Navy Intelligence Analyst Arrested as Spy for Israel

The FBI Thursday arrested a civilian counterintelligence analyst for the Naval Investigative Service on charges of passing Navy codes and other highly classified information to a foreign government, identified by federal sources as Israel.

Jonathan Jay Pollard, 31, was arrested as he attempted to force his way into the heavily guarded Israeli Embassy, apparently in an effort to seek sanctuary.

State Department and law enforcement sources said they could recall no previous espionage inci dent in which U.S. secrets were passed to Israel, a longtime ally. One law enforcement source said the case will prove “highly embarrassing” to Israel.

Pollard, under surveillance by investigators for “several months” at the Naval Investigative Service in nearby Suitland, Md., was stopped for questioning Tuesday and found to have highly classified documents in his possession, one FBI source said. On that occasion he was released.

FBI and Naval Investigative agents also on Tuesday obtained a suitcase with Pollard’s name on it that his wife, Ann, had given to “a third party,” FBI agent Lydia S. Jechorek said in an affidavit filed with a U.S. magistrate in Washington.

Admission Told

The “third party” was not identified. But Jechorek said that Pollard admitted the suitcase “contains highly classified documents and information relating to the national defense,” and she said that Pollard also admitted “he had given these documents and this information to agents of a foreign government.”

Pollard also was quoted as stating that last Friday he had delivered “to an agent of a foreign government documents and writings relating to the national defense.”

The FBI’s unusually terse announcement of Pollard’s arrest did not mention Israel, and the arrest complaint and accompanying affidavit also did not identify the “foreign government” involved.

One government source, who identified the country as Israel, said the omission reflected the unique U.S. relationship with its closest ally in the Middle East and the fact that the incident was announced just hours before President Reagan’s nationally televised speech on his summit with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

‘Intent to Flee’

U.S. Magistrate Patrick Attridge ordered Pollard held without bond pending a hearing next Wednesday. Assistant U.S. Atty. Harry A. Benner told Attridge that Pollard had traveled recently outside the United States and “shows some intent to flee.”

The prosecutor also told the magistrate that Pollard had “large amounts of his money that he received for his offenses.” A law enforcement official who asked not to be identified said: “It looked like he was taking the documents and selling them.”

At the State Department, a spokesman responded to questions with a terse, two-sentence statement: “On Nov. 21, a complaint was filed in federal court charging an employee of the U.S. Navy with violations of the espionage act. Since this matter is before the courts, it would be inappropriate to make any further comment.”

Officials at the Israeli Embassy also declined to discuss the case. “We are aware of the fact that someone was detained in front of the embassy today,” said an employee of the embassy’s press office who turned aside questions.

Tried Crashing Fence

Pollard’s arrest, two government sources said, took place after he attempted to crash his car through an iron fence around the Israeli compound. Neighbors said Pollard drove a “beat-up, 1978 orange Mustang.”

Another law enforcement source said that Pollard first had tried to telephone officials at the embassy to gain entry but had failed.

FBI officials declined to comment on what role Pollard’s wife, Ann Henderson Pollard, had played besides giving the suitcase containing “highly classified documents” to a “third party.” The Pollards’ neighbors in a four-story apartment building near Washington’s Dupont Circle, about a mile from the White House, described him as an unlikely spy.

“If you think of a spy, you would never think of this guy,” said Tim Dane, 28. Describing Pollard as “dumpy,” he said that his neighbor “wore your basic polyester suit, and his wife didn’t wear any flashy dresses.”

‘Roly-Poly Guy’

Joseph J. Eule, another resident of the building and an aide to Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), said Pollard is “the last guy in the world you’d expect” to be involved in any spying. “He is a kind of roly-poly guy, Caspar Milquetoast,” Eule said.

There was some confusion and conflict between authorities over what charges were being lodged against Pollard.

The FBI headquarters’ announcement said he was charged with retention of classified documents and theft of government property. Each charge carries the same penalty, a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

But Magistrate Attridge later said that the crime was “a capital offense.” And the complaint against Pollard also said that he was charged with providing a foreign government with documents and information relating to the national defense.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Philip Hager and Penny Pagano.