAPF), established by OAS resolution on May 23, 1965. The IAPF was commanded by Brazilian General [[Hugo Panasco Alvim]], with U.S. General [[Bruce Palmer]] as deputy commander. The force comprised approximately 1,748 troops from Brazil, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras, operating alongside approximately 12,400 U.S. military personnel.[^15]
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Brazil broke off relations with Cuba in July 1964 and joined the Johnson administration's [[OAS]] condemnation of Cuba in 1965. Castelo Branco supported the U.S. Marine intervention in the [[Dominican Republic]] in 1965, contributing troops to the [[Inter-American Peace Force]] (IAPF), established by OAS resolution on May 23, 1965. The IAPF was commanded by Brazilian General [[Hugo Panasco Alvim]], with U.S. General [[Bruce Palmer]] as deputy commander. The force comprised approximately 1,748 troops from Brazil, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras, operating alongside approximately 12,400 U.S. military personnel.[^16]
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### Second Institutional Act
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The Second Institutional Act, signed on October 27, 1965, came in response to the military government's poor showing in that year's gubernatorial elections, in which opposition candidates won two state contests. The act banned all existing political parties, provided for indirect election of the president, restricted the time Congress could consider legislation before it automatically became law, stipulated that persons accused of crimes against national security would be subject to military justice, and expanded the [[Supreme Court]] to secure favorable rulings, including the restoration of Hanna Mining's concessions.[^16]
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The Second Institutional Act, signed on October 27, 1965, came in response to the military government's poor showing in that year's gubernatorial elections, in which opposition candidates won two state contests. The act banned all existing political parties, provided for indirect election of the president, restricted the time Congress could consider legislation before it automatically became law, stipulated that persons accused of crimes against national security would be subject to military justice, and expanded the [[Supreme Court]] to secure favorable rulings, including the restoration of Hanna Mining's concessions.[^17]
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Ambassador Gordon reported on the act in a cable to Washington dated November 3, 1965, describing his private conversation with Castelo Branco about it. According to Gordon's account, Castelo Branco explained that Congress and some Supreme Court justices had misunderstood his commitment to constitutional normality as willingness to reverse the revolution, and determined by mid-October that corrective action was necessary. Gordon expressed concern about "arbitrary powers assumed through the act" and the risks of sliding toward military dictatorship rather than maintaining the armed forces' traditional moderating role.[^17]
|
||||
Ambassador Gordon reported on the act in a cable to Washington dated November 3, 1965, describing his private conversation with Castelo Branco about it. According to Gordon's account, Castelo Branco explained that Congress and some Supreme Court justices had misunderstood his commitment to constitutional normality as willingness to reverse the revolution, and determined by mid-October that corrective action was necessary. Gordon expressed concern about "arbitrary powers assumed through the act" and the risks of sliding toward military dictatorship rather than maintaining the armed forces' traditional moderating role.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### Death
|
||||
|
||||
Castelo Branco was killed on July 18, 1967, four months after leaving the presidency, when his Piper PA-23 Aztec aircraft collided mid-air with a [[Brazilian Air Force]] Lockheed T-33 jet trainer near Fortaleza. The circumstances of the crash were never definitively explained; military records attributed it to an accidental mid-air collision, though the episode was widely regarded as suspicious.[^18]
|
||||
Castelo Branco was killed on July 18, 1967, four months after leaving the presidency, when his Piper PA-23 Aztec aircraft collided mid-air with a [[Brazilian Air Force]] Lockheed T-33 jet trainer near Fortaleza. The circumstances of the crash were never definitively explained; military records attributed it to an accidental mid-air collision, though the episode was widely regarded as suspicious.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, *Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon*. HarperCollins, 1995. Ch. 28.
|
||||
[^2]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 29. ESG established by Brazilian Law 785/49, August 20, 1949. Castelo Branco appointed Army Chief of Staff September 13, 1963.
|
||||
|
|
@ -75,7 +75,8 @@ Castelo Branco was killed on July 18, 1967, four months after leaving the presid
|
|||
[^12]: Federation of American Scientists, "Brazil: The National Intelligence Service, 1964-90," irp.fas.org/world/brazil/nis.html. Colby and Dennett, Ch. 29.
|
||||
[^13]: NACLA, "The Hanna Industrial Complex: Part I, Operations in Brazil," nacla.org. Colby and Dennett, Ch. 29.
|
||||
[^14]: FRUS 1964-68, Vol. XXXI, Document 224. Memorandum from Secretary of State Rusk to President Johnson, December 3, 1965 (approved December 11, 1965); Document 215, Letter from Ambassador Gordon to Assistant Secretary Mann, August 10, 1964. Aid figures also in Colby and Dennett, Ch. 29.
|
||||
[^15]: Inter-American Peace Force established by OAS resolution at the Tenth Meeting of Consultation of Foreign Ministers, May 23, 1965. Troop composition (1,500 Brazilian troops of 2,500 total): *New York Times*, "O.A.S. Creates Peace Force," May 24, 1965; FRUS 1964-68, Vol. XXXI, Document 224.
|
||||
[^16]: Second Institutional Act (Ato Institucional No. 2), October 27, 1965. Colby and Dennett, Ch. 29.
|
||||
[^17]: FRUS 1964-68, Vol. XXXI, Document 221. Telegram from Ambassador Gordon to Department of State, November 3, 1965. Secret; Priority.
|
||||
[^18]: Birth date September 20, 1897; death date July 18, 1967. Midair collision details: Piper PA-23 Aztec and Brazilian Air Force T-33. Find a Grave memorial no. 48088183.
|
||||
[^15]: Memorandum from Robert M. Sayre of the National Security Council Staff to the President's Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy), September 30, 1964, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XXXI, document 216, editorial note on the November 2, 1964 approval by AID Administrator Bell (citing the October 29 memorandum from Mann to Bell) and the December 14 signing. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v31/d216
|
||||
[^16]: Inter-American Peace Force established by OAS resolution at the Tenth Meeting of Consultation of Foreign Ministers, May 23, 1965. Troop composition (1,500 Brazilian troops of 2,500 total): *New York Times*, "O.A.S. Creates Peace Force," May 24, 1965; FRUS 1964-68, Vol. XXXI, Document 224.
|
||||
[^17]: Second Institutional Act (Ato Institucional No. 2), October 27, 1965. Colby and Dennett, Ch. 29.
|
||||
[^18]: FRUS 1964-68, Vol. XXXI, Document 221. Telegram from Ambassador Gordon to Department of State, November 3, 1965. Secret; Priority.
|
||||
[^19]: Birth date September 20, 1897; death date July 18, 1967. Midair collision details: Piper PA-23 Aztec and Brazilian Air Force T-33. Find a Grave memorial no. 48088183.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Israel
|
||||
- Soviet
|
||||
summary: "In 1972, Brezhnev met with Golda Meir, then Prime Minister of Israel, in Finland."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
born: 1906-12-19
|
||||
died: 1982-11-10
|
||||
location: "Kamenskoye, Ukraine (Russian Empire)"
|
||||
|
|
@ -14,15 +15,15 @@ location: "Kamenskoye, Ukraine (Russian Empire)"
|
|||
|
||||
### 1972 Meeting with Golda Meir
|
||||
|
||||
In 1972, Brezhnev met with [[Golda Meir]], then Prime Minister of [[Israel]], in [[Finland]]. During this meeting, [[Golda Meir|Meir]] rejected his proposal for a comprehensive peace settlement in the [[Middle East]].[^1]
|
||||
In 1972, Brezhnev met with [[Golda Meir]], then Prime Minister of Israel, in [[Finland]]. During this meeting, Meir rejected his proposal for a comprehensive peace settlement in the [[Middle East]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Intelligence Operations and War Implications
|
||||
|
||||
This meeting, along with the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]] bugging [[Golda Meir|Meir's]] office (discovered by [[Reuben Yirador]] of [[Unit 8200]]), informed [[Anwar Sadat]] of [[Israel|Israel's]] attitude and may have prompted the 1973 war.[^1]
|
||||
[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote that this meeting, along with the Soviets bugging Meir's office (which he said was discovered by [[Reuben Yirador]] of [[Unit 8200]]), informed [[Anwar Sadat]] of Israel's attitude and may have prompted the 1973 war.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### 1973 Yom Kippur War Threats
|
||||
|
||||
During the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], as the continued encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army by Israeli forces escalated, Soviet party leader [[Leonid Brezhnev]] increased the alert status of his airborne divisions and warned the [[White House]] that unless [[Israel]] stopped violating the cease-fire, "we should be faced with the necessity urgently to consider the question of taking appropriate steps unilaterally." The implication was that Brezhnev would send troops as a blocking force behind the front lines in [[Egypt]] to prevent the Israelis from advancing on [[Cairo]].[^2]
|
||||
During the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], as the continued encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army by Israeli forces escalated, Soviet party leader Leonid Brezhnev increased the alert status of his airborne divisions and warned the [[White House]] that unless Israel stopped violating the cease-fire, "we should be faced with the necessity urgently to consider the question of taking appropriate steps unilaterally." The implication was that Brezhnev would send troops as a blocking force behind the front lines in [[Egypt]] to prevent the Israelis from advancing on [[Cairo]].[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ aliases:
|
|||
- Rafi Eitan
|
||||
- Rafi the Stinker
|
||||
created: 2024-04-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
|
|
@ -17,42 +17,70 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Intelligence
|
||||
- 1970s
|
||||
- 1980s
|
||||
summary: "Rafael Eitan was a veteran Israeli intelligence operative who led the LAKAM science intelligence bureau, ran Jonathan Pollard as an intelligence asset against the United States, and was alleged by multiple sources to have acquired and internationally distributed PROMIS software with a hidden surveillance backdoor."
|
||||
summary: "Rafael Eitan was an Israeli intelligence operative who led the LAKAM bureau, ran Jonathan Pollard as an agent against the United States, and was alleged by several sources to have distributed backdoored PROMIS software."
|
||||
born: 1926-11-23
|
||||
died: 2019-03-23
|
||||
location: "Tel Aviv, Israel"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Jonathan Pollard]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1984-11
|
||||
end: 1985-11
|
||||
role: "Controller of the Pollard operation"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1987-01
|
||||
role: "Named in the government's sentencing filings; granted immunity"
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
---
|
||||
Rafael Eitan, also known as "Rafi the stinker," was an ambitious Israeli clandestine operative and a crony of [[Ariel Sharon]]. He was appointed the new head of [[LAKAM]] (Science Liaison Bureau) and also served as [[Menachem Begin]]'s special assistant for counterterrorism. Eitan had participated in the 1960 kidnapping of [[Adolf Eichmann]] in [[Buenos Aires]] and was a veteran of many operations inside the Arab world. He had been forced to resign from [[Mossad]] years earlier and was bitter about his stunted career and the failure of [[Mossad]] and [[Israel]]'s other intelligence agencies to cooperate with his counterterrorism office.[^1]
|
||||
Rafael Eitan, also known as "Rafi the stinker," was an ambitious Israeli clandestine operative and a crony of [[Ariel Sharon]]. He was appointed the new head of [[LAKAM]] (Science Liaison Bureau) and also served as [[Menachem Begin]]'s special assistant for counterterrorism. Eitan had participated in the 1960 kidnapping of [[Adolf Eichmann]] in [[Buenos Aires]] and was a veteran of many operations inside the Arab world. He had been forced to resign from [[Mossad]] years earlier and was bitter about his stunted career and the failure of Mossad and [[Israel]]'s other intelligence agencies to cooperate with his counterterrorism office.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Eitan decided to change the rules after unproductive meetings with U.S. officials, agreeing with [[Ariel Sharon]] that the [[United States]] was holding back on intelligence essential to Israeli security, such as [[KH-11]] photography. He recruited [[Jonathan Pollard]] in October 1981, a move viewed by military intelligence as "the worst fucking thing Rafi could have done."[^1]
|
||||
Eitan decided to change the rules after unproductive meetings with U.S. officials, agreeing with Ariel Sharon that the [[United States]] was holding back on intelligence essential to Israeli security, such as [[KH-11]] photography. He recruited [[Jonathan Pollard]] in October 1981, a move viewed by military intelligence as "the worst fucking thing Rafi could have done."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Eitan's LAKAM operations in the [[United States]] produced a steady stream of routinely transferred scientific and technical documents. Illicitly obtained intelligence flew so voluminously from LAKAM into Israeli intelligence that a special code name, JUMBO, was added to the security markings on the documents. There were strict orders that anything marked JUMBO was not supposed to be discussed with American counterparts.[^1]
|
||||
The 1987 damage assessment records that Pollard himself dated his volunteering to late June 1984 and that he met Eitan in Paris in November 1984. Eitan is described there as the adviser on counterterrorism to the prime minister and the senior Israeli in charge of the case. The assessment records that at this meeting Eitan emphasized that Pollard should resign from naval intelligence rather than undergo a polygraph examination.[^2] This account stands beside Hersh's October 1981 date for the recruitment.
|
||||
|
||||
[[Reuven Yerdor]], then in charge of [[Unit 8200]], had little respect for Eitan and worried about the long-range implications of Israeli intelligence activities in the [[United States]]. Yerdor was convinced Eitan was driven by personal ambition and a need to settle old scores with [[Yitzhak Hofi]], the head of [[Mossad]], and [[Avraham Shalom]], Shin Beth's director. Yerdor also believed that Eitan had recruited two or more Americans, and was dismayed by the fact that [[Jonathan Pollard]]'s material, marked JUMBO, was not supposed to be discussed with American counterparts.[^1]
|
||||
According to the defense's second sentencing memorandum, Eitan asked Pollard for documents on American knowledge of Israeli arms dealings with other countries, particularly China, and on United States knowledge of Israeli intelligence efforts in the United States. Each time Pollard did not provide such documents or information, the memorandum states, Eitan responded with threats of recrimination.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
After the [[Sabra and Shatila massacres]], Eitan remained in [[Menachem Begin]]'s cabinet as a minister without portfolio. The Israeli officials most tarnished by the [[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard]] scandal were Eitan and [[Aviem Sella]]. However, Eitan did not suffer financially and was subsequently named to a high administrative position with the [[Israel Chemicals Company]], authorized by [[Ariel Sharon]].[^1]
|
||||
The [[Washington Post]] reported in January 1987 that, according to Pollard's account, Eitan assured him that he would be "taken care of" if arrested, and that any U.S. investigation of Eitan could be "contained." Eitan was one of three Israelis granted immunity from prosecution in the case.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Eitan's LAKAM operations in the United States produced a steady stream of routinely transferred scientific and technical documents. Illicitly obtained intelligence flew so voluminously from LAKAM into Israeli intelligence that a special code name, JUMBO, was added to the security markings on the documents. There were strict orders that anything marked JUMBO was not supposed to be discussed with American counterparts.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Reuven Yerdor]], then in charge of [[Unit 8200]], had little respect for Eitan and worried about the long-range implications of Israeli intelligence activities in the United States. Yerdor was convinced Eitan was driven by personal ambition and a need to settle old scores with [[Yitzhak Hofi]], the head of Mossad, and [[Avraham Shalom]], Shin Beth's director. Yerdor also believed that Eitan had recruited two or more Americans, and was dismayed by the fact that Jonathan Pollard's material, marked JUMBO, was not supposed to be discussed with American counterparts.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
After the [[Sabra and Shatila massacres]], Eitan remained in Menachem Begin's cabinet as a minister without portfolio. The Israeli officials most tarnished by the Pollard scandal were Eitan and [[Aviem Sella]]. However, Eitan did not suffer financially and was subsequently named to a high administrative position with the [[Israel Chemicals Company]], authorized by Ariel Sharon.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 21, 1985 Israeli officials told the [[New York Times]] that Eitan had been removed from his post as head of an intelligence-gathering unit of the Ministry of Defense and was expected to retire quietly in the near future. The report said that the Liaison Bureau for Scientific Affairs was being dismantled.[^5] The Knesset intelligence subcommittee chaired by [[Abba Eban]], which reported on May 26, 1987, accused Eitan of "a gross excess of authority." The Post also reported that Eitan had become chairman of the country's largest state-owned company.[^6] The [[Christian Science Monitor]] reported that Eitan had been forced to resign as head of the Scientific Liaison Unit and that the unit was disbanded.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### PROMIS and LAKAM Intelligence Operations
|
||||
|
||||
The writer Gordon Thomas wrote that Eitan played a central role in the Israeli acquisition and international distribution of the [[PROMIS]] software. According to Gordon Thomas's account in *Gideon's Spies*, Eitan traveled to the [[United States]] posing as an Israeli Ministry of Justice assistant prosecutor and met with [[INSLAW]] founder [[Bill Hamilton]], acquiring a copy of PROMIS through back-channel contacts with the [[Department of Justice]].[^2] Eitan then assembled a team of former [[LAKAM]] programmers who deconstructed the software, rearranged its components, and embedded a "trapdoor" - a built-in chip enabling covert remote monitoring of any database queried by a user of the modified program.[^2]
|
||||
The writer Gordon Thomas wrote that Eitan played a central role in the Israeli acquisition and international distribution of the [[PROMIS]] software. According to Gordon Thomas's account in *Gideon's Spies*, Eitan traveled to the United States posing as an Israeli Ministry of Justice assistant prosecutor and met with [[INSLAW]] founder [[Bill Hamilton]], acquiring a copy of PROMIS through back-channel contacts with the [[Department of Justice]].[^8] Eitan then assembled a team of former LAKAM programmers who deconstructed the software, rearranged its components, and embedded a "trapdoor" - a built-in chip enabling covert remote monitoring of any database queried by a user of the modified program.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
Eitan stated regarding PROMIS: "We can use that program to stamp out terrorism by keeping track of everyone. But not only that, we can find out what our enemies know too."[^3] He reportedly admitted collaborating with CIA officials in selling "more than half a billion dollars worth of INSLAW's PROMIS to foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies" as part of joint covert operations to steal intelligence from foreign governments.[^3]
|
||||
Eitan stated regarding PROMIS: "We can use that program to stamp out terrorism by keeping track of everyone. But not only that, we can find out what our enemies know too."[^9] He reportedly admitted collaborating with CIA officials in selling "more than half a billion dollars worth of INSLAW's PROMIS to foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies" as part of joint covert operations to steal intelligence from foreign governments.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
Distribution of the backdoored software was handled in part through British media mogul [[Robert Maxwell]], who used his Israeli computer company [[Degem]] and a network of international holdings as vehicles for sales to intelligence and law enforcement agencies worldwide.[^2] Eitan's involvement in what became known as the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] was never formally adjudicated; U.S. government investigations, including the [[Nicholas J. Bua|Bua Report]] (1993), found no credible evidence that enhanced PROMIS was distributed internationally.[^4]
|
||||
Distribution of the backdoored software was handled in part through British media mogul [[Robert Maxwell]], who used his Israeli computer company [[Degem]] and a network of international holdings as vehicles for sales to intelligence and law enforcement agencies worldwide.[^8] Eitan's involvement in what became known as the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] was never formally adjudicated; U.S. government investigations, including the [[Nicholas J. Bua|Bua Report]] (1993), found no credible evidence that enhanced PROMIS was distributed internationally.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Dr. Ben Orr
|
||||
|
||||
The documentary trace of an Israeli visitor to the [[Department of Justice]] is two memoranda of [[Jack Rugh]], the department's deputy project manager on the [[INSLAW]] contract. On May 6, 1983, Rugh wrote that "Brick Brewer recently instructed me to make a copy of an LEAA version of PROMIS available to Dr. Ben Orr, a representative of the Government of Israel. Dr. Orr called me to discuss that request... I have made a copy of the LEM DEC version of PROMIS and will provide it, along with the corresponding documentation, to Dr. Orr before he leaves the United States for Israel on May 16," and on May 12 he recorded delivery of the materials to [[C. Madison Brewer]] for transmittal. The version so recorded was the public-domain [[LEAA]] one. Eitan, in the account he gave Thomas and Dillon, was Dr. Orr, travelling on a forged passport in the identity of a real retired prosecutor, "Dr Benjamin Orr, an assistant public prosecutor in the Ministry of Justice in Tel Aviv," who first flew to the United States on December 19, 1982, met Brewer, and returned in February 1983 to be shown the enhanced PROMIS at INSLAW's own offices by [[Bill Hamilton]] and [[Nancy Hamilton]], after which Brewer handed him a tape from an office cupboard; Hamilton is quoted recalling eyes "like a computer, tracking everything."[^5]
|
||||
The documentary trace of an Israeli visitor to the Department of Justice is two memoranda of [[Jack Rugh]], the department's deputy project manager on the INSLAW contract. On May 6, 1983, Rugh wrote that "Brick Brewer recently instructed me to make a copy of an LEAA version of PROMIS available to Dr. Ben Orr, a representative of the Government of Israel. Dr. Orr called me to discuss that request... I have made a copy of the LEM DEC version of PROMIS and will provide it, along with the corresponding documentation, to Dr. Orr before he leaves the United States for Israel on May 16," and on May 12 he recorded delivery of the materials to [[C. Madison Brewer]] for transmittal. The version so recorded was the public-domain [[LEAA]] one. Eitan, in the account he gave Thomas and Dillon, was Dr. Orr, travelling on a forged passport in the identity of a real retired prosecutor, "Dr Benjamin Orr, an assistant public prosecutor in the Ministry of Justice in Tel Aviv," who first flew to the United States on December 19, 1982, met Brewer, and returned in February 1983 to be shown the enhanced PROMIS at INSLAW's own offices by Bill Hamilton and [[Nancy Hamilton]], after which Brewer handed him a tape from an office cupboard; Hamilton is quoted recalling eyes "like a computer, tracking everything."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Later Career
|
||||
|
||||
Eitan founded the Pensioners' Party, Gil, which won seven Knesset seats in March 2006 and joined [[Ehud Olmert]]'s coalition, in which he served as minister for pensioner affairs; in October 2008 he told a German magazine that Iran's president should be kidnapped and tried at The Hague. Of the Eichmann capture he told Gordon Thomas that "almost every published fact about the capture of Eichmann is pure bullshit. I know because I personally am the man who captured him."[^6]
|
||||
Eitan founded the Pensioners' Party, Gil, which won seven Knesset seats in March 2006 and joined [[Ehud Olmert]]'s coalition, in which he served as minister for pensioner affairs; in October 2008 he told a German magazine that Iran's president should be kidnapped and tried at The Hague. Of the Eichmann capture he told Gordon Thomas that "almost every published fact about the capture of Eichmann is pure bullshit. I know because I personally am the man who captured him."[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.
|
||||
[^2]: Thomas, Gordon. *Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad.* St. Martin's Press, 1999.
|
||||
[^3]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992.
