Accused of spying for Israel

From JPost.com » International Apr 22, 2008 by GIL HOFFMAN, HERB KEINON AND AP*:

US Army engineer arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel

An 85-year-old former US Army mechanical engineer was arrested Tuesday on charges he slipped classified documents about nuclear weapons to an employee of the Israeli Consulate who also received information from convicted Pentagon spy Jonathan Pollard, US authorities announced.

Ben-Ami Kadish was charged in US District Court in Manhattan with four counts of conspiracy, including allegations that he disclosed US national defense documents to Israel and acted as an agent of the Israeli government.

At a court hearing Tuesday afternoon, Kadish, who was wearing black sweatpants, was released on a $300,000 property bond. He was required tosurrender his passport and can travel only in New Jersey and southern Manhattan. A potential preliminary hearing is set for May 22.

Prosecutors say Kadish, a US citizen who worked at an Army base in New Jersey, took home classified documents for six years and let the Israeli photograph them in his basement. Those documents included information about nuclear weapons, a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet, and the US Patriot missile air defense system.

A criminal complaint said Kadish confessed to FBI agents on Sunday that he had given the Israeli between 50 and 100 classified documents and accepted no cash in return, only small gifts and occasional dinners for him and his family.

Kadish admitted to the charges in court, saying that he wanted to help Israel....

*Michal Lando contributed to this report.


...and from DEBKAfile, April 23, 2008, 12:44 AM (GMT+02:00):

Octogenarian Ben-Ami Kadish accused of spying for Israel

Manhattan Federal Court ordered him to stay within New Jersey limits.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources ask which part of the US administration owned an interest in exposing this affair more than two decades after the event[?] And what did it hope to achieve?

The material put before the court indicates that the federal authorities and CIA had long been aware [of the allegations] that the Connecticut-born military engineer Ben-Ami Kadish was passing classified documents to the Israeli science attaché at the New York consulate before his retirement at least 18 years ago.

...The charge is serious enough to affect President George W. Bush’s plan to attend Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations next month.

...The US justice department describes Kadish's Israeli handler as the same man who handled convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. ...

...Kadish’s activities predated the Pollard affair. After Pollard’s exposure in 1986, Israel pledged to refrain from running spies in the United States.