President Reagan indicated Wednesday night that he accepts Israel’s assurance that Jonathan Pollard was an unauthorized exception to Israel’s policy of not spying on the United States.
“The only thing I know is that the Israeli government has assured us, as much as they can, that they never had any program of trying to get intelligence information from our country or doing any spying on us,” Reagan said in a nationally-televised press conference from the White House.
He added that the Justice Department is continuing its investigation, “but so far there’s been no evidence presented to us from anyone.”
Asked what he would do if some evidence of additional Israeli spying was found, the President replied: “Well, then I think we’ll have to deal with that then and find out whether it’s a surprise to the Israeli government, whether someone was off playing their game or not.”
A ROGUE OPERATION
Pollard pleaded guilty June 4 to spying for Israel while a civilian intelligence analyst for the Navy. His wife, Anne, pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of receiving and possessing stolen national defense documents. Both are awaiting sentencing.
The Israeli government has maintained that the Pollard episode was a “rogue” operation of which it had no knowledge. The Israeli Embassy has declared that charges that the espionage went beyond Pollard are “baseless.”
The State Department said on Monday that it accepts the Israeli assurance that the espionage does not go beyond Pollard and that Israel is cooperating in the continuing investigation.
However, Justice Department sources have been asserting that the espionage goes further than Pollard. Pollard is cooperating with the probe as part of his plea bargaining agreement in which he will not receive a life sentence.
HINTS OF OTHER INDICTMENTS
Justice Department sources have hinted that others may be indicted too, possibly the four Israelis who were listed as coconspirators with Pollard.
They are: Rafael Eitan, who as head of the Bureau of Scientific Affairs, headed the Pollard operation; he is now chairman of the Board of Israel Chemicals.
Aviem Sella, who as an Air Force colonel doing graduate work at New York University was Pollard’s first contact. Now a brigadier general he is in charge of an Air Force base in the Negev. Joseph Yagur, who as Consul for Scientific Affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York replaced Sella as Pollard’s contact until returning to Israel when Pollard was arrested.
Irit Erb, who was a secretary to the scientific attache at the Israeli Embassy here and at whose Washington apartment Pollard delivered the information. She also returned to Israel immediately after Pollard’s arrest.
If any of the four are indicted they would not be extradited, but would be subject to arrest if they returned to the U.S.
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