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993.
|
||||
[^5]: House Report 102-857, September 10, 1992, reproducing Rugh's memoranda of May 6 and 12, 1983, which do not identify Dr. Orr; Thomas, Gordon, and Martin Dillon, *Robert Maxwell, Israel's Superspy,* Carroll and Graf, 2002. https://archive.org/details/robert-maxwell-israels-superspy-2002 The February 1983 visit in the book and the May 1983 transfer in the memoranda are not the same transaction, and no record reconciles them.
|
||||
[^6]: Thomas, Gordon. *Gideon's Spies,* 2009 edition. https://archive.org/details/gideons-spies
|
||||
[^2]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment*, October 30, 1987, section on the Paris sessions (November 1984). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: Defendant Jonathan J. Pollard's Second Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, Crim. No. 86-0207 (D.D.C.), filed March 1987. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/EBB-PollardDoc7.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: Howard Kurtz, "Spy Papers Kept by Israel, Court Told," *Washington Post*, January 7, 1987. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000403620007-3
|
||||
[^5]: Thomas L. Friedman, *New York Times*, December 22, 1985 (Jerusalem dateline December 21). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302120025-0
|
||||
[^6]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," *Washington Post*, May 27, 1987. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0
|
||||
[^7]: "Israel hopes that book is now closed on Pollard spy case," *Christian Science Monitor*, May 28, 1987. https://www.csmonitor.com/1987/0528/omary.html
|
||||
[^8]: Thomas, Gordon. *Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad.* St. Martin's Press, 1999.
|
||||
[^9]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992.
|
||||
[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993.
|
||||
[^11]: House Report 102-857, September 10, 1992, reproducing Rugh's memoranda of May 6 and 12, 1983, which do not identify Dr. Orr; Thomas, Gordon, and Martin Dillon, *Robert Maxwell, Israel's Superspy,* Carroll and Graf, 2002. https://archive.org/details/robert-maxwell-israels-superspy-2002 The February 1983 visit in the book and the May 1983 transfer in the memoranda are not the same transaction, and no record reconciles them.
|
||||
[^12]: Thomas, Gordon. *Gideon's Spies,* 2009 edition. https://archive.org/details/gideons-spies
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,12 +6,15 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Israel
|
||||
- General
|
||||
summary: "Major General Shlomo Gazit was the Director of Israeli Military Intelligence."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
born: 1926-10-22
|
||||
died: 2020-10-08
|
||||
location: "Istanbul, Turkey"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Major General [[Shlomo Gazit]] was the Director of [[Mossad]]. He commended [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] and other members of the [[Unit 8200]] Iranian desk after they successfully broke the [[Iran|Iranian]] diplomatic code.[^1]
|
||||
Major General [[Shlomo Gazit]] (1926 to 2020) was the Director of Israeli Military Intelligence ([[Aman]]). The Jerusalem Post reported that he ran IDF intelligence from 1974 to 1979 and was credited with rehabilitating it as an institution after the agency was discredited for missing Egypt's surprise attack in the [[Yom Kippur War]] of 1973, and that he was involved in peace talks during his term as intelligence chief.[^1] [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote that Gazit commended him and other members of the [[Unit 8200]] Iranian desk after they successfully broke the [[Iran|Iranian]] diplomatic code.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Yonah Jeremy Bob, "Ex-IDF intel. chief Shlomo Gazit dies at age 93," *The Jerusalem Post*, October 8, 2020. https://m.jpost.com/israel-news/ex-idf-intel-chief-shlomo-gazit-dies-at-age-93-645071
|
||||
[^2]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,13 +6,14 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Israel
|
||||
- General
|
||||
summary: "Colonel Yoel Ben-Porat, known as Buffy, was the unit commander of Unit 8200, an Israeli Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
born: 1931
|
||||
died: 2007
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Colonel [[Yoel Ben-Porat]], known as Buffy, was the unit commander of [[Unit 8200]], an [[Israel|Israeli]] Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. He later became a brigadier general and was appointed official spokesman of the [[Israel|Israeli Defense Forces]].[^1]
|
||||
Colonel [[Yoel Ben-Porat]], known as Buffy, was the unit commander of [[Unit 8200]], an [[Israel|Israeli]] Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. He later became a brigadier general and was appointed official spokesman of the Israeli Defense Forces.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Yoel Ben-Porat|Buffy]] was involved in the cover-up of the [[Lockheed Aircraft Company|Lockheed]] bribe scandal involving [[Shimon Peres]], after [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] intercepted a telegram detailing the bribe. He ordered the original telegram, translation, and log to be erased and transferred the young woman working with [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] to another unit.[^1]
|
||||
[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote that Buffy was involved in the cover-up of the [[Lockheed Aircraft Company|Lockheed]] bribe scandal involving [[Shimon Peres]], after Ben-Menashe intercepted a telegram detailing the bribe. He wrote that Ben-Porat ordered the original telegram, translation, and log to be erased and transferred the young woman working with him to another unit.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,17 +1,19 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
category: "Military"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- Military
|
||||
- Israel
|
||||
summary: "Amos Lapidot was the chief of staff of the Israeli Air Force."
|
||||
summary: "Amos Lapidot was commander of the Israeli Air Force when Aviem Sella took leave to run Jonathan Pollard, and the Israeli inquiries criticized him for it."
|
||||
born: 1934
|
||||
died: 2019-11-20
|
||||
location: "Kfar Saba, Israel"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Amos Lapidot was the chief of staff of the Israeli Air Force. He assured [[Aviem Sella]] that [[Jonathan Pollard]] was not a rogue and that clearance for Sella's new assignment as Pollard's handler had been obtained from [[Yitzhak Rabin]], the minister of defense.[^1]
|
||||
Amos Lapidot was commander of the Israeli Air Force. According to [[Seymour Hersh]], he assured [[Aviem Sella]] that [[Jonathan Pollard]] was not a rogue and that clearance for Sella's new assignment as Pollard's handler had been obtained from [[Yitzhak Rabin]], the minister of defense.[^1] The [[Washington Post]] reported in May 1987 that the Israeli inquiries criticized Sella's superiors, Army Chief of Staff [[Moshe Levy]] and Air Force Commander Lapidot, for allowing Sella leave to take part in what they surmised was a sensitive espionage mission.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.
|
||||
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.
|
||||
[^2]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," *Washington Post*, May 27, 1987. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ aliases:
|
|||
- Anne Henderson
|
||||
- Anne Pollard
|
||||
created: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
category: "Criminals & Offenders"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
|
|
@ -15,9 +15,13 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Espionage
|
||||
- 1980s
|
||||
born: 1955-01-01
|
||||
died: 1990-02-16
|
||||
location: "Washington, D.C."
|
||||
summary: "Anne Henderson-Pollard was Jonathan Pollard's wife who participated in his espionage operation by photocopying classified documents and assisting in their transfer to Israeli handlers, pleaded guilty in 1986 to two counts related to the operation, and died in Israel in February 1990 from complications of Crohn's disease."
|
||||
summary: "Anne Henderson-Pollard, Jonathan Pollard's wife, was arrested on November 22, 1985 as an accessory, pleaded guilty in 1986, received a five-year sentence, and later went to Israel and divorced him."
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: spouse_of
|
||||
with: "[[Jonathan Pollard]]"
|
||||
start: 1985-08-04
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Anne Alicia Henderson was born in 1955 in Montreal, [[Canada]], to a family with Israeli connections. She met [[Jonathan Pollard]] while both were working in Washington, D.C., and they married on August 4, 1985, two months before Jonathan's arrest. The marriage occurred after the espionage operation was already underway, and Anne subsequently became directly involved in it.[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -35,16 +39,24 @@ Her direct participation made her criminally liable under statutes covering poss
|
|||
|
||||
### Arrest and Prosecution
|
||||
|
||||
On November 21, 1985, the day after Jonathan Pollard was stopped outside the Israeli Embassy by the FBI and subsequently arrested, Anne was also arrested. The couple had attempted to seek asylum at the embassy before Jonathan's arrest; Anne was present at the embassy entrance during those events.
|
||||
Anne Pollard was arrested on November 22, 1985, a day after her husband, as an accessory.[^2][^3] The couple had attempted to seek asylum at the embassy before Jonathan's arrest; Anne was present at the embassy entrance during those events.
|
||||
|
||||
She pleaded guilty in 1986 to two counts: conspiracy to receive stolen government property and possession of stolen government property. She received a sentence of five years probation to be served in a residential treatment center, a lighter sentence than Jonathan's life imprisonment, reflecting her reduced culpability and her cooperation with the government during debriefings.[^1]
|
||||
The 1992 opinion records that the government refused to enter a plea agreement with her unless her husband pleaded guilty as well.[^2] She pleaded guilty in 1986. The counterintelligence history describes the plea as "being an accessory after the fact to possession of national defense documents and conspiring to receive embezzled government property"; Hersh and Olive describe the two counts as conspiracy to receive stolen government property and possession of stolen government property.[^1][^3] Each of her offenses "carried a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment," and the government agreed to recommend that her sentences run concurrently.[^3] The sentencing judge gave her five years, against Jonathan's life imprisonment.[^2] Hersh and Olive describe the five years as probation to be served in a residential treatment center, and attribute the lighter sentence to her reduced culpability and her cooperation with the government during debriefings.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Illness and Death
|
||||
### Court Account of Her Role
|
||||
|
||||
Anne had a serious pre-existing case of Crohn's disease that was documented before her arrest. After her conviction, her health deteriorated significantly. In 1988, the Justice Department allowed her to travel to Israel to receive medical treatment. She remained in Israel under conditions negotiated between U.S. and Israeli authorities. On February 16, 1990, Anne Henderson-Pollard died in Israel from complications of Crohn's disease. She was 35 years old.[^1]
|
||||
The 1992 appellate opinion gives a narrower account of her part. It records that when Pollard was questioned after the stop, he used the code word "cactus" in telephone calls to her, and that she then removed a suitcase of classified documents from the apartment and contacted his Israeli handlers to say that he was in trouble. The court wrote: "This was her only active involvement in Pollard's espionage."[^2] The photocopying and document-storage account in the section above is from Hersh and Olive and stands beside the court's account.
|
||||
|
||||
### Illness and Later Life
|
||||
|
||||
The 1992 opinion records that she had, for several years, suffered from a debilitating gastrointestinal disorder that had not been accurately diagnosed before her arrest. It records that during her stay in the D.C. jail she was seriously ill, losing forty pounds over three months, and that she was released on bail in February 1986.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1988 the Justice Department allowed her to travel to Israel, where she remained under conditions negotiated between U.S. and Israeli authorities.[^1] The counterintelligence history, which discusses events through the 1997 clemency denial, records: "After Anne was released from prison, she went to Israel to reside. She is now divorced from her husband."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Jonathan Pollard remained incarcerated in the United States. He married Elaine Zeitz in 1994. He was released on parole in November 2015 after serving 30 years, and emigrated to Israel in December 2020.
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991, Chapter 21. Olive, Ron. *Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American History Was Brought to Justice.* Naval Institute Press, 2006.
|
||||
[^2]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json
|
||||
[^3]: "Decade of the Spy," undated counterintelligence history extract, National Security Archive EBB 407, Doc. 14. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/EBB-PollardDoc14.pdf
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
185
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Colm Kelleher.md
Normal file
185
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Colm Kelleher.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,185 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- Biochemist
|
||||
- UFO
|
||||
- SkinwalkerRanch
|
||||
- AAWSAP
|
||||
- NationalInstituteForDiscoveryScience
|
||||
- BigelowAerospace
|
||||
- ToTheStarsAcademy
|
||||
summary: "Irish-born biochemist who led the National Institute for Discovery Science team at Skinwalker Ranch and served as deputy administrator of the DIA-funded advanced aerospace study run by Bigelow Aerospace."
|
||||
location: "Las Vegas, Nevada"
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Colm A. Kelleher
|
||||
- Colm A Kelleher
|
||||
- Dr. Colm Kelleher
|
||||
- Dr. Colm A. Kelleher
|
||||
- C. A. Kelleher
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[National Institute for Discovery Science]]"
|
||||
role: "staff listed as deputy administrator, molecular biology and biochemistry (captures of December 2000, October 2001 and February 2003) and administrator (capture of February 2004); the 2017 offering circular describes eight years as deputy director"
|
||||
start: 1996
|
||||
end: 2004
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Robert Bigelow]]"
|
||||
role: "worked for Bigelow, per Knapp's 2025 written testimony"
|
||||
start: 1996
|
||||
end: 2011
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies]]"
|
||||
role: "deputy administrator, 2008 to 2011 (offering circular); deputy administrator running day-to-day AAWSAP operations (Micah Hanks Program description, May 2023)"
|
||||
start: 2008
|
||||
end: 2011
|
||||
fn: 13
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]]"
|
||||
role: "principal manager of AAWSAP in Las Vegas, per Knapp's 2025 testimony; deputy administrator of a government-funded advanced aerospace threat assessment program, 2008 to 2011, per the 2017 offering circular"
|
||||
start: 2008
|
||||
end: 2011
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Ontario Cancer Institute]]"
|
||||
role: "affiliation on 1988 and 1989 papers in Leukemia and Blood"
|
||||
start: 1988
|
||||
end: 1989
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine]]"
|
||||
role: "immunology research scientist, Denver; affiliation on papers 1995 to 2000"
|
||||
start: 1991
|
||||
end: 1996
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Prosetta Corporation]]"
|
||||
role: "laboratory director (offering circular, 2017); Goodreads biography dates the post to 2004 to 2008; 2016 paper lists Colm A Kelleher at Prosetta Antiviral Inc, San Francisco"
|
||||
start: 2004
|
||||
end: 2008
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Skinwalker Ranch]]"
|
||||
role: "led the National Institute for Discovery Science team at the ranch, per the Micah Hanks Program description and the Goodreads biography"
|
||||
start: 1996
|
||||
end: 2004
|
||||
fn: 13
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]]"
|
||||
role: "advisory board member named in the September 29, 2017 offering circular; resigned October 2019 per the FY2020 Form 1-K"
|
||||
start: 2017-09-29
|
||||
end: 2019-10
|
||||
fn: 32
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Robert Thomas Bigelow Educational Foundation]]"
|
||||
role: "director, per Form 990-PF for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024"
|
||||
start: 2024-01
|
||||
fn: 30
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
created: 2026-10-12
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Colm Kelleher is an Irish-born biochemist whose research career was in cell and molecular biology. He worked on the research team of [[Robert Bigelow]]'s [[National Institute for Discovery Science]] (NIDS), then as deputy administrator of the [[Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies]] (BAASS) contract with the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA). He wrote [[Hunt for the Skinwalker]] (2005), which is catalogued under his name alone, and co-wrote [[Skinwalkers at the Pentagon]] (2021) with [[James Lacatski]] and [[George Knapp]]. He sat on the advisory board of [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] from 2017 to 2019.
|
||||
|
||||
### Education and laboratory research
|
||||
|
||||
Kelleher's 2017 biography in the offering circular of To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science describes him as a biochemist with a twenty-eight-year research career in cell and molecular biology, and states that he holds a PhD in biochemistry from the [[Trinity College Dublin|University of Dublin, Trinity College]].[^1] His author biography on [[Goodreads]] gives his birthplace as Dublin, Ireland, and dates his immunology work at the [[National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine]] in Denver from 1991 to 1996.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The earliest papers under his name in [[PubMed]] are from the [[Ontario Cancer Institute]] in Toronto. A 1988 paper in [[Leukemia]] reports on the binding of iodinated recombinant human GM-CSF to the blast cells of acute myeloblastic leukemia, and a 1989 paper in [[Blood]] on how growth factors alter the sensitivity of leukemic stem cells to cytosine arabinoside lists the institute as his affiliation.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
From the mid-1990s the PubMed record places him at the National Jewish Center in Denver. The papers from that period, most of them in [[Journal of Immunology]], [[Virology]] and the [[Journal of General Virology]] through 2000, concern Epstein-Barr virus infection of human thymocytes and T cells. They include a 1995 study of viral replicative gene transcription during de novo infection and a 1996 study of novel transposon-containing mRNAs in human T cells.[^4] A 1999 paper in the Journal of Immunology reports that the Epstein-Barr protein ZEBRA inactivated NF-kappaB in human T cells, and a 2000 paper in Blood reports that the same protein activated p53-dependent transcription.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
In 2016 a paper in [[Biology Direct]] on cell-free synthesized Rift Valley fever virus nucleoprotein capsids lists Colm A Kelleher with the affiliation [[Prosetta Corporation|Prosetta Antiviral Inc]] of San Francisco.[^6] The 2017 offering circular describes him as laboratory director at Prosetta Corporation, where he led small-molecule drug discovery programs on viruses of interest to the United States Department of Defense.[^1] The Goodreads biography dates the post to 2004 to 2008.[^2] The circular also states that he has authored more than forty peer reviewed articles and two books, Hunt for the Skinwalker and Brain Trust.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Brain Trust]] is catalogued by Open Library as *Brain Trust: The Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer's Disease*, published in 2004 by [[Paraview Pocket Books]] and [[Simon and Schuster]].[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
PubMed also lists two groups of papers under the same surname and initial. Papers from 1979 to 1987 on molybdenum and copper metabolism in sheep appear under the name C. A. Kelleher without an affiliation and are not attributed to him here.[^8] Papers from 2021 to 2026 on river temperature, headwater streams and stream water quality list [[Syracuse University]] affiliations for Christa A. Kelleher, a hydrologist, and are likewise not attributed to him.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### National Institute for Discovery Science
|
||||
|
||||
NIDS was the research body that Bigelow headed as president and founder. Its personnel page, as captured on December 6, 2000, lists Kelleher as "Deputy Administrator, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry," alongside John B. Alexander as "Discrete Project Scout," Eric W. Davis for aerospace physics and astrophysics, and George E. Onet for veterinary pathology.[^10] The capture of October 21, 2001 carries the same title for Kelleher, with Alexander, Davis, [[Marcel Kuijsten]] and Connie Fox-VanHorne also listed on the staff.[^11] The capture of February 6, 2003 still shows him as deputy administrator. The capture of February 4, 2004 lists him as "Administrator, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry" with [[Bruce Cornet]] as deputy administrator for geology, botany and earth history, Kuijsten as the only other staff member named, and Alexander moved to the science advisory board.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
The science advisory board on these pages included [[Edgar Mitchell]], [[Hal Puthoff]], [[Jessica Utts]] and [[Jacques Vallee]]; Puthoff is listed as chairman of the board in the 2001 and 2004 captures.[^11][^12]
|
||||
|
||||
The 2017 offering circular states that he "worked for eight years as Deputy Director of the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), a research organization that used forensic science methodology to unravel scientific anomalies."[^1] The [[Micah Hanks Program]], a podcast, describes him as having led the NIDS team on [[Skinwalker Ranch]] from 1996 to 2004, along with multiple other NIDS projects.[^13] The same description appears in his Goodreads biography.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
On the night of March 12, 1997, after the ranch had been sold, Kelleher reported seeing a large humanoid creature watching the research team from a tree perch about 20 feet off the ground and about 50 yards away. He describes it in Hunt for the Skinwalker as "the large creature that lay motionless, almost casually, in the tree," its presence marked by "the penetrating yellow light of the unblinking eyes." After he fired a rifle at it the creature disappeared, and he found "a single, obvious oval track about six inches in diameter embedded deeply in the patch of snow."[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### Hunt for the Skinwalker
|
||||
|
||||
The 2005 edition of Hunt for the Skinwalker, published by Paraview Pocket Books, is catalogued by Open Library under Kelleher's name alone.[^15] The copyright registration TX0006340176, dated April 27, 2006 with first publication on November 15, 2005, names Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp as claimants.[^16] Knapp has described himself as a co-author of the book in his 2025 testimony, saying he is a co-author of two books written primarily by Lacatski and Kelleher.[^17] A 2017 audio edition from [[Dreamscape Media]] credits Kelleher, Knapp and David Bendena.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
The book's preface describes it as "an account of a remarkable series of unexplained events that took place on a ranch in northeastern Utah and the unprecedented scientific study that followed."[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
The 2018 documentary listed on [[IMDb]] under the title Hunt for the Skinwalker, written and directed by [[Jeremy Corbell]], gives a publication date of September 11, 2018. Its description says the film is based on the book by Knapp and Kelleher. The cast list includes Knapp, Corbell, Kelleher and Robert Bigelow.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies and the AAWSAP contract
|
||||
|
||||
The Defense Intelligence Agency's solicitation HHM402-08-R-0211 for advanced aerospace weapon systems research was issued in August 2008. A notice printed from the [[Federal Business Opportunities]] site on September 8, 2008 names the work the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, with an original posting date of August 18, 2008 and a response date of September 5, 2008.[^20] A DIA talking paper prepared in May 2009 for the director, for a visit by Senator [[Harry Reid]], states that the request for proposals of August 18, 2008 asked for studies in twelve technical areas, among them lift, propulsion, control, armament, signature reduction, materials, power generation, human effects and technology integration, and that DIA received one bid, from BAASS.[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
The talking paper states that Senator [[Daniel Inouye]] and Reid sponsored language in the July 2008 supplemental appropriation for DIA to investigate foreign advanced aerospace weapon threats from the present out to 40 years in the future.[^21] A 2010 DIA information memorandum describes the same sponsorship as the "Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Defense Supplemental Appropriation Act" with a $10 million add.[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
The award document (Standard Form 1449) in the Black Vault release under FOIA-00269-2018 gives the contract number as HHM402-08-C-0072 and the solicitation number as HHM402-08-R-0211. It lists Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, LLC at 4640 S Eastern Ave, Las Vegas, as the contractor, an award date of September 22, 2008 and a total award amount of $21,948,810.00. The contract is firm fixed price, with a base year from September 22, 2008 to September 29, 2009 and an option year from September 22, 2009 to September 21, 2010; the BAASS proposal dated September 3, 2008 is incorporated by reference, and payment is made by the NSA Finance and Accounting Office.[^23] A DIA contract status briefing dated August 24, 2009 reports 26 detailed research reports received by June 30, 2009.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
The 2010 memorandum states that BAASS produced 26 technical reports by June 2009, that all were delivered to DIA by September 2009, and that twelve further reports were produced after the FY2010 Defense Appropriations Act added $12 million to the project.[^22] It also records that Reid sent a letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Lynn on June 24, 2009 asking for an alternate compensatory control measure or a sensitive access program for the project, and that DIA's review in November 2009 found insufficient grounds to classify the program, invoke an ACCM or establish a restricted SAP.[^22] The memorandum adds that at a November 2009 meeting with Reid, Lynn and the memorandum's author, DIA determined the reports to be "of limited value to DIA," and that the author suggested the project could transition to another agency or component once the DIA contract ended.[^22] One report, Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering, carries a March 2010 date on its cover.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
The Black Vault's AAWSAP archive states that DIA released 37 of the 38 reports requested under FOIA-0159-2018 on March 25, 2022, and that the one withheld report, the classified version of a study on high-energy laser weapons, was appealed.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
The 2017 circular states that from 2008 to 2011 Kelleher "served as Deputy Administrator of a United States Government funded threat assessment program focused on advanced aerospace technology," without naming the program, the contractor or the agency.[^1] The Micah Hanks Program's May 2023 episode description, reprinted by [[The Debrief]], states that in 2008 he became deputy administrator of BAASS "where he led the day-to-day operations in executing the AAWSAP contract with Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)."[^13] In written testimony to the [[House Oversight Committee]] Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets for its hearing of September 9, 2025, Knapp described Kelleher as the principal manager of AAWSAP in Las Vegas, said that Kelleher worked for Bigelow, and said that BAASS was awarded the DIA contract. He added that BAASS recruited fifty full-time investigators, most of them former military or law enforcement, all of whom qualified for top-secret clearances, and that in its 27-month existence the program compiled a data warehouse of more than 240,000 case files designed and overseen by Jacques Vallee.[^17] The Black Vault's AAWSAP archive page describes James Lacatski as the director of the program.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
