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Pollard Linked to Mideast Radar Secrets

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Times Staff Writers

Federal experts probing the case of accused spy Jonathan J. Pollard believe that he gave Israel secret documents on radar capabilities in the Middle East, an official close to the investigation said Wednesday.

The official, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, said Pollard provided data on radar jamming and other classified information about Arab nations friendly to the United States.

His comments appeared to bolster earlier charges by U.S. officials, made in court hearings last week, that Pollard had given the Israelis details of weapons systems sold to friendly Arab nations.

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FBI agents testified Nov. 27 that, when arrested, Pollard possessed secret documents on a French-made weapons system named CACTUS, which is a mobile, surface-to-air missile system that has been sold to Libya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The latter two nations are on good terms with Washington.

The United States supplies Israel with intelligence data on Arab nations hostile to this country, but not normally on pro-American Arab states. Israeli officials have said that Pollard only passed on information about its enemy neighbors.

Israel has apologized publicly for the espionage “to the extent that it did take place,” and said if an investigation confirms it, the unit involved will be disbanded. That unit is believed to operate out of the Defense Ministry.

The disclosure on radar jamming came as American officials prepared to select a team of investigators, perhaps as early as today, to question Israeli officials who have been linked to Pollard’s espionage activities.

Joseph DiGenova, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, is likely to head the team, and other government lawyers and FBI agents involved in the case will accompany him to Israel, said the official, who refused to be named. He said that the trip could begin late this week and extend through much of next week.

According to reports in Israel, the American team will include State Department legal adviser Abraham Sofaer, a former federal judge who presided at the trial of Israeli Cabinet minister Ariel Sharon’s libel suit against Time magazine earlier this year in New York. The reports could not be confirmed.

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Pollard, a civilian counterintelligence analyst with the Naval Investigative Service in Washington, is accused of smuggling documents from his job for sale to Israel. Law-enforcement sources say that he reported to two Israeli science officials posted in the nation’s Washington Embassy and its New York consulate.

U.S. investigators are expected to question those two, as well as Rafael Eitan, a counterterrorism adviser to former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who is reported to have headed the secret Israeli espionage unit that recruited Pollard.

In a related development, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday that Pollard’s espionage enabled Israeli jet fighters to avoid American surveillance in October during their long-distance strike at the Tunis headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The paper, quoting government sources, also stated that the Israelis obtained the exact location of the Tunis PLO offices from Pollard’s spying.

The Israeli government called the report “total nonsense.”

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