A spokesman for the Israel Embassy here “emphatically” denied Friday that Israel has any spies within the United States government.
“I don’t find any problem in denying this emphatically,” Yosef Gal, spokesman for the embassy, said in an interview. “The policy of the government of Israel is clearcut against any espionage on the United States.”
Gal added that the case of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the former civilian analyst for the U.S. Navy who was sentenced last March for spying on behalf of Israel, was an “aberration” for which the Israeli government apologized to the United States.
His remarks were made in a response to a Washington Post report Friday that the Justice Department is still looking for another Israeli spy in either the Central Intelligence Agency or Defense Department, whom it is calling “Mr. X.”
The story, by Post investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Walter Pincus, said the belief that there is a second spy is based on questioning of Pollard, who said he was asked to acquire specific documents and files by his Israeli handlers.
However, the Justice Department accepts Pollard’s assertions that he believed he was acting alone, the Post said.
Gal noted that speculation about a second spy has frequently appeared in the Post and other newspapers without any real proof. At the State Department Friday, spokesman Charles Redman had no comment on the Post story.
The report comes in the wake of efforts to free Pollard’s wife, who reportedly is not receiving proper medical treatment in a federal penitentiary in Lexington, Ky., where she is serving two concurrent five-year sentences for being an accessory to her husband.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