Knapp's testimony states that BAASS produced more than three dozen preliminary reports and more than 100 longer papers, and that "None of these 100-plus reports have been released by DIA, though a few have been leaked."[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
### Skinwalkers at the Pentagon
|
||||
|
||||
The book was published in 2021 by an independent publisher, with Lacatski, Kelleher and Knapp credited as authors.[^27] The Black Vault's account of the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review file for FOIA case 22-F-0035 gives the subtitle as "An Insider's Account of the Secret Government UFO Program." It states that the manuscript was submitted in March 2020, routed to DIA, the Air Force and the [[Department of Homeland Security]], and cleared as amended on May 11, 2021. The changes concerned personally identifiable information, protected health information and the names of certain government employees.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
In a [[Coast to Coast AM]] interview after the book's release, Kelleher said that the reviewers "made us take out some fairly specific references to various offices and also some of the security-related verbiage," and that active-duty and government personnel "had their names changed." He said the names in the book were pseudonyms for active-duty personnel, and that one of the four pilots involved in the 2004 Tic Tac incident was found to be on active duty and was given a pseudonym. He said the review took about fourteen months, which he attributed to COVID, and that Appendix One, a "full summary of over 100 separate reports" delivered to DIA, was left in: "we expected to have some of that removed but none of it was removed."[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
### Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program
|
||||
|
||||
Kelleher is also credited, with Lacatski and Knapp, on Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations (RTMA, 2023). On November 30, 2023 [[Keith Basterfield]] quoted a passage from that book describing a 2011 meeting in the capitol building with a U.S. senator and an agency under secretary, at which Lacatski, the only one of the book's authors present, stated that the United States possessed a craft of unknown origin and had gained access to its interior.[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
### Bigelow foundations
|
||||
|
||||
Kelleher is listed as a director of the [[Robert Thomas Bigelow Educational Foundation]] in its Form 990-PF for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024, which lists Robert Thomas Bigelow as president and director, [[Donna Stauch]] as secretary and director, and [[Jody Erickson]] as a director.[^30] For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025, the Educational Foundation reports officer compensation of 93,365 dollars to Kelleher, and the [[Robert Thomas Bigelow Medical Foundation]] reports compensation of 37,346 dollars to him.[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
### To The Stars Academy
|
||||
|
||||
The Form 253G2 offering circular dated September 29, 2017 names Kelleher to an advisory board with [[Christopher Mellon]], [[Adele Gilpin]], [[Norman Kahn]], [[Garry Nolan]] and [[Paul Rapp]].[^1] The Form 1-K for fiscal 2020, filed April 30, 2021, states that in October 2019 Kelleher resigned from the company's advisory board.[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, Form 253G2 offering circular, September 29, 2017, biography of Dr. Colm Kelleher and advisory board list. EDGAR accession 0001144204-17-050693. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420417050693/
|
||||
[^2]: Colm A. Kelleher, author biography, Goodreads author page (author-supplied biography and birthplace field), https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/162220
|
||||
[^3]: PubMed PMID 2834611 (Leukemia, April 1988) and PMID 2784697 (Blood, April 1989), affiliation Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, Canada. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2784697/ ; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2834611/
|
||||
[^4]: PubMed PMID 7747440 (Virology, April 20, 1995), affiliation Department of Pediatrics, National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, Denver; PMID 8609476 (Journal of General Virology, May 1996). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7747440/ ; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8609476/
|
||||
[^5]: PubMed PMID 10570319 (Journal of Immunology, December 1, 1999), Dreyfus DH, Nagasawa M, Pratt JC, Kelleher CA, Gelfand EW; PMID 10887127 (Blood, July 15, 2000), affiliation National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10570319/ ; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10887127/
|
||||
[^6]: PubMed PMID 27179769, Biology Direct, May 14, 2016, "Biochemical and biophysical characterization of cell-free synthesized Rift Valley fever virus nucleoprotein capsids enables in vitro screening to identify novel antivirals," author Colm A Kelleher, affiliation Prosetta Antiviral Inc, San Francisco. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27179769/
|
||||
[^7]: Open Library, work record OL17729536W, *Brain trust: the hidden connection between mad cow and misdiagnosed Alzheimer's disease*, and work record OL5850692W, *Brain Trust* (2004, Paraview Pocket Books; Simon & Schuster, Limited), author Colm A. Kelleher. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17729536W ; https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5850692W
|
||||
[^8]: PubMed PMID 3611434 (Journal of Comparative Pathology, 1987, Kelleher CA and Ivan M, diethylsuccinate carboxylesterase activity in sheep poisoned by copper) and PMID 224434 (Research in Veterinary Science, 1979, tetrathiomolybdate and sheep caeruloplasmin), neither of which carries an affiliation. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3611434/ ; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/224434/
|
||||
[^9]: PubMed PMID 36582813 (Environmental Research Letters, September 16, 2021), Kelleher CA, Golden HE and Archfield SA, with Christa A. Kelleher listed under Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Syracuse University; related records include PMID 42338432 (Ecosystems, 2026) and PMID 36331382 (Environmental Science and Technology, 2022). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36582813/
|
||||
[^10]: National Institute for Discovery Science, "Personnel and Science Advisory Board," capture of December 6, 2000, https://web.archive.org/web/20001206032200/http://www.nidsci.org/personnel.html
|
||||
[^11]: National Institute for Discovery Science, "Personnel and Science Advisory Board," Internet Archive capture of October 21, 2001, https://web.archive.org/web/20011021020155/http://www.nidsci.org/personnel.html
|
||||
[^12]: National Institute for Discovery Science, "Personnel and Science Advisory Board," Internet Archive captures of February 6, 2003 (https://web.archive.org/web/20030206081535/http://www.nidsci.org/personnel.html) and February 4, 2004 (https://web.archive.org/web/20040204181441/http://www.nidsci.org/personnel.html)
|
||||
[^13]: Micah Hanks, "Colm Kelleher: AAWSAP and the Skinwalker Enigma," The Debrief, May 25, 2023, description of The Micah Hanks Program episode. https://thedebrief.org/colm-kelleher-aawsap-and-the-skinwalker-enigma/
|
||||
[^14]: Adam Janos, "Skinwalker Ranch," History.com, quoting Kelleher's account of March 12, 1997 from Hunt for the Skinwalker (Paraview Pocket Books, 2005). https://www.history.com/articles/skinwalker-ranch-paranormal-ufos-mutilation
|
||||
[^15]: Open Library, work records for Hunt for the skinwalker (2005, Paraview Pocket Books, ISBN 9781416505211), https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5850693W ; Hunt for the Skinwalker audio edition (2017, Dreamscape Media, credits Colm A. Kelleher Ph.D, George Knapp, David Bendena), https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24850199W
|
||||
[^16]: U.S. Copyright Office Public Records System, registration TX0006340176, "Hunt for the skinwalker," claimants Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp, registered April 27, 2006, first published November 15, 2005. https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/
|
||||
[^17]: George Knapp, written testimony ("For the Record," Hearing on "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena," September 9, 2025), Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/George-Knapp-Written-Testimony.pdf ; official hearing record, "Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection," Serial No. 119-44, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-119hhrg61718/html/CHRG-119hhrg61718.htm
|
||||
[^18]: Open Library, work record OL5850693W, Hunt for the Skinwalker, description quoting the Preface. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5850693W
|
||||
[^19]: IMDb title page for Hunt for the Skinwalker (tt8399718), Internet Archive snapshot of 2019: director and writer Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell; datePublished 2018-09-11; description citing the book by George Knapp and Dr. Colm Kelleher; cast list including Knapp, Corbell, Kelleher and Robert Bigelow. https://web.archive.org/web/2019/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8399718/
|
||||
[^20]: Federal Business Opportunities notice printout, "Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program," solicitation HHM402-08-R-0211, printed September 8, 2008 (Black Vault copy). https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/SOW_Aerospace.pdf
|
||||
[^21]: Defense Intelligence Agency, talking paper, "Senator Reid Visit to Director, DIA," dated May 2009 (Black Vault copy of FOIA release). https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/DR_Reid_Mtg_May09.pdf
|
||||
[^22]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Information Memorandum U-10-2552, "Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program," 2010 (Black Vault copy). https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/U-10-2552CE-IM-ATL.pdf
|
||||
[^23]: Solicitation/Contract/Order for Commercial Items (Standard Form 1449), contract HHM402-08-C-0072 (box 2), solicitation HHM402-08-R-0211 (box 5), award date September 22, 2008, total award amount $21,948,810.00 (box 26), released under FOIA-00269-2018 (Black Vault copy). https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/FOIA-00269-2018-.pdf
|
||||
[^24]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Aerospace Contract Status," briefing dated August 24, 2009 (Black Vault copy). https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/Contract_Status_24Aug09.pdf
|
||||
[^25]: Defense Intelligence Agency Defense Intelligence Reference Document DIRD_15, "Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering," cover dated March 2010 (Black Vault copy). https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP-DIRDs/DIRD_15-DIRD_Advanced_Space_Propulsion_Based_on_Vacuum_Spacetime_Metric_Engineer.pdf
|
||||
[^26]: John Greenewald, The Black Vault, AAWSAP documentation archive, including the release notes for FOIA-00349-2018 and FOIA-0159-2018 and the statement that the program's director was James Lacatski. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=16063
|
||||
[^27]: Open Library, work record for Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021, Independently published, ISBN 9798487639653, authors James T Lacatski, Colm A. Kelleher Ph.D and George Knapp), https://openlibrary.org/works/OL37495767W
|
||||
[^28]: John Greenewald, "New Documents Detail Slow, Multi-Agency Vetting of 'Skinwalkers at the Pentagon'," The Black Vault, August 12, 2025, FOIA case 22-F-0035, including Kelleher's Coast to Coast AM interview as quoted. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/new-documents-detail-slow-multi-agency-vetting-of-skinwalkers-at-the-pentagon/
|
||||
[^29]: Keith Basterfield, "Lockheed Martin and BAASS," November 30, 2023, quoting Lacatski, Kelleher and Knapp, Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations, RTMA, 2023. https://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com/2023/11/lockheed-martin-and-baass.html
|
||||
[^30]: Robert Thomas Bigelow Educational Foundation Inc (EIN 93-3962948), Form 990-PF for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024, IRS e-file data (object ID 202403379349100410). https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_12A.zip
|
||||
[^31]: Robert Thomas Bigelow Educational Foundation Inc and Robert Thomas Bigelow Medical Foundation Inc, Forms 990-PF for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025, IRS e-file data (object IDs 202522589349100222 and 202512589349100631). https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_09A.zip
|
||||
[^32]: To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, Form 1-K for fiscal 2020, filed April 30, 2021 (accession 0001493152-21-010202), statement that in October 2019 Dr. Colm Kelleher resigned from the company's advisory board. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000149315221010202/0001493152-21-010202.txt
|
||||
|
|
@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ On October 13, 2022 KLAS posted a Knapp report on [[Radiance Technologies]] unde
|
|||
[^5]: George Knapp, "Major newspaper claims Air Force created alien tech stories at Area 51 to mislead public," KLAS 8 News Now, posted May 1, 2026, 5:28 PM PDT, https://digital-release.8newsnow.com/mystery-wire/major-newspaper-claims-air-force-created-alien-tech-stories-at-area-51-to-mislead-public/
|
||||
[^6]: John Forest, "Bob Lazar's UFO claims gain traction with 'S4' success," KLAS 8 News Now (Mystery Wire), posted April 16, 2026, https://digital-release.8newsnow.com/mystery-wire/bob-lazars-ufo-claims-gain-traction-with-s4-success/
|
||||
[^7]: Greg Haas, "Mystery Wire launches 30 years after 'UFOs: The Best Evidence'," KLAS 8 News Now, posted November 6, 2019, 6:58 PM PST, updated November 19, 2019, https://www.8newsnow.com/news/area51/mystery-wire-launches-30-years-after-ufos-the-best-evidence/
|
||||
[^8]: George Knapp, written testimony "For the Record" of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Hearing on "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena," September 9, 2025, https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/George-Knapp-Written-Testimony.pdf
|
||||
[^8]: George Knapp, written testimony "For the Record" (headed Hearing on "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena"), House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, hearing "Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection," Serial No. 119-44, September 9, 2025, https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/George-Knapp-Written-Testimony.pdf
|
||||
[^9]: John Forest and George Knapp, "Nevada Senator Harry Reid's hidden interest in UFOs," KLAS 8 News Now (Mystery Wire), posted March 27, 2026, 10:25 AM PDT, https://digital-release.8newsnow.com/mystery-wire/nevada-senator-harry-reids-hidden-interest-in-aliens-and-ufos/
|
||||
[^10]: George Knapp, "Reconstructing the world of Bob Lazar: 'S4' collaboration brings original story to life," KLAS 8 News Now (Mystery Wire), posted April 9, 2026, 5:39 PM PDT, https://digital-release.8newsnow.com/mystery-wire/reconstructing-the-world-of-bob-lazar-s4-collaboration-brings-original-story-to-life/
|
||||
[^11]: National Institute for Discovery Science, "Personnel," nidsci.org, Internet Archive capture of December 6, 2000, https://web.archive.org/web/20001206032200/http://www.nidsci.org/personnel.html ; site home page capture of April 14, 2000, https://web.archive.org/web/20000414082107/http://www.nidsci.org/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -5,38 +5,39 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Nuclear
|
||||
- Israel
|
||||
summary: "In 1956, Golda Meir replaced Moshe Sharett as Foreign Minister, bringing her distinctive approach to Israel's international relations."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
born: 1898-05-03
|
||||
died: 1978-12-08
|
||||
location: "Kyiv, Ukraine (then Russian Empire)"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Golda Meir]] was a prominent [[Israel|Israeli]] politician who served as Foreign Minister and later as Prime Minister, playing crucial roles in [[Israel]]'s diplomatic relations, nuclear policy decisions, and regional strategic calculations during some of the most critical periods in the nation's history.
|
||||
[[Golda Meir]] was a prominent [[Israel|Israeli]] politician who served as Foreign Minister and later as Prime Minister, playing crucial roles in Israel's diplomatic relations, nuclear policy decisions, and regional strategic calculations during some of the most critical periods in the nation's history.
|
||||
|
||||
### Rise to Foreign Minister and Nuclear Policy
|
||||
|
||||
In 1956, [[Golda Meir]] replaced [[Moshe Sharett]] as Foreign Minister, bringing her distinctive approach to [[Israel]]'s international relations. She endorsed [[David Ben-Gurion]]'s argument for preventive war, aligning herself with the more hawkish elements within the government. However, despite her official position as Foreign Minister, her ministry was repeatedly bypassed by Ben-Gurion, [[Shimon Peres]], [[Moshe Dayan]], and [[Ernst David Bergmann]] as [[Israel]] broadened its involvement with [[France]] in nuclear matters. This pattern of exclusion from the most sensitive nuclear discussions reflected the tight circle of decision-makers who controlled [[Israel]]'s most classified programs.[^2]
|
||||
In 1956, Golda Meir replaced [[Moshe Sharett]] as Foreign Minister, bringing her distinctive approach to Israel's international relations. She endorsed [[David Ben-Gurion]]'s argument for preventive war, aligning herself with the more hawkish elements within the government. However, despite her official position as Foreign Minister, her ministry was repeatedly bypassed by Ben-Gurion, [[Shimon Peres]], [[Moshe Dayan]], and [[Ernst David Bergmann]] as Israel broadened its involvement with [[France]] in nuclear matters. This pattern of exclusion from the most sensitive nuclear discussions reflected the tight circle of decision-makers who controlled Israel's most classified programs.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Diplomatic Initiatives and International Relations
|
||||
|
||||
As Foreign Minister, [[Golda Meir|Meir]] was instrumental in expanding [[Israel]]'s diplomatic footprint during a crucial period of nation-building. She pushed for the exchange of diplomatic relations between [[Israel]] and [[Germany]] in the late 1950s, a politically sensitive initiative given the recent history of the Holocaust. Additionally, she worked to open relations with [[Paraguay]], demonstrating [[Israel]]'s efforts to build ties beyond its immediate region and traditional allies.[^1]
|
||||
As Foreign Minister, Meir was instrumental in expanding Israel's diplomatic footprint during a crucial period of nation-building. She pushed for the exchange of diplomatic relations between Israel and [[Germany]] in the late 1950s, a politically sensitive initiative given the recent history of the Holocaust. Additionally, she worked to open relations with [[Paraguay]], demonstrating Israel's efforts to build ties beyond its immediate region and traditional allies.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Jordan Relations and Palestinian Policy
|
||||
|
||||
Meir's approach to regional politics was shaped by her personal relationships and strategic calculations. In 1948, she formed a friendship with [[King Abdullah of Jordan|King Abdullah]] of [[Jordan]], and both leaders believed the Palestinian problem would eventually resolve itself - a view that would prove overly optimistic in subsequent decades.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
This perspective influenced a critical decision during her later tenure. Her choice to mobilize the [[Israel|IDF]] against the [[Syria|Syrians]] in 1970, during a crisis with the [[PLO]] in [[Jordan]], had far-reaching consequences. While this action prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state in [[Jordan]] and kept [[King Hussein of Jordan|King Hussein]] in power, it also represented a complex strategic calculation. The intervention pleased the [[United States|Americans]] by preventing a threat to [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]] oilfields, but was seen by some as a major setback for [[Israel|Israel's]] long-term strategic interest in a Palestinian state.[^1]
|
||||
This perspective influenced a critical decision during her later tenure. Her choice to mobilize the IDF against the [[Syria|Syrians]] in 1970, during a crisis with the [[PLO]] in Jordan, had far-reaching consequences. While this action prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state in Jordan and kept [[King Hussein of Jordan|King Hussein]] in power, it also represented a complex strategic calculation. The intervention pleased the [[United States|Americans]] by preventing a threat to [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]] oilfields, but was seen by some as a major setback for Israel's long-term strategic interest in a Palestinian state.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Prime Ministerial Challenges and Intelligence Vulnerabilities
|
||||
|
||||
During her tenure as Prime Minister, Meir faced significant intelligence challenges that would have lasting implications for [[Israel]]'s security. In 1972, her office was bugged by the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]], a serious security breach discovered by [[Reuben Yirador]] of [[Unit 8200]]. This bugging operation, combined with her meeting with [[Leonid Brezhnev]] in [[Finland]] and her rejection of his peace proposal, provided [[Anwar Sadat]] with crucial intelligence about [[Israel|Israel's]] attitude toward potential negotiations. This intelligence may have contributed to Sadat's decision to launch the 1973 war, as he gained insight into [[Israel]]'s diplomatic positions and strategic thinking.[^1]
|
||||
During her tenure as Prime Minister, Meir faced significant intelligence challenges that would have lasting implications for Israel's security. [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote that in 1972 her office was bugged by the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]], a security breach that he said was discovered by [[Reuben Yirador]] of [[Unit 8200]]. Ben-Menashe wrote that this bugging operation, combined with her meeting with [[Leonid Brezhnev]] in [[Finland]] and her rejection of his peace proposal, provided [[Anwar Sadat]] with intelligence about Israel's attitude toward potential negotiations, and that this may have contributed to Sadat's decision to launch the 1973 war, as he gained insight into Israel's diplomatic positions and strategic thinking.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Yom Kippur War and Nuclear Alert
|
||||
|
||||
During the desperate early days of the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], on Monday, October 8, [[Golda Meir]] convened her closest aides, the "kitchen cabinet," in her office in [[Tel Aviv]]. Faced with the imminent collapse of Israeli forces, the leadership resolved to implement three critical decisions: rally its collapsing forces for a major counterattack; arm and target its nuclear arsenal in the event of total collapse and subsequent need for the [[Samson Option]]; and inform [[Washington, D.C.]] of its unprecedented nuclear action to demand an emergency airlift of replacement arms and ammunition. Meir, who chain-smoked and slept very little during the early stages of the war, was reportedly confused and concerned by [[Moshe Dayan]]'s report of imminent collapse. The decision to arm the weapons of last resort, code-named the "Temple" weapons, was reached easily, though there were more complicated discussions about the number of warheads to arm and their targeting. An Israeli assumption was that the Soviets, who would learn of the nuclear arming, would then be compelled to urge their allies in [[Egypt]] and [[Syria]] to limit their offensive. This drastic step also aimed to force the [[United States]] to begin an immediate and massive resupply of the Israeli military.[^3]
|
||||
During the desperate early days of the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], on Monday, October 8, Golda Meir convened her closest aides, the "kitchen cabinet," in her office in [[Tel Aviv]]. Faced with the imminent collapse of Israeli forces, the leadership resolved to implement three critical decisions: rally its collapsing forces for a major counterattack; arm and target its nuclear arsenal in the event of total collapse and subsequent need for the [[Samson Option]]; and inform [[Washington, D.C.]] of its unprecedented nuclear action to demand an emergency airlift of replacement arms and ammunition. Meir, who chain-smoked and slept very little during the early stages of the war, was reportedly confused and concerned by Moshe Dayan's report of imminent collapse. The decision to arm the weapons of last resort, code-named the "Temple" weapons, was reached easily, though there were more complicated discussions about the number of warheads to arm and their targeting. An Israeli assumption was that the Soviets, who would learn of the nuclear arming, would then be compelled to urge their allies in [[Egypt]] and Syria to limit their offensive. This drastic step also aimed to force the United States to begin an immediate and massive resupply of the Israeli military.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Political Controversies
|
||||
|
||||
Meir's leadership style and decisions also generated internal criticism within [[Israel]]'s military establishment. She was publicly criticized by [[Ariel Sharon]] in a _Playboy_ magazine interview, a breach of military protocol that had serious consequences. This public criticism led to Sharon being thrown out of the military in 1970, demonstrating the strict standards for military discipline and public discourse that Meir enforced during her tenure.[^1]
|
||||
Meir's leadership style and decisions also generated internal criticism within Israel's military establishment. She was publicly criticized by [[Ariel Sharon]] in a _Playboy_ magazine interview, a breach of military protocol that had serious consequences. This public criticism led to Sharon being thrown out of the military in 1970, demonstrating the strict standards for military discipline and public discourse that Meir enforced during her tenure.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ born: 1923-06-10
|
|||
died: 1991-11-05
|
||||
location: "London, United Kingdom"
|
||||
created: 2024-04-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Pergamon Press]]"
|
||||
|
|
@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ On March 15, 2018 Epstein sent an email with the subject line "he was passed awa
|
|||
|
||||
### Funeral in Jerusalem
|
||||
|
||||
Maxwell's body was flown to Israel, and on November 10, 1991, he was given a state-style funeral and buried on the [[Mount of Olives]] in [[Jerusalem]], one of Judaism's most revered burial grounds.[^34] The ceremony at Jerusalem's convention center drew President [[Chaim Herzog]], Prime Minister [[Yitzhak Shamir]], and much of the Israeli political establishment, with reporting that at least six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence were present.[^7][^34] His friend and longtime attorney [[Samuel Pisar]], a Holocaust survivor, recited the Kaddish.[^1]
|
||||
Maxwell's body was flown to Israel and lay in state at Jerusalem's Binyanei Ha'uma convention center, an honor usually reserved for Israel's government leaders. On November 10, 1991, he was given a state-style funeral and buried on the [[Mount of Olives]] in [[Jerusalem]], one of Judaism's most revered burial grounds. President [[Chaim Herzog]] and Prime Minister [[Yitzhak Shamir]] headed a galaxy of dignitaries and politicians, both government and opposition, who attended.[^34] Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon wrote that at least six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence were among the mourners.[^27] His friend and longtime attorney [[Samuel Pisar]], a Holocaust survivor, recited the Kaddish.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Herzog eulogized him with the words, "He scaled the heights of human endeavor. Kings and princes waited on him."[^34] Shamir praised the connections and investment Maxwell had brought to Israel during the 1980s, reportedly saying that Maxwell had done more for Israel than could then be told.[^35] The scale of the official Israeli observance was later cited by writers who argued it reflected an intelligence relationship, though attendance at a prominent Jewish philanthropist's funeral is not itself evidence of espionage, and no Israeli official has confirmed that Maxwell was an agent.[^7][^34]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -154,5 +154,5 @@ Herzog eulogized him with the words, "He scaled the heights of human endeavor. K
|
|||
[^31]: Ostrovsky, Victor. *The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad's Secret Agenda.* HarperCollins, 1994, on the alleged Mossad motive to eliminate Maxwell as a collapsing liability.
