U.S. authorities have arrested an American engineer on Tuesday on suspicion of giving military secrets involving nuclear weapons, fighter jets and air defense missiles to Israel during the 1980s.
Michael J. Garcia, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mark J. Mershon, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Weysan Dun, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Newark Office of the FBI, in conjunction with the U.S. Army, announced today the arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish on charges that he participated in a conspiracy to disclose to the Government of Israel documents related to the national defense of the United States and, in connection with that unauthorized disclosure, that he participated in a conspiracy to act as an agent of the Government of Israel. According to the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court:
From about 1979 through 1985, Kadish, a citizen of the United States, was a mechanical engineer, employed at the U.S. Army’s Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey (the “Arsenal”). The Arsenal kept a library of documents with classified information related to the national defense of the United States (the “Library”).
On numerous occasions during this time period, Kadish borrowed classified documents (the “Classified Documents”) from the Library and took the Classified Documents to his residence in New Jersey (the “Residence”). At the Residence, Kadish would then provide the Classified Documents to a co-conspirator not named herein as a defendant (“CC-1”), who would photograph the Classified Documents in the basement of the Residence.
From at least 1980 through 1985, CC-1, a citizen of Israel, was employed by the Government of Israel as the Consul for Science Affairs at the Israeli Consulate General in Manhattan and directed Kadish to provide the Classified Documents to him (CC-1).
One of the Classified Documents that Kadish provided to CC-1 contained information concerning nuclear weaponry and was classified as “Restricted Data,” a specific designation by the U.S. Department of Energy, because the document contained atomic-related information.
Another one of the Classified Documents that Kadish provided CC-1 contained information concerning a major weapons system — a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet that the United States had sold to another country. This document was classified by the Department of Defense as “Secret” and was further restricted as “Noforn,” or “Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals.”
Another one of the Classified Documents borrowed by Kadish from the Arsenal Library contained information concerning a major weapons system and major element of defense strategy — the U.S. Patriot missile air defense system. This document was classified by the Department of Defense as “Secret.”
On March 20, 2008, Kadish and CC-1 had a telephone conversation, during which CC-1 instructed Kadish to lie to federal law enforcement officials. The following day, during an interview with the FBI, Kadish denied having had the telephone conversation with CC-1.
Kadish is charged with four counts: one count of conspiring to disclose documents related to the national defense of the United States to the Government of Israel; one count of conspiring to act as an agent of the Government of Israel; one count of conspiring to hinder a communication to a law enforcement officer; and one count of conspiring to make a materially false statement to a law enforcement officer.
Kadish is scheduled to appear this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Douglas F. Eaton in Manhattan federal court.
Mr. Garcia praised the FBI and the U.S. Army for their efforts in this continuing investigation.
This prosecution is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Iris Lan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and Trial Attorney Kathleen Kedian of the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
The charges and allegations contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
(Lipas / YW-MD03)
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17 Responses
When will Israel ever learn?
23-28 years after the fact? What led them to investigate this from so long ago?
it sounds like a pollard thing all over. I wonder if they’ll look at the pollard situation differnetly because of this
will this help or hurt pollard??
IsraeliYid – When Israel stabs its only friend (if it has any) in the back by spying on it, it will not help it.
Spying on an ally was never ”acceptable.” Not pre-Pollard, nor post-Pollard.
And look where Pollard got them. A life sentence for a Jew.
The state Dept.is anti Israel,since FDR.See “The secret war against the Jews”, by John Loftus.A former CIA agent,the only emmes book that exists,about this subject.He’s on the Radio weekly.Now why shouldnt we have some loyal friends.EVEN THE US ARE TRAITORS!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! now what do the kanoim have to say?/ BUT FIRST READ THAT BOOK, it will blow u away with emes amitis.He should be given a medal of houner> Oh its not yoshor?,so is the nature of US to Israel its ONLY FRIEND IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
IsraeliYid – And one additional point I neglected to mention above. The State of Israel, since its foundation, has never been about ”the defense of Jewish lives.” In fact quite the opposite, Israel has spilled more Jewish blood than it has ever purported to ”save.”
I am not sure this will make any difference in the Pollard situation.
Spying against a country that provides you Billions of dollars a year in military and economic aid, and is the only one to defend you the world stage, will only hurt it in the end.
Unfortunately this will hurt Pollard.
after all…why don’t we ever hear of a diffrent country getting hooked up with spying in the u.s.a.????
maybe there is but I never hear of it.
Does anyone know whether he was observant because this can (or has already) result in a big chilul hashem.
Does the US spy on its friends?
When sources in the whitehouse leak out news in order to fight in the media is that leak a type of spying?
Don’t let anyone know I told you this, but sometimes if the US leaks information to a friendly nation it can be for the overall good even if a technical violation.
Also if the US was improperly withholding information that by treaty or agreement was obligated to share then correcting that improper withholding is different than spying to hurt – that could be spying to help!
Pashuteh Yid – Comparing different periods is irrelevant. Look at the terror Jews face in Israel today compared to the threats Jews face today in chutz l’aaretz. The State bears large responsibility. Downplaying Jewish victims of zionism as a ”few” thousand here and there does the cause no good.
IsraeliYid – The zionists put those lives at peril in the first place, necessitating their ”rescue.”
Trumped up charges no doubt.
This is being done as an excuse – however lame – to cover up the Pollard mess.
This is insane to have done.
Shameful – to seek out and arrest after 23 years, on empty charges.
Not spying, also.
This is to be used as a basis for witchhunting Jews.
NeveAliza – Why dont you hang around your buddies in Hamas?
Pashuteh Yid – NP. Reread my original comments. My point, essentially is (and was) that you neither should pretend nevuah and state that Jewish casualties have been less due to the zionist state than they would have otherwise been. Your comparison of deaths in Israel to deaths in the holocaust is a faulty comparison. We can point to other period in history that have had less (or more) bloodshed.
I rely on many Gedolei Yisroel, past and present and from the greatest of the greats in making my argument that the zionist state has caused more death and injury than otherwise warranted. (I do not say your argument is or isn’t based on whomevers opinions.)
IsraeliYid – Whether the Etiopians are Jewish is a major shaila, to put it bluntly.
And yes there was violence against Jews wherever (and whenever) they lived over the course of our bitter golus. But speaking in relative terms, the Jews living under the Arabs — pre-zionism i.e. circa pre-1890’s — have led a far more peaceful coexistence with their gentile neighbors than have Ashkenazic Jews under the bloody rule of the Xtian church.
Compare the Arab — relative — benevolence towards its Jewish subjects pre-zionism, to the murderous malevolence it has subjected its Jewish neighbors post-zionism. Zionism is no mere coincidence in that radical change in attitude.