Army Veteran Charged With Passing Secrets To Israel In '80s
Army veteran charged with passing secrets to Israel in '80s
Army veteran charged in N.Y. with slipping military secrets to Israeli worker in early '80s
http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila..._04222008.html
LARRY NEUEMISTER
Apr 22, 2008 11:45 EST
A former U.S. 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, authorities announced.
Ben-ami Kadish faces four counts of conspiracy, including allegations that he conspired to disclose U.S. national defense documents to Israel and that he acted as an agent of the Israeli government, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia and FBI officials said.
A criminal complaint said the activities occurred from 1979 through 1985 while Kadish worked at the Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center in Dover, N.J.
Kadish, a U.S. citizen, is accused of taking classified documents home several times and letting the Israeli government worker photograph them.
The documents included information about nuclear weapons, a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet, and the Patriot missile air defense system, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, the Israeli government worker on numerous occasions during 1979-1985 gave Kadish lists of U.S. national defense classified documents for Kadish to obtain.
The complaint said Kadish, born in Connecticut, was employed from October 1963 to January 1990 as a mechanical engineer at the Army's Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, where the research center is based.
The complaint said the Israeli worker, whose name was not given, is an Israeli citizen. It said that in the late 1970s, he was employed at Israeli Aircraft Industries in Israel, a defense manufacturing contractor for the Israeli government.
From July 1980 through November 1985, he was the consul for science affairs at the Israeli Consulate General in Manhattan, the complaint said.
The complaint noted that Pollard was charged in November 1985 with espionage-related offense after he provided classified information to the same Israeli worker, among other people.
The Israeli worker left the United States in November 1985 and has not returned, the complaint said.
Pollard, a former civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy, pleaded guilty while standing trial for transferring military secrets to Israel while working at the Pentagon. He is serving a life sentence.