|
||||
[^32]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02816127, Court Records, Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 22-cv-10904 (S.D.N.Y.), ECF No. 285-12, Exhibit 55, filed August 15, 2023, "AM Reputation Risk Committee Meeting Summary," meeting of December 6, 2013. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank%2C%20N.A.%2C%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/EFTA02816127.pdf
|
||||
[^33]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02507843, DataSet 11, email from Jeffrey Epstein, "he was passed away," March 15, 2018. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02507843.pdf
|
||||
[^34]: "Maxwell, Colossus Even in Death, Laid to Rest on Mount of Olives," *Jewish Telegraphic Agency,* 1991. https://www.jta.org/archive/maxwell-colossus-even-in-death-laid-to-rest-on-mount-of-olives
|
||||
[^34]: "Maxwell, Colossus Even in Death, Laid to Rest on Mount of Olives," *Jewish Telegraphic Agency,* 11 November 1991. https://www.jta.org/archive/maxwell-colossus-even-in-death-laid-to-rest-on-mount-of-olives
|
||||
[^35]: "Maxwell buried on Mount of Olives," *UPI,* 1991. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/11/10/Maxwell-buried-on-Mount-of-Olives/4340689749200/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ aliases:
|
|||
- Robert C. "Bud" McFarlane
|
||||
- Robert Carl McFarlane
|
||||
created: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-05
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- KeyFigure
|
||||
|
|
@ -88,6 +88,14 @@ After the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa published the story on November 3, 1986,
|
|||
|
||||
On March 11, 1988 McFarlane pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors of unlawfully withholding information from Congress: his September 5, 1985 reply to Hamilton, his September 12, 1985 reply to Barnes, his October 7, 1985 response to Hamilton's questions, and his December 8, 1986 testimony to the [[House Committee on Foreign Affairs|House Foreign Affairs Committee]] that third-country financing was "beyond my ken." He agreed to cooperate, was named an unindicted co-conspirator in Count One of the March 1988 indictment of Poindexter, North, [[Richard Secord]] and [[Albert Hakim]], and on March 3, 1989 was sentenced to two years' probation, 200 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine. The Independent Counsel gave up felony charges of conspiracy, false statements and obstruction in the plea, and wrote that the prosecution of North and Poindexter "would be seriously hampered by the jury's realization that McFarlane, their superior, had been permitted to plead guilty to crimes less severe than those for which his subordinates were on trial."[^1][^9] After he testified in 1991 that his trial testimony had been "colored" by North's immunized testimony, the Independent Counsel consented to the dismissal of the remaining charges against North.[^10] President George H.W. Bush pardoned McFarlane on December 24, 1992, with Caspar Weinberger, [[Elliott Abrams]], [[Duane Clarridge]], [[Clair George]] and [[Alan Fiers]].[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### Esquire article and lawsuit
|
||||
|
||||
In October 1991 [[Esquire]] published an article by [[Craig Unger]] that quoted [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]. According to the court's account of the article, Ben-Menashe said that McFarlane had been recruited by [[Rafael Eitan]] and that "McFarlane was the famous Mr. X in the [[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard]] case."[^11] The article attributed the recruitment statement to a sworn affidavit that [[Elliot Richardson]] submitted in the [[INSLAW]] litigation for one of his clients. The appeals court found that the recruitment clause "is not in the affidavit," that the affidavit's text "supports only the idea of a 'special relationship'" between McFarlane and [[Earl Brian]] and Israeli intelligence, and recorded that McFarlane "does not dispute that Ben-Menashe made these assertions to Unger."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
McFarlane sued the magazine for libel. On January 30, 1996 the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the judgment for Esquire. The district court had held that no reasonable jury could find actual malice by clear and convincing evidence, and that it had no personal jurisdiction over Unger.[^11] The article, as the opinion quotes it, continues: "In Pollard's case there were persistent allegations about another, unnamed American who secretly worked for the Israelis."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Death
|
||||
|
||||
McFarlane died on May 12, 2022, at a hospital in Lansing, Michigan, aged 84; his son Scott McFarlane said the cause was an exacerbation of a lung condition.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
|
@ -102,3 +110,4 @@ McFarlane died on May 12, 2022, at a hospital in Lansing, Michigan, aged 84; his
|
|||
[^8]: "Robert 'Bud' McFarlane, Reagan national security adviser, dies at 84." Associated Press, May 13, 2022. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/13/nation/robert-bud-mcfarlane-reagan-national-security-adviser-dies-84
|
||||
[^9]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, "Summary of Prosecutions" and ch. 1, section "The Guilty Plea." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/summpros.htm
|
||||
[^10]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 2, "United States v. Oliver L. North," section on the dismissal of September 16, 1991. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_02.htm
|
||||
[^11]: *McFarlane v. Esquire Magazine*, 74 F.3d 1296 (D.C. Cir. 1996), No. 94-7137, decided January 30, 1996. https://static.case.law/f3d/74/cases/1296-01.json
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -3,11 +3,12 @@ category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
|||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
summary: "Israeli civilian cryptographer and head of the Iranian desk in Unit 8200 who played a key role in Ari Ben-Menashe's intelligence career."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Shulamit Ingerman]] was a civilian cryptographer and head of the [[Iran|Iranian]] desk in [[Unit 8200]], an [[Israel|Israeli]] Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. She was recognized as one of [[Israel|Israel's]] best cryptographers, having won the highest award for contributions to [[Israel|Israel's]] security twice.[^1]
|
||||
[[Shulamit Ingerman]] was a civilian cryptographer and head of the [[Iran|Iranian]] desk in [[Unit 8200]], an [[Israel|Israeli]] Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. She was recognized as one of Israel's best cryptographers, having won the highest award for contributions to Israel's security twice.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Shulamit Ingerman|Ingerman]] introduced [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] to the [[Iran|Iranian]] team of six within [[Unit 8200]]. She was called by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] when he successfully broke the [[Iran|Iranian]] diplomatic code. She later intervened to obtain a pardon for [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] after he was court-martialed for insubordination by [[Sasson Yishaek|Lt. Col. Sasson Yishaek]].[^1]
|
||||
According to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], Ingerman introduced him to the Iranian team of six within Unit 8200. He wrote that he called her when he successfully broke the Iranian diplomatic code, and that she later intervened to obtain a pardon for him after he was court-martialed for insubordination by [[Sasson Yishaek|Lt. Col. Sasson Yishaek]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
category: "Military"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
|
|
@ -7,22 +8,48 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "Colonel Aviem Sella was an Israeli Air Force officer and a nuclear targeting expert who was implicated in the Jonathan Pollard espionage case, where he worked with Pollard to obtain intelligence from the U.S."
|
||||
born: 1946-01-07
|
||||
location: "Haifa, British Mandate Palestine"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1987-03
|
||||
role: "Indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington"
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Jonathan Pollard]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1984-06
|
||||
end: 1984-11
|
||||
role: "Initial handler of Pollard"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
---
|
||||
Colonel [[Aviem Sella]] was an [[Israel|Israeli]] Air Force officer and a nuclear targeting expert who was implicated in the [[Jonathan Pollard]] espionage case, where he worked with [[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard]] to obtain intelligence from the [[United States|U.S.]] Navy.[^1]
|
||||
Colonel [[Aviem Sella]] was an [[Israel|Israeli]] Air Force officer and a nuclear targeting expert who was implicated in the [[Jonathan Pollard]] espionage case, where he worked with Pollard to obtain intelligence from the [[United States|U.S.]] Navy.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Nuclear Targeting Expertise
|
||||
|
||||
Sella was one of the Israeli Air Force's leading nuclear bombing and targeting experts. He was specifically assigned to serve as [[Jonathan Pollard]]'s handler. Pollard insisted that his spying did not begin until July 1984, after a social meeting with Sella. Sella's mission was to help Pollard gather and evaluate essential intelligence, including advanced American intelligence on weather patterns, communication protocols, and data on emergency and alert procedures, as well as knowledge of the electromagnetic fields between [[Israel]] and its main targets in the [[Soviet Union]].[^2]
|
||||
Sella was one of the Israeli Air Force's leading nuclear bombing and targeting experts. He was specifically assigned to serve as Jonathan Pollard's handler. Pollard insisted that his spying did not begin until July 1984, after a social meeting with Sella. Sella's mission was to help Pollard gather and evaluate essential intelligence, including advanced American intelligence on weather patterns, communication protocols, and data on emergency and alert procedures, as well as knowledge of the electromagnetic fields between Israel and its main targets in the [[Soviet Union]].[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Operational Shortcomings
|
||||
|
||||
Sella's superb skill and knowledge of nuclear targeting blinded [[Rafael Eitan]] and the Israeli intelligence community to the fact that Sella was a pilot who knew nothing about running a covert operation. When Pollard got into trouble in late 1985, Sella's main concern was fleeing the [[United States]] as quickly as possible before he, too, was arrested.[^2]
|
||||
Sella's superb skill and knowledge of nuclear targeting blinded [[Rafael Eitan]] and the Israeli intelligence community to the fact that Sella was a pilot who knew nothing about running a covert operation. When Pollard got into trouble in late 1985, Sella's main concern was fleeing the United States as quickly as possible before he, too, was arrested.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The 1987 damage assessment records a different first contact from the one Pollard gave in his interrogations. It says Pollard volunteered in late June 1984, after meeting Sella through a pro-Israeli activist, and that he passed classified material to Sella at at least three meetings between June and August 1984.[^3] The July 1984 start that Hersh attributes to Pollard stands beside this record.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Legal Consequences and Aftermath
|
||||
|
||||
Sella, who retired from the air force in disillusionment and disappointment, remained in [[Israel]], as of mid-1991 a fugitive from American justice. He has given friends and colleagues an account of his involvement that is more credible, but still far short of the whole story. He claimed he was recruited to try to control Pollard, who was drowning the Israeli intelligence bureaucracy in documents. By 1984, when Sella was approached, he had almost completed his requirement for a Ph.D. in computer science at [[New York University]], and the obvious thought was that his technical training would be an asset in evaluating and perhaps winnowing down Pollard's materials. Sella knew that Pollard had been recruited long before 1984, but he was eager for the assignment, believing that running a spy as important as Pollard would make his own climb to the top inevitable. Before taking the assignment, he checked with his superior, Major General [[Amos Lapidot]], the air force chief of staff, who assured him that Pollard was not a rogue and that clearance for his new assignment had been obtained from [[Yitzhak Rabin]], the minister of defense. Once involved, Sella complained to a friend that Pollard "was running crazy" and "was giving him things he didn't want and didn't need."[^2]
|
||||
Sella was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington in March 1987 for his role in the affair.[^4] In January 1987 federal prosecutors had named him as an unindicted co-conspirator, a fourth Israeli beside three who were granted immunity.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The Knesset intelligence subcommittee chaired by [[Abba Eban]] criticized his judgment and said that he "excessively involved himself on his own initiative." It indicated that he may have lied in his testimony to the panel about the extent of his role, and it criticized the military superiors who allowed him leave to take part in what they surmised was a sensitive espionage mission.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Sella's appointment to command one of Israel's largest air bases set off a storm of controversy in the United States, and he eventually resigned from the new post, citing his concern for U.S.-Israeli relations.[^4] The [[Christian Science Monitor]] reported that the committees criticized the government for appointing him commander of Tel Nof Air Force Base after his involvement in the affair became known.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Sella, who retired from the air force in disillusionment and disappointment, remained in Israel, as of mid-1991 a fugitive from American justice. He has given friends and colleagues an account of his involvement that is more credible, but still far short of the whole story. He claimed he was recruited to try to control Pollard, who was drowning the Israeli intelligence bureaucracy in documents. By 1984, when Sella was approached, he had almost completed his requirement for a Ph.D. in computer science at [[New York University]], and the obvious thought was that his technical training would be an asset in evaluating and perhaps winnowing down Pollard's materials. Sella knew that Pollard had been recruited long before 1984, but he was eager for the assignment, believing that running a spy as important as Pollard would make his own climb to the top inevitable. Before taking the assignment, he checked with his superior, Major General [[Amos Lapidot]], the air force commander, who assured him that Pollard was not a rogue and that clearance for his new assignment had been obtained from [[Yitzhak Rabin]], the minister of defense. Once involved, Sella complained to a friend that Pollard "was running crazy" and "was giving him things he didn't want and didn't need."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.
|
||||
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.
|
||||
[^3]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment*, October 30, 1987, paragraph 5. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," *Washington Post*, May 27, 1987. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0
|
||||
[^5]: Howard Kurtz, "Spy Papers Kept by Israel, Court Told," *Washington Post*, January 7, 1987. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000403620007-3
|
||||
[^6]: "Israel hopes that book is now closed on Pollard spy case," *Christian Science Monitor*, May 28, 1987. https://www.csmonitor.com/1987/0528/omary.html
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -4,49 +4,277 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Person
|
||||
- Military
|
||||
- Israel
|
||||
summary: "Pollard was an unhappy child in South Bend, Indiana, tormented and beaten in grade school for being Jewish."
|
||||
- Espionage
|
||||
- NavalIntelligence
|
||||
- JonathanPollard
|
||||
- LAKAM
|
||||
- Parole
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Jonathan Pollard
|
||||
- Jonathan Jay Pollard
|
||||
- Jonathan J. Pollard
|
||||
- Pollard
|
||||
created: 2026-10-12
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
born: 1954-08-07
|
||||
location: "Galveston, Texas"
|
||||
|
||||
summary: "Jonathan Jay Pollard was a Navy civilian intelligence analyst who spied for Israel from 1984 to 1985, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987, and was paroled in 2015."
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Naval Intelligence Support Center]]"
|
||||
start: 1979-09
|
||||
end: 1984-06
|
||||
role: "Research and watch analyst, Naval Ocean Surveillance and Naval Intelligence Support Center"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Naval Investigative Service]]"
|
||||
start: 1984-06
|
||||
end: 1985-11
|
||||
role: "Analyst, Anti-Terrorist Alert Center"
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: informant_for
|
||||
with: "[[LAKAM]]"
|
||||
start: 1984-06
|
||||
end: 1985-11
|
||||
role: "Spied for the Israeli Scientific Liaison Bureau"
|
||||
fn: 38
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Aviem Sella]]"
|
||||
start: 1984-06
|
||||
end: 1984-11
|
||||
role: "First Israeli handler"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Rafael Eitan]]"
|
||||
start: 1984-11
|
||||
end: 1985-11
|
||||
role: "Controller of the operation"
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Yosef Yagur]]"
|
||||
start: 1984-11
|
||||
end: 1985-11
|
||||
role: "Direct handler after Sella"
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Irit Erb]]"
|
||||
start: 1985-01
|
||||
end: 1985-11
|
||||
role: "Recipient of biweekly deliveries"
|
||||
fn: 12
|
||||
- type: spouse_of
|
||||
with: "[[Anne Henderson-Pollard]]"
|
||||
start: 1985
|
||||
fn: 25
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1985-11
|
||||
fn: 29
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1985-11
|
||||
end: 1987-03
|
||||
fn: 48
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Jonathan Pollard]] was a junior civilian analyst with the [[United States|U.S.]] Navy who became a paid spy for [[Israel]]. He began working in 1979 as a civilian employee of U.S. Navy intelligence and was recruited as an operative in the fall of 1981, three years earlier than he and the Israeli government have admitted. He was then working as an intelligence specialist with the Navy's Field Operations Intelligence Office.[^2]
|
||||
[[Jonathan Pollard|Jonathan Jay Pollard]] was a civilian intelligence analyst with the [[United States|U.S.]] [[United States Navy|Navy]] who passed classified material to [[Israel]] from June 1984 until his arrest in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] on November 21, 1985.[^1] He began working in 1979 as a civilian employee of Navy intelligence.[^2] In the last year of his espionage he received between $1,500 and $2,500 a month, according to the appellate court.[^3] [[Seymour Hersh|Seymour M. Hersh]] wrote that Pollard was recruited as an operative in the fall of 1981, three years earlier than he and the Israeli government have admitted.[^4] He pleaded guilty on June 4, 1986 to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government and was sentenced to life imprisonment on March 4, 1987.
|
||||
|
||||
### Early Life and Motivation
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard was an unhappy child in [[South Bend]], [[Indiana]], tormented and beaten in grade school for being Jewish. He told an interviewer that the "turning point" of his life came as a result of the [[Six-Day War]], when he was thirteen. [[Israel]]'s victory was "emotionally intoxicating" and triggered his lifelong obsession with Israeli security, and his fantasies of being part of it. He told fellow undergraduates at [[Stanford University]] that he had dual citizenship and was a colonel in the Israeli Army. Bragging and fanciful claims marked his years at [[Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy]] at [[Tufts University]] in [[Boston]], where he enrolled in 1977. He failed to earn his degree, and also failed in an attempt to join the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. In early 1981, Pollard sought a job as a defense analyst with the [[American Israel Public Affairs Committee|AIPAC]], but AIPAC officials found his bragging about access to top-secret information inappropriate and "weird," and "got rid of him." There was a feeling that Pollard was part of a "sting" operation attempting to set up AIPAC, and he was clearly seen as trouble.[^2]
|
||||
Pollard was an unhappy child in [[South Bend]], [[Indiana]], tormented and beaten in grade school for being Jewish. He told an interviewer that the "turning point" of his life came as a result of the [[Six-Day War]], when he was thirteen. Israel's victory was "emotionally intoxicating" and triggered his lifelong obsession with Israeli security, and his fantasies of being part of it.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
He told fellow undergraduates at [[Stanford University]] that he had dual citizenship and was a colonel in the Israeli Army. Bragging and fanciful claims marked his years at the [[Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy]] at [[Tufts University]] in [[Boston]], where he enrolled in 1977. He failed to earn his degree, and also failed in an attempt to join the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. In early 1981, Pollard sought a job as a defense analyst with the [[American Israel Public Affairs Committee|AIPAC]], but AIPAC officials found his bragging about access to top-secret information inappropriate and "weird," and "got rid of him." There was a feeling that Pollard was part of a "sting" operation attempting to set up AIPAC, and he was clearly seen as trouble.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Naval Career and Clearances
|
||||
|
||||
The 1987 damage assessment prepared by the Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee under the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] records Pollard's naval intelligence assignments from September 1979 to November 1985.[^2] He began as a research analyst at the Naval Ocean Surveillance Information Center in Suitland, Maryland, and in February 1980 became a merchant shipping analyst and watch officer. In 1980 he volunteered for Task Force 168, the naval element responsible for human intelligence collection, and was assigned to collect information from a South African defense attaché. The assessment records that he admitted in July 1980 to having lied about his South African contacts in order to impress others. In 1981 he was assigned as a Middle East warship analyst in the [[Naval Intelligence Support Center]] (NISC-33).
