JP: Kadish arrest might may negitively affect Bush visit

[heyholetsgogrant]

Apr 23, 2008 8:05 | Updated Apr 23, 2008 16:02

'Kadish arrest might cloud Bush visit'

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Senior government officials are worried that the arrest of a former US Army mechanical engineer on Tuesday on suspicion that he slipped classified documents about nuclear weapons to an employee of the Israeli Consulate may negatively affect US President George W. Bush's upcoming visit to Israel.

[ben-Ami Kadish, center]

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has therefore ordered his staff to investigate the details of the affair, and to determine if indeed Ben-Ami Kadish had any contact with an Israeli official.

Currently, however, the official government line is that no such connection existed.

The Prime Minister's Office referred queries on the matter to the Foreign Ministry. Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said: "We know nothing about it. We have nothing to say."

Kadish was charged in a US District Court in Manhattan with four counts of conspiracy, including allegations that he disclosed US national defense documents to Israel and acted as an agent of the Israeli government.

At a court hearing Tuesday afternoon, Kadish, who was wearing black sweatpants, was released on a $300,000 property bond. He was required to surrender his passport and can travel only in New Jersey and southern Manhattan. A potential preliminary hearing is set for May 22.

The US would update Israel on Kadish's arrest, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said after Kadish was taken in. This was "not the kind of behavior" the US expected from its friends and allies, Casey said, adding that today was no different to when the Jonathan Pollard case exploded, more than twenty years ago.

The Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem stated that the details of the event were still being studied.

A senior Israeli source told Reuters he found it hard to believe that after the Jonathan Pollard affair, Israel would use another spy.

Ron Olive, a former US official who worked on the Pollard case, told the weekly Newsweek magazine, that the man identified in the FBI document submitted to the court as "Co-Conspirator 1 [CC-1]," the man who allegedly handled both Kadish and Jonathan Pollard, was most probably Yosef Yagur, a former official of Israeli Aircraft Industries who served from 1980 to 1985 as science adviser at the Israeli consulate in New York.

Olive, who was the Navy Criminal Investigative Service investigator in charge of the Pollard spy inquiry, said the person described in the new FBI documents as Kadish's handler "has got to be" Yagur. "There's no doubt it's him," Olive says. He added that he identified Yagur as Pollard's handler in his book Capturing Jonathan Pollard. In 1986 Yagur was also identified as one of Pollard's Israeli handlers in a US Justice Department sentencing memorandum.

Source: JPOSt

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870471292&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

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Lemme get this straight an a man commits possible treason, and Israeli's are gonna be angry at America for arresting him? :laugh: wtf should we do then?

-Grant

[Prosperity]

I think they are more worried about Bush being mad at Israel, which is absurd, Israel has nothing to worry about.

[heyholetsgogrant]

New Spy Case Seen as Attempt to Delay Pollard Release

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com)

Esther Pollard: "The Kadish case will have whatever impact [on Pollard] that Prime Minister Olmert chooses for it to have."

Following the news that an 83-year-old former US Army engineer, Ben-Ami Kadish of New Jersey, had been arrested on charges of spying for Israel 25 years ago, the Justice for Jonathan Pollard organization feels abandoned by the Israeli government once again.

Speaking with Arutz-7's Yedidya HaCohen, Esther Pollard said, "I feel great disappointment at the Government of Israel. Everyone in the media comes to me and hears what they should be hearing from Ehud Olmert - namely, that this entire [Kadish] case has nothing to do with Jonathan Pollard, that it does not cancel out the fact that Pollard deserves immediate release, and that the government of Israel is obligated to work for this goal."

A statement released by the Justice for Jonathan Pollard organization states that the U.S. "has put Israel on the defensive once again, with breaking 'news' in the American media accusing Israel of running a spy in the US prior to the Pollard case... It is not clear for how many years the U.S. has been sitting on this 'breaking news' story waiting for the right moment to hurl new accusations against Israel, and thus falsely and unfairly target Jonathan Pollard by association."

The statement notes that "unlike other espionage cases in the US, which are dealt with on a case-by-case basis, every accusation against Israel is yielded like a club against Jonathan Pollard - as if the 23 years he has served is somehow not enough to make up for all of the sins of Israel."

"It's Up to Olmert"

When asked by Israel's Channel One TV News what impact this latest story will have on chances for her husband's release, Esther Pollard responded, "It will have whatever impact Prime Minister Olmert chooses for it to have. To date, Olmert has still not made an official request for Jonathan's release. It is time for the Prime Minister to discharge his legal and moral responsibility to save the life of an Israeli agent in peril, who has already served a grossly disproportionate sentence."

She noted what she said was the "suspicious timing of the breaking 'news' story," just prior to President Bush's anticipated visit to the region for Israel's 60th anniversary. Several news analysts have made this connection as well, seeing the release of the story as an attempt to prevent Bush from possibly pardoning Pollard in time for the upcoming Presidential visit.

Author: Hillel Fendel

source: IsraelNN.com

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125957