[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA

In a stunning move, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren told the
Washington radio station WTOP, that the spy operation involving Jonathan
Pollard was "rogue organization in the Israeli intelligence community" - a
variant of the very same lie (that it was a "rogue" operation) that
infuriated America 25 years ago when Israel first made it. A lie that has
long ago been dropped as Israel officially acknowledged that Pollard was an
Israeli agent.

The move by Oren - allowing himself to be caught on a lie - with the bizarre
situation that he said it when clearly he should be aware that his audience
knows he is
not telling the truth - undermines the credibility of Israel's point man in
Washington.

To make matters worse, Oren made the remark within the context of assuring
that Israel is not spying on America today.

How can Ambassador Oren do damage control? He can issue an apology and
correction, explaining that the correction is in the wake of a briefing he
has just received - thus explaining his previous claim as reflecting a lack
of information on his part rather than any intention to deceive.]

Israeli spy in U.S. part of 'rogue operation'
June 21, 2010 - 9:14am
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&pid=0&sid=1984921&page=1

Jonathan Pollard, once thought to have been an Israeli spy, may have been
part of a rogue operation. (AP) J.J. Green, wtop.com

WASHINGTON - Twenty-five years after his arrest, the truth about for whom
Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard was working is still in doubt.

The former civilian intelligence analyst, sentenced to life in prison on
charges of spying on the U.S. in 1987, was allegedly not working for
official Israeli intelligence, as previously thought.

Responding to concerns that Israel is spying on the U.S., Israel's
ambassador Michael Oren told WTOP, "Israel does not, does not, I stress,
collect information on the United States."

When pushed during an interview about Pollard's case, Oren responded,
"Jonathan Pollard occurred in the mid-1980s. Now, we're talking about an
event that was run by a rogue organization in the Israeli intelligence
community. That was, what, 25 years ago?"

His remarks, a departure from an official Israeli statement in the late
1990s, have stunned many in the Washington intelligence community.

"It does surprise me," says Paul Pillar, former Central Intelligence Agency
National Intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia.

"It never crossed my mind and never heard any suggestion that it was
anything other than an official operation," Pillar says.

"It is, however, in Israel's interests, as defined by them, to obtain as
much information as possible of the kind Pollard was collecting."

Pollard's own stinging rebukes of the Israeli government in a number of
April 1998 letters seemed to confirm his official status.

"I did not spend 13 years in prison in order to endorse a lie," Pollard
wrote. "The truth must come out, so that I may be freed. The truth is simple
and clear: I was an Israeli agent employed by the LAKAM branch of
intelligence in an operation that was fully sanctioned by the government of
Israel. Anything less than that is a distortion of the truth that is
counterproductive to the goal of securing my release."

A little more than a month later, on May 11, 1998, the Israeli government
released a statement confirming Pollard's claims. The government's statement
said, "Jonathan Pollard was an Israeli agent handled by high ranking Israeli
officials in an authorized Israeli bureau, LAKAM."

Worry that Pollard's theft of U.S. Navy secrets may have been part of a
rogue operation has generated concern among some in the U.S. intelligence
community, that there may be other "rogue" operations underway to collect
U.S. intelligence.

Israel admittedly runs robust intelligence operations throughout the Middle
East because of concerns about hostile governments and organizations that
have targeted the small Mediterranean country which 7.5 million people call
home. Hamas and Hezbollah are among the key targets.

"We've been hampered by the fact our forces left Lebanon in 2000 and left
Gaza in 2005, so we actually don't have forces on ground, so we rely on
human intelligence and electronic intelligence and surveillance from the
skies, but it's not perfect," says Oren.

Their operations may not be perfect, but according to a Web site run by the
political wing of Hamas, Israel is running a very refined network of spies.

The site, Al-Majd, claims some of the "veteran and experienced
collaborators" were equipped with sophisticated beacon devices during the
2008 war that transmitted their positions to Israeli intelligence. According
to the site, the beacons protected them from missile strikes.

While the Israeli government will not comment on the depth of its
intelligence capabilities, Fred Burton, a former U.S. State Department
Counterterrorism agent, says Israel has extremely capable intelligence
services laser-focused on the Iranian nuclear threat.

"(Israeli intelligence is) the best in the world on Hezbollah and Iranian
targets, but lacking the money and resources intelligence organizations like
the CIA have." Burton says. "They seem to do more with less than many
others. They are extremely good on HUMINT (Human Intelligence) collection."

Israel's enemies extend into the U.S. According to U.S. Department of
Justice documents, numerous individuals have been arrested and prosecuted on
charges of providing material support to Hezbollah and Hamas, sworn enemies
of Israel.

Some U.S. intelligence officials are quietly skeptical of Israel's
declaration that it doesn't spy on the U.S.

"We share information on Islamic extremists groups with American
intelligence," Oren says. "We're not collecting on them in the United
States, but we rely on information given to us by American intelligence
agencies and we are again in very close communication and cooperation with
them."

A U.S. official responded saying, "The Israelis are very good at
intelligence work - they always have been. They're not afraid to tell you
what they think and why. And their strategic interests tend to dovetail with
ours. They're valuable partners. We deal with them as they deal with us:
With sharp minds and open eyes.
Intelligence is no place for the naïve or gullible."

According to a former Shin Bet officer, the Pollard case planted a seed that
has sprouted and continues to grow despite efforts to allegedly eradicate
it.
"These guys had some kind of impression that the U.S. was hiding
intelligence from the Israeli government in this particular subject (the
Palestinian Liberation Organization), so they decided to run the operation,
never stopping to think about the damage they were causing the Jewish
Community inside the United States," says the former officer.

The political dance around Jonathan Pollard's case continues. The U.S. has
refused to release Pollard despite the close relationship with Israel and
despite that Pollard is said to be part of a "rogue operation."

"We would certainly welcome his release," Oren says.

(Copyright 2010 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)