|
||||
|
||||
In February 1982 his association with Task Force 168 ended, and his Top Secret clearance and access to compartmented intelligence were suspended pending a fitness-for-duty evaluation by a psychiatrist. The assessment quotes the psychiatrist's finding that Pollard was "thoroughly capable of handling the duties of his job and not a security risk." His clearance was reinstated on the order of the Commander, Naval Intelligence Command.[^7] In June 1984 Pollard began temporary duty with the [[Anti-Terrorist Alert Center]] of the [[Naval Investigative Service]] (ATAC, NIS), working a rotating watch. In October 1984 he was permanently assigned there as an analyst. The assessment describes him as an employee of the [[Navy Field Operational Intelligence Office]] (NFOIO) and other components of naval intelligence for the whole of the period from 1979 to 1985.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Recruitment and Scope of Espionage
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard offered his services to [[Israel]] in 1980 and 1981, but no serious Israeli intelligence official would consider recruiting an openly pro-Israel American Jew who worked for the American intelligence community, due to an unwritten law prohibiting the recruitment of any American Jew. However, [[Rafael Eitan]], the aggressive new director of [[LAKAM]], decided to change the rules after unproductive meetings with U.S. officials. He agreed with [[Ariel Sharon]] that the [[United States]] was holding back on intelligence essential to Israeli security, such as [[KH-11]] photography, and recruited Pollard in October 1981. Pollard's recruitment was viewed by military intelligence as "the worst fucking thing Rafi could have done."[^2]
|
||||
Pollard offered his services to Israel in 1980 and 1981, but no serious Israeli intelligence official would consider recruiting an openly pro-Israel American Jew who worked for the American intelligence community, due to an unwritten law prohibiting the recruitment of any American Jew. However, [[Rafael Eitan]], the aggressive new director of [[LAKAM]], decided to change the rules after unproductive meetings with U.S. officials. He agreed with [[Ariel Sharon]] that the United States was holding back on intelligence essential to Israeli security, such as [[KH-11]] photography, and recruited Pollard in October 1981. Pollard's recruitment was viewed by military intelligence as "the worst fucking thing Rafi could have done."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
At the height of his activity, in 1984 and 1985, one of his main assignments was the gathering of American intelligence relevant to [[Israel]]'s nuclear targeting of the oil fields and Soviet military installations in southern [[Russia]]. This fact was hidden from [[Department of Justice]] investigators and prosecutors by Israeli officials. Pollard insisted in all of his Justice Department interrogations that his spying did not begin until July 1984, after a social meeting with Israeli Air Force Colonel [[Aviem Sella]], who was one of his handlers.[^2]
|
||||
The account Pollard gave investigators, as the 1987 damage assessment summarizes it, dates the relationship differently. The assessment says Pollard volunteered his services in late June 1984, after meeting [[Aviem Sella]] through a pro-Israeli activist who was an old friend of the Pollard family. He passed classified material to Sella at three meetings between June and August 1984.[^9] The defense sentencing memorandum says Pollard was put in contact with Sella in June 1984, that he provided material for several months without payment, and that compensation was agreed only in November 1984.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard also gave the Israelis American intelligence on Soviet air defenses, especially the feared SA-5 surface-to-air missile system. He eventually turned over a copy of the U.S. intelligence community's annual review of the Soviet strategic arms system, known as the 11–38, which is considered one of the most sensitive documents in the U.S. government. Pollard also provided [[Israel]] with the codes for American diplomatic communications, enabling [[Israel]]'s signals intelligence agency to intercept cables and backchannel messages. In all, according to federal prosecutors, Pollard provided [[Israel]] with eighteen hundred documents - an estimated 500,000 pages - before his arrest.[^2]
|
||||
The assessment places the turning point in Paris. In November 1984 Pollard met Eitan, described as the adviser on counterterrorism to the Israeli prime minister and the senior Israeli in charge of the case, and [[Yosef Yagur]], Counselor for Scientific Affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York, who replaced Sella as Pollard's direct handler. The assessment records that Eitan emphasized that Pollard should resign from naval intelligence rather than undergo a polygraph examination.[^11] From late January 1985 Pollard made biweekly deliveries of classified material, on alternate Fridays, to the apartment of [[Irit Erb]], a secretary at the [[Israeli Embassy]] in Washington. He met Yagur at Erb's apartment on the last Saturday of each month. The assessment says his monthly salary was raised to $2,500 in February 1985.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
Hersh wrote that in 1984 and 1985 one of Pollard's main assignments was gathering American intelligence relevant to Israel's nuclear targeting of the oil fields and Soviet military installations in southern [[Russia]]. Hersh wrote that this was hidden from [[Department of Justice]] investigators by Israeli officials. Pollard insisted in his Justice Department interrogations that his spying did not begin until July 1984, after a social meeting with Israeli Air Force Colonel Sella, who was one of his handlers.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard also gave the Israelis American intelligence on Soviet air defenses, especially the feared SA-5 surface-to-air missile system. He eventually turned over a copy of the U.S. intelligence community's annual review of the Soviet strategic arms system, known as the 11-38, which Hersh described as one of the most sensitive documents in the U.S. government. Pollard also provided Israel with the codes for American diplomatic communications, enabling Israel's signals intelligence agency to intercept cables and backchannel messages.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
The assessment states that most of the tasking Pollard received was intended to advance Israeli objectives. Sella and Yagur emphasized military and technical intelligence on the [[Soviet Union]], Arab states, and Pakistan. At the Paris meeting, Yagur ranked Arab and Pakistani nuclear intelligence first, followed by Arab exotic weaponry including chemical and biological weapons, then Soviet air defenses, and then Soviet aircraft and air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles.[^15] The assessment lists among Israel's gains Pollard's deliveries concerning the Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters near Tunis, Tunisian and Libyan air defenses, and Pakistan's plutonium reprocessing facility near Islamabad. Pollard told investigators that Yagur said the RASIN manual permitted Israel to begin monitoring a communications link between the Soviet General Staff in Moscow and the Soviet military assistance group in Damascus.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
The executive summary of the assessment lists the Israeli collection requirements as Pollard gave them, "in descending order of priority," in the same sequence except that Soviet aircraft precede Soviet air defenses, and ends the list with Arab order-of-battle, deployments and readiness.[^17] The body of the assessment adds that "most of the tasking levied on Pollard by his handlers was intended to advance Israel's objectives," that Sella and Yagur "emphasized that Pollard should obtain military and technical intelligence on the Soviet Union, Arab states, and Pakistan," and that Yagur wanted to be told of Soviet reactive-armor technology and advanced Soviet SAM systems "so they could prepare for their appearance in Arab inventories." Pollard was also to telephone an emergency number and use the code word "20 percent" if he learned that war in the Middle East was imminent.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
Under the heading "What the Israelis Did Not Ask For," the assessment opens with the words "According to Pollard" and states: "The Israelis never expressed interest in US military activities, plans, capabilities, or equipment." It adds that they "did not ask for intelligence on US communications per se" (the RASIN manual excepted), communications-security deficiencies, cryptologic systems or keying material; that Pollard "was not tasked to describe the pro- or anti-Israeli biases of individual intelligence analysts, nor was he asked to slant his own analyses for Israel's benefit," and that "[t]he Israelis expressed no serious interest in other US espionage cases," although Yagur asked about the damage from the Morison and Walker/Whitworth disclosures in casual conversation.[^19] The assessment states that Pollard "apparently exerted the strongest influence on what was compromised by virtue of his own access, interests, and collection initiatives," and that in terms of the quantity of identified intelligence stolen over seventeen months, with most of it passed from January to November 1985, "Pollard's operation has few parallels among known US espionage cases." It states that most of the documents address "at least tangentially" issues of major concern to Israeli security, many of them concerning Iran, Iraq and the Iran-Iraq War, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and military developments in Israel itself. It records that Pollard on his own initiative supplied three daily intelligence summaries, among them the Middle East and North Africa Summary, which yielded roughly 1,500 messages between mid-July 1984 and November 1985.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
Eitan's own requests, as the assessment summarizes them, were of a different kind: information on the Palestine Liberation Organization's Force 17, CIA psychological studies or other intelligence containing "dirt" on senior Israeli officials, and information identifying the "rats" in Israel, "by which Eitan apparently meant Israelis who provided information to the United States." In debriefings that were corroborated by polygraph, Pollard said that Yagur, standing behind Eitan, "violently shook his head 'no'" at these requests and told him afterward that procuring such information would be grounds for immediate termination of the operation.[^18] The defense sentencing memorandum filed in March 1987 states that Eitan also asked for information regarding U.S. intelligence sources in Israel and for documents on U.S. knowledge of Israeli arms dealings with other countries, "particularly China," and of Israeli intelligence efforts in the United States, and that Pollard did not provide them "despite Eitan's threats of recrimination."[^10] The assessment records Pollard's recollection that Yagur on at least two occasions indicated that selected items of his intelligence were known and appreciated by "the highest levels of the Israeli Government."[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
The assessment gives approximate numbers of compromised published documents and an estimated 1,500 current intelligence summary messages, among them the Middle East and North Africa Summary.[^20] As the [[Washington Post]] reported in January 1987, federal prosecutors' sentencing memorandum described Pollard as having provided "Thousands of Pages" and said Israel had returned only 163 documents to the United States.[^21] According to the same report, the prosecutors' memorandum stated that the Israelis paid Pollard $2,500 a month, promised him another $300,000 in a Swiss account over ten years, and that he was eventually paid about $50,000.[^21] Hersh gave a different figure, attributed to federal prosecutors: eighteen hundred documents, an estimated 500,000 pages, before his arrest.[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
### Operational Methods and Wife's Involvement
|
||||
|
||||
[[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard's]] wife, [[Anne Henderson-Pollard]], was also working with him. [[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard]] received computer access codes of intelligence reports from [[Robert McFarlane]] (referred to as "Mr. X") through [[Iris]], a [[LAKAM]] representative in [[Washington, D.C.]]. He would print the information, photocopy it, and give the copies to [[Iris]], who would then return the originals to the office. This allowed [[Israel]] to receive over a million pieces of paper, including reconnaissance satellite data, [[United States|U.S.]] and [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] aircraft information, and spare parts listed in secret catalogs.[^1]
|
||||
Hersh's account places Pollard's wife, [[Anne Henderson-Pollard]], in the operation as well.[^23] [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote that Pollard received computer access codes for intelligence reports from [[Robert McFarlane]], whom he called "Mr. X," through [[Iris]], a LAKAM representative in Washington. Pollard would print the information, photocopy it, and give the copies to Iris, who would return the originals to the office. Ben-Menashe wrote that this allowed Israel to receive over a million pieces of paper, including reconnaissance satellite data, U.S. and Soviet aircraft information, and spare parts listed in secret catalogs.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
To facilitate the transfer of documents, Pollard's handlers in the [[United States]], who included [[Aviem Sella]] by mid-1984, even arranged for the Israeli government to provide, via its embassy in [[Washington, D.C.]], the most sophisticated photocopying machines for the reproduction of top-secret documents, including [[KH-11]] satellite photographs. These machines arrived with special metal shielding to prevent the interception of electronic emanations.[^2]
|
||||
The 1992 appellate opinion describes Anne Pollard's involvement differently. It recounts that when Pollard was questioned after being stopped, he used the code word "cactus" in telephone calls to his wife, who then removed a suitcase of classified documents from the apartment and contacted his Israeli handlers. The court called this "her only active involvement in Pollard's espionage."[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
To facilitate the transfer of documents, Pollard's handlers in the United States, who included Sella by mid-1984, arranged for the Israeli government to provide, through its embassy in Washington, photocopying machines for the reproduction of top-secret documents, including KH-11 satellite photographs. These machines arrived with special metal shielding to prevent the interception of electronic emanations.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
### KGB Connection and Arrest
|
||||
|
||||
Some of the intelligence gathered by [[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard]] was passed to the [[KGB]] by [[Israel]], with the authorization of [[Yitzhak Shamir]]. The exposure of [[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard]] led to his arrest and conviction for espionage. He was later identified as the spy with the arrest of [[Shabtai Kalmanowitch]] in late 1987.[^1]
|
||||
Ben-Menashe wrote that some of the intelligence gathered by Pollard was passed to the [[KGB]] by Israel, with the authorization of [[Yitzhak Shamir]].[^27] He also wrote that Pollard was later identified as the spy in the arrest of [[Shabtai Kalmanowitch]] in late 1987.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
### Israeli Government Response and Cover-up
|
||||
The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] entered the case on November 15, 1985 and began a series of interviews with Pollard, according to the counterintelligence history "Decade of the Spy."[^29] The appellate opinion records that agents of the FBI and the Naval Investigative Service stopped Pollard as he was leaving work and questioned him about the removal of classified material. During the interviews he lied and stalled for time, as his Israeli handlers had instructed him, while one handler left the country.[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
After Pollard's arrest, the top Israeli leadership denied having any knowledge of his activities, and two internal commissions cleared them of direct knowledge. However, Pollard himself argued that his Israeli handlers told him that "[[Israel]]'s dependence upon a ‘special source’" had been mentioned at Israeli cabinet meetings. He also stated that he was routinely provided with lists of intelligence items wanted, coordinated and prioritized by the heads of all the various military intelligence services. Much of the material he supplied, such as satellite photographs and communication intercepts, was clearly not being transferred through official channels.[^2]
|
||||
On November 21, 1985 the Pollards drove to the Israeli Embassy and requested political asylum. The counterintelligence history gives the visit as about twenty minutes, and says the Israelis refused them asylum. The FBI arrested Pollard when they came out.[^31] The appellate court records that the Pollards had gained entrance to the embassy compound at one point before the Israelis turned them away. Pollard was charged with violations of 18 U.S.C. sections 794(a) and 793(e). Anne Pollard was arrested a day later as an accessory. The couple was held without bail, and she was released on bail in February 1986.[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
The Israeli officials most tarnished by the scandal were [[Rafael Eitan]] and [[Aviem Sella]]. However, Eitan did not suffer financially and was subsequently named to a high administrative position with the [[Israel Chemicals Company]], authorized by [[Ariel Sharon]]. Sella was promoted to brigadier general after his return from the [[United States]] and assigned as commander of [[Tel Nof]], the site of [[Israel]]'s nuclear-ready air force squadron. After American protests, Sella was instead named head of the [[Israel|Israeli Defense Force]] staff college, and later retired from the air force in disillusionment.[^2]
|
||||
Israel announced after the arrest that the news was a complete surprise and that it would cooperate with the United States. The counterintelligence history says a post-arrest Israeli investigation, codenamed Siren, was launched, and that a few days later Israel announced that the Pollard case was a rogue operation conducted by a few intelligence operatives.[^33] The Post reported in May 1987 that Israel had branded the affair "a rogue operation" and disbanded the spy bureau.[^34] A delegation of officials from the FBI and the State and Justice departments, including [[Abraham Sofaer]], traveled to Israel in December 1985. The counterintelligence history says Israel did not give up its stonewalling until the delegation threatened to return to the United States.[^35]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 21, 1985 Israeli officials told the [[New York Times]] that Eitan had been removed from his post as head of the Liaison Bureau for Scientific Affairs, which was being dismantled, and was expected to retire quietly.[^36] The Christian Science Monitor later reported that Eitan had been made head of the [[Israel Chemicals Company]], one of the most prestigious executive positions in Israeli industry.[^37] In 1998 the Israeli government stated that Pollard had served as an Israeli agent handled by senior members of the Scientific Liaison Bureau, known in Hebrew as Lekam.[^38]
|
||||
|
||||
### Plea, Sentencing, and the Weinberger Submissions
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard sought to plead guilty in order to minimize his chance of a life sentence and to enable his wife to plead as well, which the government was otherwise unwilling to allow. The government would make a plea offer only after Pollard assisted the damage assessment and submitted to polygraph examinations and interviews. The plea agreement bound him to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. section 794(c), and the government agreed to recommend "a substantial period of incarceration and a monetary fine." Chief Judge [[Aubrey E. Robinson Jr.]] accepted the plea on June 4, 1986, after questioning Pollard at great length about his understanding of the rights he was surrendering.[^39]
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard's first memorandum in aid of sentencing, dated August 20, 1986, "submits his version of the offense in aid of sentencing by the Court."[^40] While awaiting sentencing, Pollard gave several interviews to [[Wolf Blitzer]], a reporter for the [[Jerusalem Post]], without first submitting his comments to the Director of Naval Intelligence as the plea agreement required. The government cited the interviews as evidence that he could not be trusted to refrain from disclosing national secrets.[^41]
|
||||
|
||||
The prosecutors' sentencing memorandum recommended a "substantial" prison term. It named three Israelis granted immunity from prosecution, Eitan, Yagur and Irit Erb, and a fourth, Sella, as an unindicted co-conspirator.[^42] The government's reply to Pollard's memoranda, dated March 3, 1987, disputed his account of the harm he had caused and stated that he had identified thousands of classified documents.[^43]
|
||||
|
||||
The government also submitted a highly classified declaration by Secretary of Defense [[Caspar Weinberger]] cataloguing the damage Pollard had done and opining that the damage had been "substantial and irrevocable." The day before sentencing, Weinberger submitted an unclassified supplemental declaration, executed March 3, 1987, which stated in part that "[i]t is difficult for me, even in the so-called 'year of the spy,' to conceive of a greater harm to national security than that caused by the defendant."[^44][^45] The declaration argued that "the punishment imposed should reflect the perfidy of the individual's actions, the magnitude of the treason committed, and the needs of national security." It also stated that "his loyalty to Israel transcends his loyalty to the United States." Weinberger wrote that Pollard had acknowledged, when confronted with a polygraph examination on February 25, 1987, that he had provided or confirmed information in a February 15 Washington Post article.[^46]
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard's counsel characterized the Secretary's words, "perhaps accurately," only as "rank hyperbole." Judge Williams, dissenting from the appellate majority in 1992, wrote that the repeated use of superlatives in the Weinberger memoranda "implied an appeal for the maximum."[^47]
|
||||
|
||||
Chief Judge Robinson sentenced Pollard to life in prison on March 4, 1987 and sentenced Anne Pollard to five years.[^48] Pollard did not appeal the sentence. His Rule 35 motion to reduce it was denied.[^49] The appellate opinion records that an affidavit by [[Alan Dershowitz]] stated that Goldberg, a retired Supreme Court Justice, had discussed the sentence with Chief Judge Robinson, who purportedly told him that Pollard had provided Israel with information demonstrating American knowledge of certain details of Israeli-South African defense cooperation and that this had "weighed heavily" in the sentence. Dershowitz claimed that Pollard never provided the Israelis that sort of information, and the affidavit asserted that Goldberg inferred that the government may have made improper ex parte submissions. Chief Judge Robinson declined to recuse himself, stated that the allegations of ex parte contacts were untrue, and refused without a hearing to let Pollard withdraw his plea.[^50]
|
||||
|
||||
### Post-Sentencing Litigation
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard's first motion under 28 U.S.C. section 2255 was filed on March 12, 1990. It sought to withdraw his guilty plea on the ground that the government had breached the plea agreement at sentencing and had linked his wife's plea to his own.[^51] The district court denied the motion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed in 1992.[^52] A second section 2255 motion, filed on September 20, 2000 by new counsel, alleged ineffective assistance by sentencing counsel. On July 22, 2005 the Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Circuit Judge [[David Sentelle|Sentelle]], held that the second motion was untimely and declined to grant a certificate of appealability.[^53] The same opinion held that the federal courts lacked jurisdiction to review claims for access to classified documents needed for a clemency petition to the President, and it vacated the denial of counsel's request for access.[^54]
|
||||
|
||||
### Clemency Applications
|
||||
|
||||
The counterintelligence history "Decade of the Spy" records that President [[George H. W. Bush]] denied clemency in January 1993, President [[Bill Clinton]] in March 1994, and Clinton a second time in 1997, when he cited Pollard's lack of remorse and said that shortening the sentence after ten years was unwarranted and would not serve the goal of deterrence.[^55] Israel granted Pollard citizenship in 1995.[^56]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Office of the Pardon Attorney]] wrote on March 14, 2011 that Pollard, through counsel, had applied for commutation of sentence on October 15, 2010, and that the application remained pending.[^57] On December 21, 2010 former Attorney General [[Michael Mukasey]] wrote to President [[Barack Obama]] asking that he commute the sentence. Mukasey wrote that former CIA Director [[James Woolsey]] and former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman [[Dennis DeConcini]] "are familiar with the information Pollard disclosed and the circumstances of its disclosure" and "have expressed firmly their belief that his sentence should be commuted," that "the highly unusual submission to the sentencing court of affidavits from Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, seeking a heavier sentence than requested by the prosecutors despite Pollard's guilty plea and cooperation," as discussed in a submission by former Assistant Secretary of Defense [[Lawrence Korb]], "is deeply disturbing," and that "a life sentence can only be considered utterly disproportionate to the crime."[^58]
|
||||
|
||||
### Ben-Menashe's Claims and the "Mr. X" Allegation
|
||||
|
||||
Ben-Menashe's claim that Robert McFarlane had been recruited by Rafael Eitan and was "the famous Mr. X in the Pollard case" reached print through a 1991 [[Esquire]] article, "October Surprise," by [[Craig Unger]].[^59] The article attributed Ben-Menashe's statement that McFarlane and [[Earl Brian]] had a "special relationship" with Israeli intelligence, and that McFarlane had been "recruited by Rafi Eitan," to a sworn affidavit that [[Elliot Richardson]] submitted for one of his clients, the [[Inslaw]] computer-software company. The appeals court found that the recruitment clause "is not in the affidavit," that nothing in the affidavit supported the article's following sentences making McFarlane out to be an equivalent of Pollard, and that the affidavit's text "supports only the idea of a 'special relationship.'" The same opinion records that McFarlane "does not dispute that Ben-Menashe made these assertions to Unger."[^60] McFarlane sued the magazine. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit]] affirmed the judgment for Esquire on January 30, 1996. The judgment rested on a finding of no actual malice and on the dismissal of the claim against Unger for want of personal jurisdiction.[^61]
|
||||
|
||||
The opinion describes Ben-Menashe as "a self-professed former Israeli spy and a major source for conspiracy theorists," and records that the Esquire article quoted intelligence officials and journalists calling him a "fake" and a "con man."[^62] The same opinion notes that "[i]n Pollard's case there were persistent allegations about another, unnamed American who secretly worked for the Israelis."[^63]
|
||||
|
||||
### Israeli Inquiries
|
||||
|
||||
After Pollard's arrest, the top Israeli leadership denied having any knowledge of his activities. Pollard himself argued that his Israeli handlers told him that "Israel's dependence upon a 'special source'" had been mentioned at Israeli cabinet meetings. He also stated that he was routinely provided with lists of intelligence items wanted, coordinated and prioritized by the heads of all the various military intelligence services. Much of the material he supplied, such as satellite photographs and communication intercepts, was clearly not being transferred through official channels.[^64]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Los Angeles Times]] reported on November 29, 1985 that Prime Minister [[Shimon Peres]], Defense Minister [[Yitzhak Rabin]] and Foreign Minister Shamir had been meeting daily to review the internal investigation, and that the essential elements of the case were believed to be clear to the three.[^65] In late February 1987 the Israeli embassy spokesman [[Yossi Gal]] said that Shamir had reiterated on a recent visit to Washington "that this was a rogue operation that was not authorized and against the will of the government."[^66] In a report from Jerusalem published March 11, 1987, [[Thomas L. Friedman]] quoted Shamir: "The State of Israel has no connection with Pollard or his family."[^67]
|
||||
|
||||
The Knesset's intelligence subcommittee, chaired by [[Abba Eban]], and a two-member cabinet panel chaired by Tel Aviv lawyer [[Yehoshua Rotenstreich]] reported on May 26, 1987. The Post reported that neither panel found evidence that the leadership knew of the operation, but that both found the senior political leadership responsible for failing to uncover and end it. The seven-member subcommittee singled out Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his predecessor [[Moshe Arens]], and said that Shimon Peres, Shamir and Rabin shared responsibility for the government's failure to live up to commitments made to the United States after Pollard's arrest. The Post reported that, contrary to government statements at the time, the subcommittee's report said the affair was "not a rogue operation" but one conducted by Israeli officials using official resources.[^68] The subcommittee accused Eitan of "a gross excess of authority" and said Sella "excessively involved himself on his own initiative." It indicated that Sella may have lied in his testimony about the extent of his role, and it criticized the Army Chief of Staff, [[Moshe Levy]], and [[Amos Lapidot]] for allowing Sella leave to take part in what they surmised was a sensitive espionage mission.[^69] The Rotenstreich panel contended that the "ruling troika" of Peres, Shamir and Rabin "did not take care to clarify facts sufficiently before transferring them to the U.S. authorities." The Post reported that the troika had reportedly pressed Rotenstreich to hand in his report after learning that Eban's was to be released, in the hope that his findings would be milder.[^70] Shamir told reporters that the government had no intention of resigning and that "the mountain was really a molehill and the earth did not move."[^71]
|
||||
|
||||
The Israeli Cabinet adopted the Rotenstreich findings, which held the entire government collectively responsible for failure to know that a secret spy unit in the Defense Ministry had hired Pollard.[^72] Rabin and Peres attacked the subcommittee as politically tainted. The subcommittee's report accused Rabin of failing "to follow up or increase supervision as he should have done" during the fourteen months when Pollard was active, and the Post reported that it criticized the promotions of Sella and Eitan, who became chairman of the country's largest state-owned company.[^70]
|
||||
|
||||
The Post reported that Sella had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington in March 1987 for his role in the affair.[^73] Hersh wrote that after American protests Sella was instead named head of the Israel Defense Forces staff college, and that he later retired from the air force.[^74] The Post reported that Sella's promotion to command one of Israel's largest air bases had set off a storm of controversy in the United States, and that he eventually resigned from the new post, citing his concern for U.S.-Israeli relations.[^75]
|
||||
|
||||
The Israeli officials most tarnished by the affair were Eitan and Sella. Eitan did not suffer financially. He was subsequently named to a high administrative position with the Israel Chemicals Company, an appointment authorized by Ariel Sharon.[^76] Hersh wrote that Sella was promoted to brigadier general after his return from the United States and assigned as commander of [[Tel Nof]], the site of Israel's nuclear-ready air force squadron.[^77] The Christian Science Monitor reported that the committees criticized the government for appointing Sella commander of Tel Nof Air Force Base after his involvement in the affair became known.[^78]
|
||||
|
||||
### Aftermath and Sella's Account
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard refused to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney's Office in [[Washington, D.C.]] for six months before finally giving up Sella's name as part of a plea bargain. It is not known whether prosecutors realized at the time that Sella's mission was linked to nuclear intelligence. The Israeli government refused U.S. demands for Sella's extradition, and he was indicted in absentia in March 1987, and declared a fugitive from justice in June 1990.[^2]
|
||||
Pollard refused to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington for six months before finally giving up Sella's name as part of a plea bargain. It is not known whether prosecutors realized at the time that Sella's mission was linked to nuclear intelligence. Hersh wrote that Sella was indicted in absentia in March 1987 and declared a fugitive from justice in June 1990, and that the Israeli government refused U.S. demands for his extradition.[^79]
|
||||
|
||||
Sella has given friends and colleagues an account of his involvement that is more credible, but still far short of the whole story. He claimed he was recruited to try to control Pollard, who was drowning the Israeli intelligence bureaucracy in documents. Sella, who had almost completed his Ph.D. in computer science at [[New York University]], believed his technical training would be an asset in evaluating and perhaps winnowing down Pollard's materials. He knew that Pollard had been recruited long before 1984, but was eager for the assignment, believing it would advance his career. He checked with his superior, Major General [[Amos Lapidot]], who assured him that Pollard was not a rogue and that clearance for his new assignment had been obtained from [[Yitzhak Rabin]], the minister of defense. Once involved, Sella complained that Pollard "was running crazy" and "was giving him things he didn't want and didn't need."[^2]
|
||||
Sella has given friends and colleagues an account of his involvement that is more credible, but still far short of the whole story. He claimed he was recruited to try to control Pollard, who was drowning the Israeli intelligence bureaucracy in documents. Sella, who had almost completed his Ph.D. in computer science at [[New York University]], believed his technical training would be an asset in evaluating and perhaps winnowing down Pollard's materials. He knew that Pollard had been recruited long before 1984, but was eager for the assignment, believing it would advance his career. He checked with his superior, Major General Lapidot, who assured him that Pollard was not a rogue and that clearance for his new assignment had been obtained from the defense minister, Yitzhak Rabin. Once involved, Sella complained that Pollard "was running crazy" and "was giving him things he didn't want and didn't need."[^80]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Leonard Garment]], hired by [[Israel]] to represent Sella, attempted to resolve the affair. He was pressured by a six-man Israeli delegation, including [[Chaim Joseph Zadok]], [[Meir Rosenne]], [[Elyakim Rubinstein]], [[Ram Caspi]], [[Avraham Shalom]], and [[Hanan Bar-on]], to file a factual proffer that downplayed Sella's involvement. Garment eventually withdrew from the case, stating he was unsure whether his client was Sella or the Israeli government. With his withdrawal, the Israeli government ended its attempt to protect Sella, effectively ending Sella's career.[^2]
|
||||
[[Leonard Garment]], hired by Israel to represent Sella, attempted to resolve the affair. He was pressured by a six-man Israeli delegation, including [[Chaim Joseph Zadok]], [[Meir Rosenne]], [[Elyakim Rubinstein]], [[Ram Caspi]], [[Avraham Shalom]], and [[Hanan Bar-on]], to file a factual proffer that downplayed Sella's involvement. Garment eventually withdrew from the case, stating he was unsure whether his client was Sella or the Israeli government. With his withdrawal, the Israeli government ended its attempt to protect Sella, effectively ending Sella's career.[^81]
|
||||
|
||||
### Parole and Departure
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard was released from prison on November 20, 2015 and placed on parole. His conditions included a curfew, an electronic monitor that tracked his location, limits on the jobs he could take, and a prohibition on leaving the United States.[^56][^82] On November 20, 2020 the Justice Department announced that he had completed his parole. The Parole Commission said there was "no evidence to conclude that he is likely to violate the law." His lawyers, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, said that he was "now a free man in all respects."[^83]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 30, 2020 Pollard and his wife Esther arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport on a private plane provided by the casino owner [[Sheldon Adelson]]. Prime Minister [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] greeted them and presented them with Israeli identity cards. Pollard said, "We are ecstatic to be home at last after 35 years."[^84]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21, 22.
