Israel Did Not Seek U.S. Military Data

Middle East Newsline - December 17, 2012

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The U.S. intelligence community has determined that
naval analyst Jonathan Pollard was asked by Israel to provide classified
data mostly on the
Arab world, Pakistan and the Soviet Union.
The National Security Archive at George Washington University posted a a
declassified CIA damage assessment on Pollard, sentenced to life on charges
of relaying classified data to Israel. The 166-page document, which the CIA
refused to release in 2006, said Israel asked Pollard for such information
as unmanned aerial vehicles in Syria, missile programs in Egypt and air
defenses in the Soviet Union.
"The Israelis specifically asked for a signals intelligence manual that
they needed to listen in on Soviet advisers in Syria," the archive, in a
report titled "New Details on What Secrets Israel Asked Pollard to Steal,"
said.
The report, dated Dec. 14, said Pollard's handlers did not request
military information on the United States. At one point, Pollard's
handler,Joseph Yagur, told him to ignore a request from his superior to
acquire U.S. intelligence efforts on Israeli politicians.
"[Yagur] told Pollard that gathering such information would terminate the
operation," the report said.
The damage assessment said Pollard cooperated fully with the CIA. The CIA
assessed that Pollard helped Israel with his knowledge of intelligence as
well as access in the U.S. Navy.
"We believe that Pollard responded effectively to the general Israeli
taskings, but that he himself exerted the strongest influence on what was
compromised by virtue of his own access, interests and collective
intelligence," the CIA assessment said.
The damage assessment was released amid a new effort for Pollard's
release after 27 years in prison. Some 40 members of the House have signed a
letter that urged President Barack Obama to commute Pollard's sentence to
time served.
"Pollard volunteered delivery of three daily intelligence summaries that
had not been requested by his handlers, but which proved useful to them, and
ultimately handed over roughly 1,500 such
messages from the Middle East and North Africa Summary the Mediterranean
Littoral Intelligence Summary and the Indian Ocean Littoral Intelligence
Summary, in addition to the more than 800 compromised documents on other
subjects that Pollard delivered to the Israelis in suitcases," the report
said.
In November 2012, another Israeli handler of Pollard, Rafi Eitan,
asserted that he was ordered by then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres to provide
incriminating evidence against Pollard to the United States. Peres, today
president, said he appealed to Obama for Pollard's release, but there was no
response.
"After the release of this secret document, which confirms the truth
about Jonathan's actions and dispels endless lies and canards, there is no
excuse for President Shimon Peres to allow Jonathan to continue to rot in
prison," Pollard's wife, Esther, said. “Mr. Peres is directly responsible
for Jonathan's plight and he can bring the ordeal to an immediate end by
acting now."

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