One of the key officials involved in the U.S. funded Arrow missile development program has been suspended in the wake of allegations that he pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in bribes.
News of the scandal surfaced as Israeli officials strongly denied unrelated charges of industrial espionage against an American defense contractor by Israeli air force personnel.
At the center of the bribery scandal is Dov Raviv, general manager of Israel Aircraft Industries’ top-secret Malam factory, where the Arrow anti-missile missile, known in Hebrew as the Hetz, is being developed as part of America’s “Star Wars” program, known formally as the Strategic Defense Initiative.
Raviv, 56, is widely regarded as the brain behind some of Israel’s most advanced weapons projects. But he is not suspected of having endangered state security, according to reports here.
Raviv claims that the alleged bribe money was in fact consulting fees he earned as a technical adviser for foreign aerospace firms.
He was suspended last month on the orders of Defense Minister Moshe Arens. IAI announced only that “the manager of Malam, Dov Raviv, has taken a vacation for personal reasons.”
The Jerusalem Post on Monday quoted a senior police officer as saying, “We suspect Raviv of taking bribes, but we have checked and cleared him of all suspicions regarding the sale of secret information to foreign companies or sabotaging the Arrow project.”
The paper quoted Raviv as saying that “the entire affair has no connection with U.S. companies involved with the (Arrow) project.”
A police investigating team is expected to complete its work shortly and recommend whether to press criminal charges against Raviv.
Lt. Gen. Robert Hammond, commander of the U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command, visited Israel recently in connection with continued U.S. participation in the Arrow project, which began during the Reagan administration.
CHARGES OF STEALING TECHNOLOGY
Hammond, who witnessed the test-firing of the third Arrow prototype, was quoted as saying that though it was “less than totally successful,” the project retained the “unshaking support of the highest levels of the U.S. government.”
But it appears that the real purpose of Hammond’s visit was not the Arrow test but the suspicions against Raviv.
The defense establishment has also been rocked by reports in The Wall Street Journal concerning possibly illegal activities by high-ranking Israeli military personnel in contact with U.S. defense contractors.
The Journal reported in a front-page story last Friday that Israeli air force officers stole secret information from Recon/Optical Inc., a Chicago-based company that was under contract to build a top-secret airborne spy-camera system for Israel.
Then on Monday, it published another frontpage story reviewing the bribery and kick-backs scandal involving former Israel air force Gen. Rami Dotan.
Dotan was stripped of rank and dishonorably discharged after he confessed to fraud while heading the air force’s U.S. purchasing mission in New York in the mid-1980s.
The Journal story focused on the role of American companies in the scandal, including General Electric Co., United Technologies Corp. and General Motors Corp.
In last Friday’s story, the Journal reported that for more than a year, three Israeli air force officers worked in the Recon plant, monitoring execution of the contract. Following a dispute over costs, Recon halted its work and ordered the Israelis out of the building.
“But as they left, carting off 14 cardboard boxes of documents, they were stopped by Recon security officials, who grew suspicious and confiscated most of the material,” the Journal reported.
“Among the contents,” the paper said, were “documents written in Hebrew describing plans to steal Recon’s secret and commercially valuable spy-camera technology.”
AN ATTEMPT TO DEFAME ISRAEL?
In Washington, the Israeli Embassy called the newspaper’s allegations a “distortion of the truth.”
And Recon’s president, William Evans, expressed deep concern that the story created a mistaken impression about a business dispute with Israel. According to Evans, the dispute was strictly commercial and there were no acts of theft or industrial espionage involved. It was resolved by agreement of the two parties after an arbitration process.
A senior Israeli defense official, quoted by the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, accused the U.S. administration of planting the story to defame Israel.
“Behind the publications regarding Israeli espionage in the United States are U.S. administration officials who lately want to defame Israel and to hurt it at any cost, and for this purpose all means are appropriate, even fabricated stories,” the paper quoted the official as saying.
The paper said its investigation showed that Israel never received a complaint of espionage or any other kind of complaint in connection with a business dispute with Recon.
Ma’ariv said the case involved a foolish act by a low-ranking air force officer acting on his own, who was eventually punished but never accused of spying.
The officer, Maj. Moti Harkabi, a project representative, was reprimanded and relieved of his duties by the air force commander.
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.