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Arrest of November 21, 1985, plea of June 4, 1986, and life sentence.
|
||||
[^2]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Introduction, paragraph 2, and the career box headed "Pollard's Assignments and Security-Clearance Actions, With Naval Intelligence, 1979-85."
|
||||
[^3]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Background narrative: payments of $1,500 to $2,500 a month during the last twelve months of the espionage.
|
||||
[^4]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Hersh's account of the 1981 recruitment, which Pollard and the Israeli government are said to have dated later.
|
||||
[^5]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Pollard's account of his childhood and of the Six-Day War, as Hersh reports it.
|
||||
[^6]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. AIPAC's reaction to Pollard's applications and conduct, as Hersh reports it.
|
||||
[^7]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Career box entries for February 1982 through October 1984.
|
||||
[^8]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Account of the 1980-81 offers and of Eitan's decision to recruit Pollard in October 1981.
|
||||
[^9]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Paragraph 5 (late June 1984 volunteering; Sella meetings June to August 1984).
|
||||
[^10]: Defendant Jonathan J. Pollard's Second Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, Crim. No. 86-0207 (D.D.C.), filed early March 1987. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/EBB-PollardDoc7.pdf Discussion of the sequence of contact and compensation, including the November 1984 agreement on $1,500 a month.
|
||||
[^11]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Paragraph 6 (Paris meetings in November 1984; Eitan's emphasis on resignation rather than a polygraph) and paragraph 7 (Yagur as direct handler).
|
||||
[^12]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Paragraph 7 (biweekly deliveries to Irit Erb's apartment, monthly meetings with Yagur, salary raised in February 1985).
|
||||
[^13]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Pollard's claim that his spying began in July 1984 after a social meeting with Sella; the nuclear targeting assignment.
|
||||
[^14]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Soviet air-defense material, the 11-38 review, and the diplomatic codes.
|
||||
[^15]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Paragraphs 51 and 52 (Israeli tasking priorities and the Paris list).
|
||||
[^16]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Paragraphs 79 to 82 (Israeli gains from the compromised material; the RASIN manual).
|
||||
[^17]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Executive Summary, paragraph 11 (collection requirements in descending order of priority).
|
||||
[^18]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Paragraphs 51 to 53 (the tasking assessment, the Paris list, Eitan's supplementary requests and Yagur's reaction).
|
||||
[^19]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Paragraphs 58 and 63 to 66 ("What the Israelis Did Not Ask For"; the overview of compromised material).
|
||||
[^20]: Foreign Denial and Deception Analysis Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, *The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment* (October 30, 1987; sanitized release, National Security Archive copy). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/7332518/National-Security-Archive-Doc-13b-Foreign-Denial.pdf. Also released through the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel: https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2007-010-doc1.pdf Paragraphs 11 and 12 (approximate numbers of compromised published documents and an estimated 1,500 current intelligence summary messages).
|
||||
[^21]: Howard Kurtz, "Spy Papers Kept by Israel, Court Told," *Washington Post*, January 7, 1987. CIA CREST copy: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000403620007-3 Prosecutors' sentencing memorandum as reported, including the 163 returned documents.
|
||||
[^22]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Figure attributed by Hersh to federal prosecutors.
|
||||
[^23]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Pollard's wife's role in the operation, as Hersh relates it.
|
||||
[^24]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (Sheridan Square Press, 1992; TrineDay reprint, 2015). Lending copy: https://archive.org/details/profitsofwarinsi0000benm Account of Iris, the access codes and the copying method.
|
||||
[^25]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Narrative of the stop and the telephone calls; the court's characterization of Anne Pollard's involvement.
|
||||
[^26]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Photocopying machines supplied through the Israeli embassy.
|
||||
[^27]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (Sheridan Square Press, 1992; TrineDay reprint, 2015). Lending copy: https://archive.org/details/profitsofwarinsi0000benm Claimed transfers to the KGB and the Shamir authorization.
|
||||
[^28]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (Sheridan Square Press, 1992; TrineDay reprint, 2015). Lending copy: https://archive.org/details/profitsofwarinsi0000benm Claim that Pollard was later identified as the spy in the Kalmanowitch arrest.
|
||||
[^29]: "Decade of the Spy," undated counterintelligence history extract, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 407, Doc. 14. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/EBB-PollardDoc14.pdf Entry on the FBI's entry into the case on November 15, 1985 and the interviews.
|
||||
[^30]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Background narrative of the stop, the interviews and the lies told in them.
|
||||
[^31]: "Decade of the Spy," undated counterintelligence history extract, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 407, Doc. 14. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/EBB-PollardDoc14.pdf Account of the embassy visit and the arrest.
|
||||
[^32]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Arrest on November 21, 1985; Anne Pollard's arrest the following day; the charges; the bail history.
|
||||
[^33]: "Decade of the Spy," undated counterintelligence history extract, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 407, Doc. 14. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/EBB-PollardDoc14.pdf Israeli post-arrest response and the Siren investigation.
|
||||
[^34]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," *Washington Post*, May 27, 1987 (Jerusalem dateline May 26). CIA CREST copy: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0 Israel's official characterization of the affair as a rogue operation, and the disbanding of the bureau.
|
||||
[^35]: "Decade of the Spy," undated counterintelligence history extract, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 407, Doc. 14. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/EBB-PollardDoc14.pdf The December 1985 delegation and Israel's eventual cooperation.
|
||||
[^36]: Thomas L. Friedman, *New York Times*, December 22, 1985 (Jerusalem dateline December 21). CIA CREST copy: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302120025-0 Removal of Eitan and the dismantling of the bureau.
|
||||
[^37]: "Israel hopes that book is now closed on Pollard spy case," *Christian Science Monitor*, May 28, 1987. https://www.csmonitor.com/1987/0528/omary.html Eitan's later executive post.
|
||||
[^38]: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Government statement on Jonathan Pollard," May 12, 1998, *Israel's Foreign Relations: Selected Documents*, vol. 17 (1998-1999), no. 35. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/EBB-PollardDoc13.PDF
|
||||
[^39]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Plea negotiations, the plea agreement (paragraphs 4(a) and 4(b)), and the June 4, 1986 plea.
|
||||
[^40]: Defendant Jonathan J. Pollard's First Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing, Crim. No. 86-0207 (D.D.C.), dated August 20, 1986. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/A-Pollard6.pdf Pollard's account of the offense.
|
||||
[^41]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Pollard's interviews with a Jerusalem Post reporter before sentencing and the government's objection to them.
|
||||
[^42]: Howard Kurtz, "Spy Papers Kept by Israel, Court Told," *Washington Post*, January 7, 1987. CIA CREST copy: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000403620007-3 Government's recommended sentence, the immunity grants, and the unindicted co-conspirator.
|
||||
[^43]: Government's Reply to Defendant's Sentencing Memorandum, Crim. No. 86-0207 (D.D.C.), March 3, 1987. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/A-Pollard9.pdf Government's response to Pollard's memoranda.
|
||||
[^44]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json The classified in camera declaration ("substantial and irrevocable") and the unclassified supplemental declaration.
|
||||
[^45]: Supplemental Declaration of Caspar W. Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, *United States v. Jonathan Jay Pollard*, Crim. No. 86-0207 (D.D.C.), executed March 3, 1987 (unclassified). http://www.irmep.org/ila/pollard/03041987weinberger.pdf Paragraphs 1 and 2.
|
||||
[^46]: Supplemental Declaration of Caspar W. Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, *United States v. Jonathan Jay Pollard*, Crim. No. 86-0207 (D.D.C.), executed March 3, 1987 (unclassified). http://www.irmep.org/ila/pollard/03041987weinberger.pdf Paragraph 4 (loyalty; the February 25 polygraph and the February 15 article).
|
||||
[^47]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Dissent of Judge Williams on the Weinberger submissions.
|
||||
[^48]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Sentences of March 4, 1987: life for Pollard and five years for Anne Pollard.
|
||||
[^49]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Rule 35 motion and the decision not to appeal.
|
||||
[^50]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json The Dershowitz affidavit, the Goldberg conversation and the South Africa reference, and the district court's refusal to recuse or hold a hearing.
|
||||
[^51]: *United States v. Pollard*, 416 F.3d 48 (D.C. Cir. 2005), decided July 22, 2005. https://static.case.law/f3d/416/cases/0048-01.json Procedural history of the March 12, 1990 and September 20, 2000 motions.
|
||||
[^52]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json Affirmance of the denial of the 1990 section 2255 motion.
|
||||
[^53]: *United States v. Pollard*, 416 F.3d 48 (D.C. Cir. 2005), decided July 22, 2005. https://static.case.law/f3d/416/cases/0048-01.json Holding that the successive section 2255 motion was untimely and that no certificate of appealability would issue.
|
||||
[^54]: *United States v. Pollard*, 416 F.3d 48 (D.C. Cir. 2005), decided July 22, 2005. https://static.case.law/f3d/416/cases/0048-01.json Holding on the clemency-access petition and the vacatur.
|
||||
[^55]: "Decade of the Spy," undated counterintelligence history extract, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 407, Doc. 14. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/EBB-PollardDoc14.pdf Denials of clemency in January 1993, March 1994 and 1997.
|
||||
[^56]: Matthew S. Schwartz, "Jonathan Pollard, Who Sold Cold War Secrets To Israel, Completes Parole," NPR, carried by *Georgia Public Broadcasting*, November 21, 2020. https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/11/21/jonathan-pollard-who-sold-cold-war-secrets-israel-completes-parole Release on November 20, 2015, the end of parole on November 20, 2020, and Israel\'s grant of citizenship in 1995.
|
||||
[^57]: Office of the Pardon Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, letter to Grant F. Smith, FOIA Request No. 2011-036, March 14, 2011. https://www.israellobby.org/pollard/03142011Pollard_release.pdf Commutation application of October 15, 2010 pending.
|
||||
[^58]: Michael B. Mukasey to President Barack Obama, letter of December 21, 2010. https://www.israellobby.org/pollard/12212010Mukasey.pdf Request for commutation; the Woolsey and DeConcini views; the Weinberger affidavits.
|
||||
[^59]: Craig Unger, "October Surprise," *Esquire*, October 1991 (article quoted at length in the opinion cited below). *McFarlane v. Esquire Magazine*, 74 F.3d 1296 (D.C. Cir. 1996). https://static.case.law/f3d/74/cases/1296-01.json
|
||||
[^60]: *McFarlane v. Esquire Magazine*, 74 F.3d 1296 (D.C. Cir. 1996), No. 94-7137, decided January 30, 1996. https://static.case.law/f3d/74/cases/1296-01.json The article's passage on the Inslaw affidavit; the court's finding that the recruitment clause and the following sentences are not in the affidavit; McFarlane's non-dispute that Ben-Menashe made the assertions to Unger.
|
||||
[^61]: *McFarlane v. Esquire Magazine*, 74 F.3d 1296 (D.C. Cir. 1996), No. 94-7137, decided January 30, 1996. https://static.case.law/f3d/74/cases/1296-01.json Affirmance of the judgment for Esquire and the dismissal of the claim against Unger.
|
||||
[^62]: *McFarlane v. Esquire Magazine*, 74 F.3d 1296 (D.C. Cir. 1996), No. 94-7137, decided January 30, 1996. https://static.case.law/f3d/74/cases/1296-01.json Description of Ben-Menashe and of the Esquire article's treatment of his credibility.
|
||||
[^63]: *McFarlane v. Esquire Magazine*, 74 F.3d 1296 (D.C. Cir. 1996), No. 94-7137, decided January 30, 1996. https://static.case.law/f3d/74/cases/1296-01.json The opinion's note on persistent allegations about an unnamed second American.
|
||||
[^64]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Pollard's account of what his handlers told him about cabinet discussion and intelligence priorities.
|
||||
[^65]: "Pollard" report, *Los Angeles Times*, November 29, 1985. CIA CREST copy: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000504890020-7
|
||||
[^66]: *The Washington Post*, February 28, 1987. CIA CREST copy: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000403620005-5
|
||||
[^67]: Thomas L. Friedman, "Shamir Says Pollard's Fate Is No Concern of Israel," *The New York Times*, March 11, 1987. CIA CREST copy: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000302120009-8
|
||||
[^68]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," *Washington Post*, May 27, 1987 (Jerusalem dateline May 26). CIA CREST copy: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0 The two reports of May 26, 1987; the subcommittee's statement that the affair was not a rogue operation.
|
||||
[^69]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," *Washington Post*, May 27, 1987 (Jerusalem dateline May 26). CIA CREST copy: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0 The subcommittee's findings on Eitan and Sella, and its criticism of Levy and Lapidot.
|
||||
[^70]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," *Washington Post*, May 27, 1987 (Jerusalem dateline May 26). CIA CREST copy: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0 The Rotenstreich report's statement on the troika; the pressure to file it; Rabin and Peres's response to the subcommittee; criticism of Rabin's supervision and of the Sella and Eitan promotions.
|
||||
[^71]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," *Washington Post*, May 27, 1987 (Jerusalem dateline May 26). CIA CREST copy: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0 Shamir's remark to reporters.
|
||||
[^72]: "Israel hopes that book is now closed on Pollard spy case," *Christian Science Monitor*, May 28, 1987. https://www.csmonitor.com/1987/0528/omary.html Cabinet adoption of the Rotenstreich findings and the collective-responsibility finding.
|
||||
[^73]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," *Washington Post*, May 27, 1987 (Jerusalem dateline May 26). CIA CREST copy: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0 Indictment of Sella by a federal grand jury in Washington in March 1987.
|
||||
[^74]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Sella's assignment to the staff college after American protests, and his later retirement.
|
||||
[^75]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," *Washington Post*, May 27, 1987 (Jerusalem dateline May 26). CIA CREST copy: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0 Sella's promotion and his resignation from the Tel Nof post.
|
||||
[^76]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Eitan's post at the Israel Chemicals Company and the Sharon authorization.
|
||||
[^77]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Sella's promotion to brigadier general and his assignment to Tel Nof.
|
||||
[^78]: "Israel hopes that book is now closed on Pollard spy case," *Christian Science Monitor*, May 28, 1987. https://www.csmonitor.com/1987/0528/omary.html Committees' criticism of Sella's appointment to command Tel Nof Air Force Base.
|
||||
[^79]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Sella's fugitive status in June 1990 and the Israeli refusal of extradition.
|
||||
[^80]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Sella's account of his role as Hersh relates it, and Pollard's conduct once Sella was involved.
|
||||
[^81]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapters 21 and 22. Garment's engagement, the Israeli delegation, and his withdrawal.
|
||||
[^82]: National Security Archive, "Jonathan Pollard: Revisiting a Still Sensitive Case," Electronic Briefing Book (Richelson, December 14, 2012; reposted November 24, 2020). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2012-12-14/jonathan-pollard-spy-case-cias-1987-damage-assessment-declassified Parole conditions, including the travel restriction, as stated in the November 24, 2020 posting.
|
||||
[^83]: Matthew S. Schwartz, "Jonathan Pollard, Who Sold Cold War Secrets To Israel, Completes Parole," NPR, carried by *Georgia Public Broadcasting*, November 21, 2020. https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/11/21/jonathan-pollard-who-sold-cold-war-secrets-israel-completes-parole Parole Commission statement and the lawyers' statement.
|
||||
[^84]: Associated Press, "Reports convicted US spy Pollard arrives in Israel," December 30, 2020. https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/world/2020/12/30/reports-convicted-us-spy-pollard-arrives-in-israel/ Arrival on December 30, 2020, the reception and Israeli identity cards.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -11,26 +11,29 @@ tags:
|
|||
- DOJ
|
||||
- Pollard
|
||||
- IranContra
|
||||
summary: "Deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division for twenty years, named by a Senate investigator's source as knowing of Lowell Jensen's conduct in the INSLAW matter and questioned by the Bua inquiry over the Office of Special Investigations; he called INSLAW's charges slanderous."
|
||||
summary: "Deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division for twenty years; a Senate investigator's source said he knew of Lowell Jensen's conduct in the INSLAW matter, and he called INSLAW's charges slanderous."
|
||||
died: 2009-05-23
|
||||
location: "Washington, D.C."
|
||||
created: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Mark M. Richard (died May 23, 2009, Charlottesville, [[Virginia]], aged 69) was a career prosecutor of the [[Department of Justice]] for forty years, serving sixteen attorneys general from Ramsey Clark to Alberto Gonzales. Born in New York and raised in Brooklyn, he worked as a probation officer, graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1967 and joined the department the same year, becoming chief of the fraud section. In 1979 he was made deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division, a post he held for twenty years. He had a hand in the inquiry into Carter's budget director Bert Lance, the Billy Carter Libya lobbying case, the [[Jonathan Pollard]] espionage prosecution, the federal intervention at Waco and the mid-1990s investigation of Democratic National Committee contributions. From 1999 to 2007 he was the department's representative to the [[European Union]], leading counterterrorism coordination after September 2001 and negotiating extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties. He received the Presidential Rank Award, two Attorney General's Exceptional Service Awards and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] Director's Award; Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at his funeral, and the Criminal Division named a memorial award for him.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Pollard and Iran-Contra
|
||||
|
||||
In 1986 [[Leonard Garment]] informed U.S. Attorney [[Joseph E. diGenova]] and Richard that he was withdrawing from the representation of the Israeli officer Aviem Sella in the Pollard matter. Richard's handwritten notes of a department briefing on the Iran-Contra figure [[Scott Weekly]] recorded: "Weekly posts on tape that he's tied into CIA and Hasenfus. Said he reports to people reporting to Bush."[^2][^3]
|
||||
In December 1985 a United States delegation went to Israel to pursue the Pollard investigation. It included [[Abraham Sofaer]], the State Department legal adviser, [[Joseph E. diGenova]], the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Edward S.G. Dennis Jr., the Assistant Attorney General who headed the Criminal Division, William J. Birney, second-ranking prosecutor in the United States Attorney's office, and Richard, then a deputy assistant attorney general.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1986 [[Leonard Garment]] informed U.S. Attorney diGenova and Richard that he was withdrawing from the representation of the Israeli officer Aviem Sella in the Pollard matter. Richard's handwritten notes of a department briefing on the Iran-Contra figure [[Scott Weekly]] recorded: "Weekly posts on tape that he's tied into CIA and Hasenfus. Said he reports to people reporting to Bush."[^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### The INSLAW Inquiry
|
||||
|
||||
A career department source of [[Ronald LeGrand]], chief investigator of the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]], said that Richard, [[John Keeney]] and [[Philip White]] knew "all about" [[Lowell Jensen]]'s conduct in the [[INSLAW]] matter and that Richard and White were "pretty upset" about it but would speak only under subpoena and oath. Interviewed by the special counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]], Richard said he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by Jensen generally or of the kind described in [[Bill Hamilton]]'s affidavit, and Bua found no credible evidence for the allegation. INSLAW also suggested that the [[Office of Special Investigations]], the Nazi-hunting unit within the Criminal Division, was a covert intelligence arm distributing [[PROMIS]]. Bua's report records his reply: "Mr. Richard stated that INSLAW's charges are ridiculous. He said that OSI is only involved in its stated mission of locating and deporting Nazi war criminals and in related projects such as the analysis of Kurt Waldheim's role during World War II. He did, however, note that OSI does work with various intelligence agencies in fulfilling its mandate of locating war criminals. He categorically denied any involvement by OSI in covert operations, the dissemination of PROMIS or the death of Mr. Casolaro. He said that he considers these and other allegations made by INSLAW to be slanderous."[^4]
|
||||
A career department source of [[Ronald LeGrand]], chief investigator of the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]], said that Richard, [[John Keeney]] and [[Philip White]] knew "all about" [[Lowell Jensen]]'s conduct in the [[INSLAW]] matter and that Richard and White were "pretty upset" about it but would speak only under subpoena and oath. Interviewed by the special counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]], Richard said he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by Jensen generally or of the kind described in [[Bill Hamilton]]'s affidavit, and Bua found no credible evidence for the allegation. INSLAW also suggested that the [[Office of Special Investigations]], the Nazi-hunting unit within the Criminal Division, was a covert intelligence arm distributing [[PROMIS]]. Bua's report records his reply: "Mr. Richard stated that INSLAW's charges are ridiculous. He said that OSI is only involved in its stated mission of locating and deporting Nazi war criminals and in related projects such as the analysis of Kurt Waldheim's role during World War II. He did, however, note that OSI does work with various intelligence agencies in fulfilling its mandate of locating war criminals. He categorically denied any involvement by OSI in covert operations, the dissemination of PROMIS or the death of Mr. Casolaro. He said that he considers these and other allegations made by INSLAW to be slanderous."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: "Mark M. Richard, Career Prosecutor With the Justice Department, Dies at 69," *The Washington Post,* June 3, 2009. Archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20141225083941/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/03/AR2009060303700.html
|
||||
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option,* Random House, 1991, ch. 21.
|
||||
[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance,* Seven Stories, 1998, ch. 19.
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.,* March 1993, p. 120 and the section on the Office of Special Investigations. https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport
|
||||
[^2]: "Decade of the Spy," undated counterintelligence history extract, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 407, Doc. 14. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/EBB-PollardDoc14.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option,* Random House, 1991, ch. 21.
|
||||
[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance,* Seven Stories, 1998, ch. 19.
|
||||
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.,* March 1993, p. 120 and the section on the Office of Special Investigations. https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Nuclear
|
||||
- Israel
|
||||
summary: "Peres's rise to influence began in late 1953, when David Ben-Gurion appointed the then thirty-year-old Shimon Peres as director general of the ministry of defense."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
born: 1923-08-02
|
||||
died: 2016-09-28
|
||||
location: "Wiszniew, Poland"
|
||||
|
|
@ -31,7 +32,7 @@ Documents obtained by [[Sasha Polakow-Suransky]] record meetings in March and Ju
|
|||
|
||||
### Controversies and Covert Operations
|
||||
|
||||
Peres's career was not without scandal. In 1976, a telegram intercepted by [[Unit 8200]] revealed details of bribes paid by a [[Lockheed Aircraft Company|Lockheed]] representative in Israel to Defense Minister Peres. The sum involved was $3.5 million, deposited in one of Peres's brother's business accounts in [[Europe]]. This damaging information, discovered by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], was subsequently covered up by Israeli military intelligence superiors.[^1]
|
||||
Peres's career was not without scandal. According to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], a telegram intercepted by [[Unit 8200]] in 1976 revealed details of bribes paid by a [[Lockheed Aircraft Company|Lockheed]] representative in Israel to Defense Minister Peres. Ben-Menashe wrote that the sum involved was $3.5 million, deposited in one of Peres's brother's business accounts in [[Europe]], that he discovered the telegram, and that the information was subsequently covered up by Israeli military intelligence superiors.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The 1980s brought new controversies involving arms sales to [[Iran]]. In 1980, [[William J. Casey]] invited Peres, then [[Labor Party]] leader, to participate in secret meetings concerning arms sales to Iran. Peres secretly met with [[Mehdi Karrubi]] in [[Madrid]], actions that drew sharp criticism when they came to light. When [[Menachem Begin]] learned of this unauthorized diplomacy, he warned Peres that such actions without government knowledge would be considered treason.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ tags:
|
|||
- IranContra
|
||||
- Arms
|
||||
- Mossad
|
||||
summary: "Yaacov Nimrodi was an Israeli arms dealer and former military intelligence attache in Iran who served alongside David Kimche and Al Schwimmer as part of the 'troika' that managed the first three Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages transfers in 1985."
|
||||
summary: "Yaacov Nimrodi was an Israeli arms dealer and former military attache in Iran who served with David Kimche and Al Schwimmer in the troika that managed the first Iran-Contra arms transfers in 1985."
|
||||
created: 2026-05-14
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-14
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
born: 1928
|
||||
died: 2016-07-02
|
||||
location: "Tel Aviv, Israel"
|
||||
|
|
@ -21,9 +21,11 @@ Nimrodi is consistently identified as one of the three principal Israeli facilit
|
|||
|
||||
The arrangement began when Kimche approached U.S. National Security Advisor [[Robert McFarlane]] in mid-1985 to propose that American weapons transferred to Iran via Israel could produce the release of American hostages held in [[Lebanon]] and open a channel to Iranian moderates. President [[Ronald Reagan]] agreed. Nimrodi's role was to leverage his Iranian network - including contacts from his years as military attache - to identify Iranian interlocutors and facilitate the first weapons transfers.
|
||||
|
||||
The first transfer, of 96 TOW missiles from Israeli stocks in August 1985, was managed through the troika. A second TOW transfer of 408 missiles followed in September 1985. A shipment of 18 HAWK surface-to-air missiles was attempted in November 1985, but the operation was badly mismanaged, the missiles proved to be a version the Iranians could not use, and the transaction's exposure began the chain of events that led to the scandal.[^2]
|
||||
The congressional committees investigating the Iran-Contra Affair recorded that [[Adnan Khashoggi]] introduced [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]] to Al Schwimmer, described as an adviser to then Israeli Prime Minister [[Shimon Peres]], and to Nimrodi. The report places an October 8, 1985 Washington meeting of Ghorbanifar with Schwimmer and Nimrodi. The same report records that David Kimche, director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, became involved in late June 1985.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Nimrodi stepped back from the operation by the end of 1985, as did Kimche, when the arms channel was handed off to [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], [[Oliver North]], and [[Amiram Nir]], whose management of the subsequent stages led eventually to public disclosure in November 1986.
|
||||
The first transfer, of 96 TOW missiles from Israeli stocks in August 1985, was managed through the troika. A second TOW transfer of 408 missiles followed in September 1985. A shipment of 18 HAWK surface-to-air missiles was attempted in November 1985, but the operation was badly mismanaged, the missiles proved to be a version the Iranians could not use, and the transaction's exposure began the chain of events that led to the scandal.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Nimrodi stepped back from the operation by the end of 1985, as did Kimche, when the arms channel was handed off to Manucher Ghorbanifar, [[Oliver North]], and [[Amiram Nir]], whose management of the subsequent stages led eventually to public disclosure in November 1986.
|
||||
|
||||
### Business Career
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -32,4 +34,5 @@ After his government service, Nimrodi established himself as a businessman with
|
|||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: "Yaakov Nimrodi," Israeli newspaper archives compiled in obituaries, July 2016.
|
||||
[^2]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters.* United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1993.
|
||||
[^2]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (S. Rept. 100-216, H. Rept. 100-433, 1987), chapter 10. https://archive.org/details/reportofcongress87unit
|
||||
[^3]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters.* United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1993.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Yitzhak Shamir
|
||||
- Yzernitzky
|
||||
- Yitzhak Yizernitzky
|
||||
- Samuel Singer
|
||||
category: "Political Figure"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- KeyFigure
|
||||
|
|
@ -6,38 +11,215 @@ tags:
|
|||
- CIA
|
||||
- Politician
|
||||
- Israel
|
||||
- Soviet
|
||||
summary: "Israeli Prime Minister and former LEHI member who authorized intelligence sharing with the Soviet Union and oversaw covert arms deals with Iran and the Iran-Israel Joint Committee."
|
||||
- Lehi
|
||||
- SternGang
|
||||
- Mossad
|
||||
- OperationDamocles
|
||||
- FolkeBernadotte
|
||||
- IranContra
|
||||
- JonathanPollard
|
||||
- MadridConference
|
||||
- RobertMaxwell
|
||||
summary: "Israeli prime minister: one of three LEHI commanders in the 1940s, Mossad officer 1955 to 1965, foreign minister during the Iran arms channel, and prime minister during the Pollard affair and Madrid."
|
||||
born: 1915-10-22
|
||||
died: 2012-06-30
|
||||
location: "Ruzhany, Belarus"
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[LEHI]]"
|
||||
role: "member and leader of the Stern Group"
|
||||
start: 1940
|
||||
end: 1948
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Mossad]]"
|
||||
role: "operations officer; head of the Paris office under the cover name Samuel Singer"
|
||||
start: 1955
|
||||
end: 1965
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Operation Damocles]]"
|
||||
role: "Paris office directing the campaign against German scientists working in Egypt"
|
||||
start: 1962
|
||||
end: 1963
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Israel]]"
|
||||
role: "foreign minister"
|
||||
start: 1980-03-10
|
||||
end: 1986-10-20
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Israel]]"
|
||||
role: "prime minister"
|
||||
start: 1983-10-10
|
||||
end: 1984-09-13
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Israel]]"
|
||||
role: "prime minister"
|
||||
start: 1986-10-20
|
||||
end: 1992-07
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Likud Party]]"
|
||||
role: "party leader, succeeding Menachem Begin"
|
||||
start: 1983-09
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Iran-Contra Affair]]"
|
||||
role: "foreign minister whose consultation on the Israeli arms channel is recorded in the Tower Commission and Walsh materials"
|
||||
start: 1985-06
|
||||
end: 1986-10-20
|
||||
fn: 27
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Madrid Conference]]"
|
||||
role: "prime minister of Israel when the conference opened"
|
||||
start: 1991-10-30
|
||||
fn: 42
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Yitzhak Shamir]] was a prominent [[Israel|Israeli]] politician who served as Prime Minister of [[Israel]]. He was a former member of [[LEHI]] (Stern Gang), a Jewish terrorist group, and later became a prominent figure in [[Mossad]], serving as operations chief for [[Europe]].[^1]
|
||||
Yitzhak Shamir, also spelled Yzernitzky in some sources and born Yitzhak Jaziernicki, was born in 1915 in Ruzhany, then in Poland and now in Belarus, and died on June 30, 2012.[^1] He was one of three commanders of the Stern Group, the armed faction that called itself [[LEHI]], a senior officer of [[Mossad]] from 1955 to 1965 who ran its Paris office, and the leader of the [[Likud Party]] after [[Menachem Begin]]'s resignation in 1983.[^1] He served as [[Israel|Israeli]] foreign minister from March 1980 to October 1986 and as prime minister from October 1983 to September 1984 and again from October 1986 until the Labor government of [[Yitzhak Rabin]] took office in July 1992.[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Anti-American Sentiments and Soviet Relations
|
||||
### Stern Group and LEHI
|
||||
|
||||
[[Yitzhak Shamir|Shamir]] was known for his anti-[[United States|American]] sentiments, stemming from his belief that the [[United States|U.S.]] was partially responsible for the Holocaust. He sought to open lines of communication between [[Israel]] and the [[East Bloc]] countries, particularly after becoming prime minister in 1983. He authorized intelligence exchanges with the [[Soviet Union]], including sanitized [[United States|American]] intelligence reports about nuclear issues and evaluations of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] nuclear technology.[^1]
|
||||
Shamir joined the [[Irgun Zvai Leumi|Irgun]] in 1937 and in 1940 became a founder of its splinter group, LEHI, known to the British as the [[Stern Gang]]; he was arrested twice by the British in 1940 and escaped both times, the second time from a detention facility in [[Eritrea]].[^1] After the death of [[Avraham Stern]] at the hands of British police in 1942, the group was led by a triumvirate. The [[Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem]] names the three as [[Israel Eldad]] (also Scheib), [[Nathan Yellin-Mor]] (also Friedman) and Shamir (also Yzernitzsky).[^4] The same reference describes Shamir as a member of the Irgun before he joined the Stern Gang, where he became one of its leaders.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Coalition Government and Arms Trading
|
||||
### Lord Moyne in Cairo
|
||||
|
||||
[[Yitzhak Shamir|Shamir]] was a key figure in the [[Likud Party]]. He formed a bizarre coalition government with [[Shimon Peres]] of the [[Labor Party]] in 1984, sharing the roles of prime minister and foreign minister. [[Yitzhak Shamir|Shamir]] had a close relationship with [[Rafael Eitan|Rafi]], who served as his counterterrorism adviser and later ran the [[Iran-Israel Joint Committee]]. [[Yitzhak Shamir|Shamir]] was involved in the decision to supply [[Iran]] with arms in its war with [[Saddam Hussein|Saddam Hussein's]] [[Iraq]], believing it was in [[Israel|Israel's]] national security interest.[^1]
|
||||
On November 6, 1944 two members of LEHI shot the British minister resident in the [[Middle East]], [[Lord Moyne]], outside his house in [[Cairo]]; his driver was also killed. The two men, Eliahu Bet-Tsuri and Eliahu Hakim, were captured at the scene, admitted the killing in court, and were tried, condemned and executed in early 1945.[^5] [[Anthony Eden]] told the House of Commons on November 9, 1944 that the two prisoners had confessed: "We are members of the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel organisation and what we have done was done on the instructions of this organisation. The organisation is that known as the Stern Group."[^6] The [[National Archives (United Kingdom)|National Archives]] at Kew holds Cabinet and Prime Minister's Office files titled "Assassination of Lord Moyne" (CAB 104/254 and PREM 4/51/11) and Foreign Office files on the trial and execution of the assassins (FO 141/1001, FO 954/5D and FO 371/41514 to 41517).[^7] The Encyclopedia states that Shamir "was one of the terrorists who planned the assassination."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Pollard Espionage Case
|
||||
### Folke Bernadotte
|
||||
|
||||
[[Yitzhak Shamir|Shamir]] was also involved in the [[Jonathan Pollard]] espionage case, authorizing the transfer of [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence gleaned from the [[United States|United States]] to the [[Soviet Union]]. During his tenure as prime minister (1984-1986), Shamir authorized some of the [[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard]] material to be sanitized, retyped, and turned over to Soviet intelligence officials as a gesture of Israeli goodwill. This decision was consistent with his personal and political beliefs, as he viscerally disliked the [[United States]] and was fascinated with strong regimes, viewing the U.S. as "soft, bourgeois, materialistic and effete." He believed that by relaying the Pollard information to the Soviets, he was demonstrating that [[Israel]] could be a much more dependable and important collaborator in the [[Middle East]] than the "fickle" Arabs. Shamir's actions, if exposed, would have meant the end of the increasingly shaky Likud coalition and put the overall Israeli–United States relationship at risk.[^1][^2]
|
||||
On September 17, 1948 [[Folke Bernadotte|Count Folke Bernadotte]], the United Nations Mediator in Palestine, was assassinated together with a French United Nations observer in a part of [[Jerusalem]] under Jewish control. The Yearbook of the United Nations prints the mediator's progress report, dated 18 September 1948, as document A/648.[^8] Eden told the Commons on September 20 that the House deplored "the callous and the seemingly purposeless assassination of Count Bernadotte."[^9] A [[Central Intelligence Agency]] weekly summary from October 1948 reported that the Provisional Government of Israel had not apprehended the assassins and that many members of the Stern Gang were still at large.[^10] Foreign Office files on the killing from 1948 and 1949 include the [[Sweden|Swedish]] government's dissatisfaction with the Israeli report to the Security Council.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Yitzhak Shamir|Shamir]] was furious when the [[Oliver North|North]] group leaked the [[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard]] story, and sought to nip the newcomers in the bud.[^1]
|
||||
Two former LEHI members described the killing on Israeli television and radio on September 9, 1988, in what The New York Times called the first public acknowledgement by members of the group. [[Yehoshua Zettler]] (also spelled Zeitler) said he directed the assassination, and Meshulam Markover said he led the four-man squad that blocked the mediator's car with a jeep on a Jerusalem street. According to their account Yehoshua Cohen, who had died two years earlier, fired the shots that killed the mediator and his French aide. Zeitler said he spoke out because he feared the United Nations would again try to force Israel into concessions. A spokesman for Shamir, then prime minister, said that Shamir had played no role in the assassination because the group had officially disbanded six months earlier.[^12] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Zeitler said four people carried out the assassination and that Shamir was not directly implicated in the act, while Israel Eldad (Scheib) said Shamir was one of four men responsible for planning assassinations and could not confirm that Shamir attended the meeting at which Bernadotte's killing was ordered. Sweden insisted on a second apology; Israel refused.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### Palestinian and Regional Policy
|
||||
The Encyclopedia reports that the decision to kill the mediator was taken at two clandestine meetings of the Stern Gang triumvirate, in June and September 1948. Shamir "was at the first meeting, which agreed in principle that the mediator had to be killed. The second meeting gave the order to go ahead."[^4] For the account of September 10, 1948, when Zettler drove Eldad from Jerusalem to a meeting in [[Tel Aviv]] with Nathan Yellin-Mor and Shamir, the Encyclopedia draws on [[Dan Kurzman]]'s [[Genesis 1948]].[^14] The Encyclopedia quotes the London Sunday Observer of September 18, 1988, under the headline "Death Warrant Returns to Haunt Shamir," as saying that Shamir "has not denied his part in the murder." A spokesman, [[Josef Ahimeir]], is quoted: "The Prime Minister is concentrating on the present and future problems of the State of Israel. We don't want to deal with this affair. All that can be said has been said."[^15] The Encyclopedia adds that the revelations prompted Sweden to demand that the case be reopened.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Yitzhak Shamir|Shamir]] opposed [[United States|U.S.]] peace initiatives that would involve giving up territory in the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip]], and believed that [[Jordan]] should be the Palestinian state. Despite this public stance, [[Yitzhak Shamir|Shamir]] initiated secret attempts to negotiate a solution to the Palestinian situation with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization|PLO]], discussing a plan to unseat [[King Hussein of Jordan|King Hussein]] of [[Jordan]] and establish a Palestinian state there.[^1]
|
||||
### Mossad and Operation Damocles
|
||||
|
||||
### Nuclear and Chemical Weapons Programs
|
||||
Roger Howard's [[Operation Damocles]] describes Shamir as "Mossad's European operations chief," who handpicked the agents for the operation.[^16] Howard also places him as head of the Paris office of Mossad, under the cover name Samuel Singer.[^17] The campaign Howard describes was directed by [[Isser Harel]], then head of Mossad, against German engineers and scientists working on [[Egypt]]'s rocket and missile program. Howard writes that Mossad's complicity in the disappearance of a Munich procurement company director on September 11, 1962 "has never been conclusively proven, but almost certainly this was just the beginning of Operation Damocles."[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Yitzhak Shamir|Shamir]] authorized [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] to undertake a secret mission to [[Peru]] to acquire nuclear substances for [[Israel|Israel's]] tactical atom bomb program. [[Yitzhak Shamir|Shamir]] was confronted by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] regarding the chemical weapons trade to [[Iraq]] and the need to secure the release of [[Israel|Israeli]] soldiers held in [[Lebanon]]. He initially refused to release [[C-130]] aircraft to [[Iran]] until the [[Israel|Israeli]] soldiers were freed, but later changed his mind. He also intervened to put on hold the execution list of individuals deemed enemies of the state of [[Israel]].[^1]
|
||||
Howard records an attack on a German engineer in [[Lörrach]] on February 12, 1963. The attackers forced his car to stop on a narrow lane near his house, one agent fired at him, the weapon jammed, and the engineer returned fire before the attackers ran back to their car. Howard concludes that he "had narrowly survived."[^16] On November 27, 1962 a letter bomb sent from Germany injured a secretary in the office of a German scientist at the [[Heliopolis]] factory where the Egyptian rocket program was based.[^17] Howard places Shamir's Paris posting in 1962 and 1963; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency dates his service as a senior Mossad official to 1955 through 1965.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Prime minister, 1983 to 1984
|
||||
|
||||
Shamir became prime minister on October 10, 1983.[^2] A December 1983 Central Intelligence Agency assessment titled "Israel: Economic Problems Facing the Shamir Government" reported that his government inherited severe economic problems. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange had been closed, and Israelis were buying dollars in such numbers that some banks ran out of foreign exchange.[^18] A [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] Post column of November 29, 1983 reported that Reagan and his top advisers were meeting Shamir and Defense Minister [[Moshe Arens]] behind closed doors. Its most important topic was how to implement the administration's decision to cooperate more closely with Israel in Lebanon. The column noted that on October 29 the president had signed a secret National Security Decision Directive calling for "closer strategic coordination with Israel in the Middle East." Its second topic was the Israeli-Lebanese agreement on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### Foreign minister, 1980 to 1983
|
||||
|
||||
Shamir was foreign minister from March 10, 1980.[^2] On October 4, 1982 [[George P. Shultz]], then secretary of state, told the Soviet foreign minister [[Andrei Gromyko]] in [[New York]] that he had put the question of Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon to Shamir. Shamir had said that once the Syrians were out, Israel would leave all of Lebanon and "not occupy any part of it."[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
In February 1981 Prime Minister Menachem Begin sent Shamir to Washington to see [[Alexander Haig]], the secretary of state, because Begin was unhappy with the American position set out in a February 4 cable. According to Haig, Shamir was told that the [[United States]] could not prohibit Israeli sales of non-American items to Iran but opposed any arms deal with Iran and prohibited sales of American-origin arms. The [[Joint Report of the October Surprise Task Force]] (1993) records that "Foreign Minister Shamir apparently heard Haig's message differently," and that he told Begin the United States objected to the sale of American-origin equipment.[^21] An affidavit by [[William Northrop]] asserted that Haig had authorized Israel to ship American weapons to Iran. The Task Force's review of the cable traffic and the participants' notes found that "no green light was ever given for the shipment of American-made weapons between Israel and Iran."[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
### Rotation with Shimon Peres, 1984 to 1986
|
||||
|
||||
From September 1984 to October 1986 Shamir served as foreign minister under [[Shimon Peres]], who was prime minister, and the two then exchanged posts on October 20, 1986.[^2] On September 27, 1984 Shultz telegraphed from New York that Shamir had told him Gromyko's manner "seemed slightly more moderate in their bilateral."[^22] The Foreign Relations of the United States volume for the period records that Gromyko had confirmed to Shamir that the Soviet Union supports the existence of an independent Israel.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Bus 300 affair]] surfaced in June 1986. A [[Labor Party|Labor]] minister named in the report as Gur, the minister of health and a former army chief of staff, called for Shamir's resignation over his reported part in covering up the killing of two captured Palestinian bus hijackers by Israeli agents. The New York Times reported that Shamir had been prime minister when the 1984 hijacking took place, and that the head of [[Shin Bet]], [[Avraham Shalom]], had resigned.[^24] Shamir was quoted by Cabinet sources as saying "My conscience is clear."[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
A Central Intelligence Agency talking-points paper of September 29, 1986 said that Shamir, unlike Peres, was adamantly opposed to any kind of international conference for Middle East peace.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
### Israeli arms channel and Iran-Contra
|
||||
|
||||
The congressional committees investigating the Iran-Contra Affair recorded that [[Adnan Khashoggi]] introduced [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]] to [[Al Schwimmer]], described as an adviser to then Prime Minister Peres, and to [[Yaacov Nimrodi]]. In late June 1985 [[David Kimche]], director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, became involved. On August 2 and 3, 1985 he was in Washington, where [[Robert McFarlane]] told the Israelis that TOW missiles had been authorized.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
The Tower Commission report gives Shultz's account of a conversation in which McFarlane said that "Foreign Minister Shamir had told Mr. Kimche that he wanted to know explicitly whether I was informed."[^27] A note by Hill dated August 6, 1985, cited in the [[Walsh Report]], records the same remark.[^28] [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]'s account places Shamir among those who decided on Israeli arms supplies to Iran in its war with [[Saddam Hussein|Saddam Hussein's]] [[Iraq]], a decision he says was made in the belief that it served Israel's national security interest.[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
In September 1986 a memorandum from [[Oliver North]] recorded that "Incoming PM Shamir and outgoing PM Peres have agreed that Nir will remain in his current capacity after the change of government in October." The memorandum refers to [[Amiram Nir]], who was then the Israeli official in the arms dealings.[^30] Ben-Menashe says that [[Rafael Eitan|Rafi Eitan]] served as Shamir's counterterrorism adviser and later ran the [[Iran-Israel Joint Committee]].[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
### Pollard affair
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Los Angeles Times]] reported on November 29, 1985 that Peres, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shamir had been meeting daily to review the internal investigation into [[Jonathan Pollard]]'s activities. The paper reported that the essential elements of the case were believed to be clear to the three, who were hesitating about any public disclosure.[^31] In late February 1987 the Israeli embassy spokesman [[Yossi Gal]] said that Shamir had reiterated on a recent visit to Washington "that this was a rogue operation that was not authorized and against the will of the government."[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first week of March 1987. In a report from Jerusalem published March 11, 1987, [[Thomas L. Friedman]] quoted Shamir: "The State of Israel has no connection with Pollard or his family." Shamir rejected a formal inquiry: "There is no need for a commission of inquiry," he said. "The problem is not to investigate what happened. Those who need not know should continue not knowing." A committee headed by [[Abba Eban]] was to question the officials involved, through its intelligence subcommittee.[^33] Friedman wrote that Shamir's remarks "reflect a certain anti-American sentiment that has been brewing here in the last few days," directed at both American Jews and the American government.[^33] [[The Washington Times]] reported on March 11 that Shamir had said "the Pollard affair is closed," while the [[Knesset]] would conduct a full-scale investigation.[^34]
|
||||
|
||||
The Eban subcommittee and a two-member cabinet panel reported on May 26, 1987. The Washington Post reported that the subcommittee said Shimon Peres, Shamir and Rabin shared responsibility for the government's failure to live up to commitments made to the United States after Pollard's arrest, and that, contrary to the government's earlier statements, the subcommittee's report described the affair as "not a rogue operation." Shamir told reporters that the government had no intention of resigning and that "the mountain was really a molehill and the earth did not move."[^35] The Christian Science Monitor reported that the cabinet adopted the findings of its panel, which held the entire government collectively responsible.[^36]
|
||||
|
||||
Ben-Menashe wrote that Shamir authorized some of the Pollard material to be sanitized, retyped and turned over to Soviet intelligence officials as a gesture of Israeli goodwill during 1984 to 1986. Shamir was foreign minister for most of the 1984 to 1986 period, while Peres was prime minister.[^2] He writes that Shamir regarded the United States as "soft, bourgeois, materialistic and effete," and that Shamir believed the relay would show Israel to be a more dependable collaborator than the "fickle" Arabs.[^29] [[Seymour Hersh]]'s [[The Samson Option]] also describes Israeli passage of Pollard material to the Soviet Union.[^37] Ben-Menashe adds that Shamir was furious when the North group leaked the Pollard story and sought to end it.[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
### Second term and the Soviet channel, 1986 to 1988
|
||||
|
||||
Shamir again became prime minister on October 20, 1986.[^2] A 1988 briefing paper in the Foreign Relations of the United States records that Shamir's visit to Washington had been scheduled for March 14 to 17, 1988.[^38] In [[Moscow]] in April 1988 Shultz told [[Eduard Shevardnadze]] that Shamir "rejected some elements" of the American initiative, "accepted interrelationships, and accepted international auspices," and "was leery of a conference because he feared it would be authoritative." Shevardnadze told Shultz that "Shamir was more negative than Arafat," and said there was a question of who was in charge in Israel, the prime minister or the foreign minister.[^39]
|
||||
|
||||
The record of an Oval Office meeting on September 18, 1987, with Shultz, Senator Baker, [[Ken Duberstein]] and [[Frank Carlucci]], includes the line "Thatcher cable urges we go w/o Shamir," in a discussion of a Middle East international conference.[^40]
|
||||
|
||||
### Gulf War
|
||||
|
||||
The New York Times headlined on January 18, 1991 that Iraq had fired missiles at Israeli cities. On January 20, President [[George H. W. Bush]] telephoned Shamir twice from Camp David, at 3 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Washington time, to thank Israel for its "restraint" in not retaliating for the Iraqi Scud attacks and to express his hope that Israel would let the United States retaliate on its behalf. The White House spokesman [[Marlin Fitzwater]] quoted the president as telling Shamir: "I understand the anguish of your people and your Government." Deputy Secretary of State [[Lawrence Eagleburger]] and Under Secretary of Defense [[Paul Wolfowitz]] were sent to Israel to coordinate policy, and American crews arrived that day to operate [[Patriot]] missile batteries, which Israel had resisted accepting until the first Scud fell on Tel Aviv.[^41] On January 21 the paper reported that Israeli tension eased a bit as new American help arrived.[^41] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency's obituary states that Shamir overruled members of his government who wanted to strike Iraq.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Madrid Conference
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Madrid Conference]] began on October 30, 1991. The New York Times headlined that day "Bush and Gorbachev in Spain: let the talks begin," and the next day "Israel, Arabs face to face, begin quest for mideast peace."[^42] Shamir delivered Israel's opening address on October 31. He told the delegations that "the issue is not territory, but our existence," that "it will be regrettable if the talks focus primarily and exclusively on territory," and that the goal of the bilateral negotiations was peace treaties with Israel's neighbors and interim self-government arrangements with the Palestinian Arabs. He appealed to Palestinian delegates to "renounce violence and terrorism" and said Israel could not "be expected to talk with people involved in such repulsive activities."[^43] The Tehiya, Tzomet and Moledet parties left his coalition over the talks, which led to early elections in which Labor defeated Likud.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Loan guarantees, 1991 to 1992
|
||||
|
||||
In September 1991 Israel applied for $10 billion in American loan guarantees, and President Bush publicly asked that consideration be delayed. Israeli officials reacted, in the Christian Science Monitor's words, with a mixture of scorn and bitterness; one anonymous official called Bush's argument "nonsense" and hinted that Israel might reconsider attending the peace conference. Shamir, on Israeli television, answered a question about the effect on Israeli participation by recalling Secretary of State [[James Baker]]: "As Secretary Baker said, 'Everything has an effect.' This might have an effect as well." In a radio interview he predicted that if the Arabs were "handed such a gift, without even asking for it, they will dance on the roofs, make new and even bigger demands, and the peace process will become impossible."[^44] The Monitor reported in October that Shamir had rebuffed a request by Baker, during Baker's trip to Jerusalem, to delay the application, that a senior administration official had said the guarantees would hinge on a freeze on new settlement activity, and that pro-Israel senators had concluded they could not pass the guarantees over the president's opposition.[^45]
|
||||
|
||||
### Robert Maxwell
|
||||
|
||||
The publisher [[Robert Maxwell]] died in November 1991. The New York Times reported on November 9 that his body had been flown to Israel.[^46] The [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] reported that Maxwell was buried on Sunday on the Mount of Olives "with all the pomp of a state funeral," and that President [[Chaim Herzog]] and Prime Minister Shamir "headed a galaxy of dignitaries and politicians."[^47]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Daniel Pipes]], reviewing [[Gordon Thomas]]'s [[Gideon's Spies]] (1999) in [[Commentary]], wrote that the book presents Shamir as a "virulent" anti-American who would "do anything" to reduce Washington's influence in the world.[^48]
|
||||
|
||||
### Ben-Menashe's claims
|
||||
|
||||
Ben-Menashe wrote that Shamir authorized him to undertake a secret mission to [[Peru]] to acquire nuclear substances for Israel's tactical atomic bomb program. He also writes that he confronted Shamir about the chemical weapons trade to Iraq and the need to secure the release of Israeli soldiers held in [[Lebanon]].[^29] Ben-Menashe says that Shamir initially refused to release [[C-130]] aircraft to [[Iran]] until the soldiers were freed, and then changed his mind, and that Shamir intervened to put on hold an execution list of people deemed enemies of the state of Israel.[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
Ben-Menashe writes that Shamir's anti-American sentiment stemmed from a belief that the United States was partially responsible for the Holocaust. He says Shamir sought to open lines of communication with the [[East Bloc]] after becoming prime minister in 1983, and passed sanitized American intelligence reports on nuclear issues and assessments of Soviet nuclear technology to the [[Soviet Union]].[^29] He also says Shamir opposed American peace initiatives that would involve giving up territory in the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip]], held that [[Jordan]] should be the Palestinian state, and in secret discussed with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization|PLO]] a plan to unseat [[King Hussein of Jordan|King Hussein]].[^29]
|
||||
|
||||
The Joint Report of the October Surprise Task Force found that Ben-Menashe made "several allegations that proved to be factually incorrect," and that documentary evidence showed he was not in Paris at the time he alleged. The Task Force also found the testimony of Ben-Menashe and of a second witness on the Madrid meetings "wholly lacking of any credibility."[^49]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.
|
||||
[^1]: "Yitzhak Shamir, Israel's 7th prime minister, dies at 96," _Jewish Telegraphic Agency_, July 2012 (born 1915 in Ruzhany; Irgun 1937; Lehi 1940; one of three leaders after Stern's death; senior Mossad official 1955 to 1965; Likud leader on Begin's resignation in 1983; Gulf War; Madrid and the coalition departures). https://www.jta.org/?p=1789432
|
||||
[^2]: _Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988_, vol. I, biographical register, entry "Shamir, Yitzhak." https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1981-88v01
|
||||
[^3]: "Israel's Rabin Leaves Door Ajar For Ultra-Orthodox in Cabinet," _The Christian Science Monitor_, 14 July 1992 (refers to "outgoing Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's Cabinet"). https://www.csmonitor.com/1992/0714/14013.html
|
||||
[^4]: Issa Nakhleh, _Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem_, vol. 1 (1991), entries on the Stern Gang, Lord Moyne and Count Bernadotte. https://archive.org/details/encyclopedia-of-the-palestine-problem-volume-i
|
||||
[^5]: "The Assassination of Lord Moyne," _Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England_ (article text); The National Archives (Kew), FO 141/1001. https://www.jhse.org/pre-2015articles/the-assassination-of-lord-moyne
|
||||
[^6]: "Assassination of Lord Moyne," HC Deb 9 November 1944, vol. 404, cols. 1538-41. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1944/nov/09/assassination-of-lord-moyne
|
||||
[^7]: The National Archives (Kew), Discovery catalogue: CAB 104/254, "Assassination of Lord Moyne" (1944); PREM 4/51/11 (November 1944 to March 1945); FO 141/1001, "Lord Moyne: trial of his assassins" (1944); FO 954/5D/666 (5 December 1944); FO 371/41514 to 41517 (Code 66, file 33). https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
|
||||
[^8]: _Yearbook of the United Nations 1947-48_, "Tributes to Count Bernadotte and Colonel Serot," and the document index entry for A/648, Progress report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, dated 18 September 1948. https://archive.org/details/yearbook-of-the-united-nations_1947-1948
|
||||
[^9]: "Count Bernadotte (Assassination)," HC Deb 20 September 1948, vol. 456, col. 521. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1948/sep/20/count-bernadotte-assassination
|
||||
[^10]: Central Intelligence Agency, weekly summary, October 1948 (CIA-RDP78-01617A002100020001-5). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp78-01617a002100020001-5
|
||||
[^11]: The National Archives (Kew), Discovery catalogue: FO 371/68696 (1948), "Assassination of UN Mediator Count Bernadotte and Colonel Serot by Jews"; FO 371/75266 (1949), "Assassination of Count Bernadotte"; FO 371/75192 (1949). https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
|
||||
[^12]: John Kifner, "2 Recount '48 Killing in Israel," _The New York Times_, 12 September 1988, p. A3. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/12/world/2-recount-48-killing-in-israel.html
|
||||
[^13]: "Israel refuses to apologize for 1948 assassination," _Jewish Telegraphic Agency_, September 1988. https://jta.org/archive/israel-refuses-to-apologize-for-1948-assassination
|
||||
[^14]: Dan Kurzman, _Genesis 1948_ (1970), pp. 555-556, as quoted in _Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem_ (see note 3). https://archive.org/details/genesis1948first00kurz
|
||||
[^15]: Eric Silver, "Death Warrant Returns to Haunt Shamir," _The Sunday Observer_ (London), 18 September 1988, as quoted in _Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem_ (see note 3).
|
||||
[^16]: Roger Howard, _Operation Damocles: Israel's Secret War against Hitler's Scientists in Egypt, 1954-1967_ (2013), chapter 1. https://archive.org/details/operationdamocle0000howa
|
||||
[^17]: Roger Howard, _Operation Damocles_, chapter 16. https://archive.org/details/operationdamocle0000howa
|
||||
[^18]: Central Intelligence Agency, NESA 83-10332, "Israel: Economic Problems Facing the Shamir Government" (December 1983). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp84s00927r000200070002-4
|
||||
[^19]: "Talks Focusing on Cooperation," _The Washington Post_ column, 29 November 1983 (reading-room copy). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000100140007-2
|
||||
[^20]: _Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988_, vol. III, document 221 (Shultz and Gromyko meeting, New York, 4 October 1982). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1981-88v03/d221
|
||||
[^21]: _Joint Report of the October Surprise Task Force_ (1993), section 9, "Israel Renews Request to Sell Arms, January 1981," and the section on the Northrop allegation. https://archive.org/details/JointReportOfTheOctoberSurpriseTaskForce
|
||||
[^22]: Telegram from Secretary of State Shultz, New York, 27 September 1984, _Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988_, vol. IV, document 285. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1981-88v04/d285
|
||||
[^23]: _Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988_, vol. IV, document 287 (Gromyko meeting, 1984). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1981-88v04/d287
|
||||
[^24]: "Charges of Cover-Up Bring Call for Shamir to Resign," _The New York Times_, 30 June 1986 (Jerusalem, 29 June; reading-room copy). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000302120015-1
|
||||
[^25]: Central Intelligence Agency, talking points, 29 September 1986 (CIA-RDP91B00874R000100280006-6). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp91b00874r000100280006-6
|
||||
[^26]: _Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair_ (S. Rept. 100-216, H. Rept. 100-433, 1987), chapter 10. https://archive.org/details/reportofcongress87unit
|
||||
[^27]: _Report of the President's Special Review Board_ (Tower Commission), 26 February 1987, account of Secretary Shultz's statements. https://archive.org/details/towercommission00unit
|
||||
[^28]: Lawrence E. Walsh, _Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters_, vol. I, chapter 24, note 59 (note by Hill, 6 August 1985). https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_24.htm
|
||||
[^29]: Ari Ben-Menashe, _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_ (Sheridan Square Press, 1992; TrineDay reprint, 2015). https://archive.org/details/profitsofwarinsi0000benm
|
||||
[^30]: Memorandum from Oliver North, September 1986, reproduced in the Tower Commission report. https://archive.org/details/towercommission00unit
|
||||
[^31]: "Pollard" report, _Los Angeles Times_, 29 November 1985 (reading-room copy, CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890020-7). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000504890020-7
|
||||
[^32]: _The Washington Post_, 28 February 1987 (reading-room copy, CIA-RDP90-00965R000403620005-5). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000403620005-5
|
||||
[^33]: Thomas L. Friedman, "Shamir Says Pollard's Fate Is No Concern of Israel," _The New York Times_, 11 March 1987 (Jerusalem, 10 March). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000302120009-8
|
||||
[^34]: _The Washington Times_, 11 March 1987 (reading-room copy, CIA-RDP90-00965R000302310041-1). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000302310041-1
|
||||
[^35]: Glenn Frankel, "Israeli Spy Probes Fault Leadership," _The Washington Post_, 27 May 1987 (CIA reading-room copy CIA-RDP90-00965R000302080002-0). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000302080002-0
|
||||
[^36]: "Israel hopes that book is now closed on Pollard spy case," _The Christian Science Monitor_, 28 May 1987. https://www.csmonitor.com/1987/0528/omary.html
|
||||
[^37]: Seymour M. Hersh, _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_ (Random House, 1991), chapter 21. https://archive.org/details/the-samson-option-seymour-hersh
|
||||
[^38]: _Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988_, vol. I, briefing paper of early 1988 (Shamir's visit scheduled for March 14 to 17). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1981-88v01
|
||||
[^39]: Memorandum of conversation, Shultz and Shevardnadze, Moscow, April 1988, _Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988_, vol. VI, document 145. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1981-88v06/d145
|
||||
[^40]: Record of the President's meeting with Secretary Shultz, Senator Baker, Ken Duberstein and Frank Carlucci in the Oval Office, 18 September 1987, _Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988_, vol. VI, document 77. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1981-88v06/d77
|
||||
[^41]: Maureen Dowd, "War in the Gulf: The President; Bush Urges Israeli Restraint in Phone Appeals to Shamir," _The New York Times_, 20 January 1991, p. 16; headlines of 18 and 21 January 1991. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/20/world/war-gulf-president-bush-urges-israeli-restraint-phone-appeals-shamir.html
|
||||
[^42]: _The New York Times_, 30 and 31 October 1991, headlines "Bush and Gorbachev in Spain: let the talks begin" and "Middle East talks: Israel, Arabs face to face, begin quest for mideast peace." https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/30/world/the-middle-east-talks-bush-and-gorbachev-in-spain-let-the-talks-begin.html and https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/31/world/middle-east-talks-israel-arabs-face-face-begin-quest-for-mideast-peace.html
|
||||
[^43]: "Address by Prime Minister Shamir at the Madrid Peace Conference," 31 October 1991. https://jcpa-lecape.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Address-by-Prime-Minister-Shamir-at-the-Madrid-Peace-Conference.pdf
|
||||
[^44]: "Israeli Leaders Move to Head Off Rift With Bush," _The Christian Science Monitor_, 9 September 1991. https://www.csmonitor.com/1991/0909/09031.html
|
||||
[^45]: "Stance on Loan Guarantees Marks Significant Shift in US Israel Policy," _The Christian Science Monitor_, 8 October 1991. https://www.csmonitor.com/1991/1008/08062.html
|
||||
[^46]: "Maxwell's body flown to Israel," _The New York Times_, 9 November 1991. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/09/business/the-media-business-maxwell-s-body-flown-to-israel.html
|
||||
[^47]: "Maxwell, Colossus Even in Death, Laid to Rest on Mount of Olives," _Jewish Telegraphic Agency_, 11 November 1991. https://www.jta.org/archive/maxwell-colossus-even-in-death-laid-to-rest-on-mount-of-olives
|
||||
[^48]: Daniel Pipes, review of Gordon Thomas, _Gideon's Spies_, _Commentary_ (1999). https://www.commentary.org/articles/daniel-pipes/gideons-spies-by-gordon-thomas/
|
||||
[^49]: _Joint Report of the October Surprise Task Force_ (1993), summary of allegations by Ari Ben-Menashe (p. 8) and the section on the Madrid meetings. https://archive.org/details/JointReportOfTheOctoberSurpriseTaskForce
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Caspar W. Weinberger
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
|
|
@ -21,7 +22,18 @@ Caspar W. Weinberger (1917-2006) was an American politician and businessman who
|
|||
|
||||
Caspar Weinberger served as the Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan. Following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing]] in June 1981, Weinberger proposed canceling the F-16 aircraft sale to [[Israel]] as a sanction. However, President Reagan privately disagreed with this course of action.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Pollard Sentencing Declarations
|
||||
|
||||
In the [[Jonathan Pollard]] prosecution Weinberger submitted a classified declaration cataloguing the damage Pollard had done. The 1992 appellate opinion describes it as opining that the damage had been "substantial and irrevocable."[^3] The day before sentencing, Weinberger submitted an unclassified supplemental declaration responding to Pollard's sentencing memoranda. It is dated March 3, 1987.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
In that declaration he wrote that "it is difficult for me, even in the so-called 'year of the spy,' to conceive of a greater harm to national security than that caused by the defendant." He argued that "the punishment imposed should reflect the perfidy of the individual's actions, the magnitude of the treason committed, and the needs of national security." He also stated that Pollard's "loyalty to Israel transcends his loyalty to the United States." He wrote that when confronted with a polygraph examination on February 25, 1987, Pollard acknowledged that he had either provided or confirmed certain information in a February 15, 1987 *Washington Post* article by talking to a journalist.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Judge Williams, dissenting in 1992, wrote that the repeated use of superlatives in the Weinberger memoranda "implied an appeal for the maximum."[^3] In a letter of December 21, 2010 to President [[Barack Obama]], former Attorney General [[Michael Mukasey]] described the submission of the Weinberger affidavits, "seeking a heavier sentence than requested by the prosecutors despite Pollard's guilty plea and cooperation," as "deeply disturbing."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
|
||||
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991.
|
||||
[^3]: *United States v. Pollard*, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992), No. 90-3276, decided March 20, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/959/cases/1011-01.json
|
||||
[^4]: Supplemental Declaration of Caspar W. Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, *United States v. Jonathan Jay Pollard*, Crim. No. 86-0207 (D.D.C.), executed March 3, 1987. http://www.irmep.org/ila/pollard/03041987weinberger.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: Michael B. Mukasey to President Barack Obama, December 21, 2010. https://www.israellobby.org/pollard/12212010Mukasey.pdf
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,16 +1,19 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-12
|
||||
category: "Authors & Journalists"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- Journalist
|
||||
- Author
|
||||
summary: "In July 1992, *The Village Voice* printed a long article by Unger that quoted Moshe Hebroni, a former colleague of Ben-Menashe, confirming Ben-Menashe's access to very sensitive material while working for the Foreign Flow desk in External Relations."
|
||||
summary: "In July 1992 The Village Voice printed an article by Unger quoting Moshe Hebroni, a former colleague of Ben-Menashe, on Ben-Menashe's access to sensitive material in External Relations."
|
||||
born: 1949-03-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Craig Unger]] is an [[United States|American]] journalist and author. In October 1991, his article in *Esquire* magazine repeated [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] allegations that [[Robert McFarlane]] had been recruited by [[Rafael Eitan|Rafi]] and named [[Robert McFarlane|McFarlane]] as "Mr. X" in the [[Jonathan Pollard]] case. [[Robert McFarlane|McFarlane]] subsequently sued the magazine, but the suit was dismissed in June 1994.[^1]
|
||||
[[Craig Unger]] is an [[United States|American]] journalist and author. In October 1991, his article in [[Esquire]] magazine repeated [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] allegations that [[Robert McFarlane]] had been recruited by [[Rafael Eitan|Rafi]] and named McFarlane as "Mr. X" in the [[Jonathan Pollard]] case. McFarlane sued the magazine. The United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the judgment for Esquire on January 30, 1996. The judgment rested on a finding of no actual malice and on the dismissal of the claim against Unger for want of personal jurisdiction.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In July 1992, *The Village Voice* printed a long article by [[Craig Unger|Unger]] that quoted [[Moshe Hebroni]], a former colleague of [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]], confirming [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] access to very sensitive material while working for the Foreign Flow desk in External Relations.[^1]
|
||||
In July 1992, *The Village Voice* printed a long article by Unger that quoted [[Moshe Hebroni]], a former colleague of Ben-Menashe, confirming Ben-Menashe's access to very sensitive material while working for the Foreign Flow desk in External Relations.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: *McFarlane v. Esquire Magazine*, 74 F.3d 1296 (D.C. Cir. 1996), No. 94-7137, decided January 30, 1996. https://static.case.law/f3d/74/cases/1296-01.json
|
||||
[^2]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,11 +6,12 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Soviet
|
||||
- Military
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summary: "Colonel Reuben Yirador was a department commander in Unit 8200, an Israeli Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit."
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updated: 2026-10-12
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---
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Colonel [[Reuben Yirador]] was a department commander in [[Unit 8200]], an [[Israel|Israeli]] Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. He was later replaced by [[Sasson Yishaek|Lt. Col. Sasson Yishaek]] as commander of the department, but remained in [[Mossad]].[^1]
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According to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], Colonel [[Reuben Yirador]] was a department commander in [[Unit 8200]], an [[Israel|Israeli]] Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. Ben-Menashe wrote that he was later replaced by [[Sasson Yishaek|Lt. Col. Sasson Yishaek]] as commander of the department, but remained in [[Mossad]].[^1]
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In 1972, [[Reuben Yirador|Yirador]] was involved in a significant discovery when he decoded a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] intercept (VENONA) that revealed the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]] were bugging the office of [[Golda Meir]], then Prime Minister of [[Israel]]. This discovery, along with [[Golda Meir|Meir's]] meeting with [[Leonid Brezhnev]] and her rejection of a peace settlement, informed [[Anwar Sadat]] and may have prompted the 1973 war.[^1]
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Ari Ben-Menashe wrote that in 1972 Yirador made a significant discovery when he decoded a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] intercept, which the account names VENONA, that revealed the Soviets were bugging the office of [[Golda Meir]], then Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Menashe wrote that this discovery, along with Meir's meeting with [[Leonid Brezhnev]] and her rejection of a peace settlement, informed [[Anwar Sadat]] and may have prompted the 1973 war.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
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@ -2,12 +2,13 @@
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category: "Military"
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tags:
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- Person
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summary: "Lieutenant Colonel in Israeli Military Intelligence who commanded Unit 8206's code-breaking department and recruited Ari Ben-Menashe."
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summary: "Lieutenant Colonel in Israeli Military Intelligence who commanded Unit 8200's code-breaking department and recruited Ari Ben-Menashe."
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updated: 2026-10-12
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---
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Lieutenant Colonel [[Sasson Yishaek]], also known as Lt. Col. Sasson, was a key figure in [[Israel|Israeli]] Military Intelligence. He was the number-two person in the code-breaking department of [[Unit 8200]] and later became its commander, replacing [[Reuben Yirador|Col. Yirador]].[^1]
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According to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], Lieutenant Colonel [[Sasson Yishaek]], also known as Lt. Col. Sasson, was a key figure in [[Israel|Israeli]] Military Intelligence. Ben-Menashe wrote that he was the number-two person in the code-breaking department of [[Unit 8200]] and later became its commander, replacing [[Reuben Yirador|Col. Yirador]].[^1]
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[[Sasson Yishaek|Lt. Col. Sasson]] recruited [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] into Military Intelligence in 1973, offering him a special position in connection with his military service. He was involved in the incident where [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] broke the [[Iran|Iranian]] diplomatic code. He also court-martialed [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] for insubordination when [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] refused an assignment to the [[Rome]] listening station, a decision that was later overruled by the Director of Military Intelligence.[^1]
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Ben-Menashe wrote that Lt. Col. Sasson recruited him into Military Intelligence in 1973, offering him a special position in connection with his military service, and that Sasson was involved in the incident where Ben-Menashe broke the [[Iran|Iranian]] diplomatic code. He wrote that Sasson court-martialed him for insubordination when he refused an assignment to the [[Rome]] listening station, a decision that Ben-Menashe wrote was later overruled by the Director of Military Intelligence.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 19th, 1992.
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