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U.S. Reduces Flow of Intelligence Data to Israel

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Times Staff Writer

The United States has restricted the sharing of intelligence with Israel in the wake of the arrest of Navy analyst Jonathan J. Pollard on charges of selling secrets to the U.S. ally, State Department and Pentagon officials said Friday.

The precise scope of the limitations was not publicly disclosed, but one Administration official said critical data is continuing to flow to Israel. “It is not too terribly significant,” this official said of the partial freeze on intelligence exchanges. He said the restrictions would be lifted once a U.S. delegation now in Israel completes its investigation of the espionage scandal.

Pollard, a middle-level analyst at the Naval Investigative Service’s center on terrorism, was arrested last month on charges he supplied defense secrets to Israel, which long has exchanged intelligence with the United States.

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Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres has apologized to the United States, saying the spy operation was run without the knowledge of high-ranking Israeli officials and pledged to cooperate in the investigation.

‘Discrete Limitations’

At the State Department, spokesman Charles Redman said, “In the immediate aftermath of the Pollard case and pending a clear assessment of the scope of the compromise, some discrete limitations were placed on selected intelligence exchanges with Israel.”

He would not discuss specifics, saying only that the limitation “was a logical and prudent step.”

At about the same time, the Pentagon issued a statement saying that, following Pollard’s arrest, “we did slow down cooperation in a few areas until we had an opportunity to assess fully the effects of Pollard’s actions.” The statement, which referred to Israel’s promise to cooperate with the team of U.S. investigators now in Israel, said, “We certainly do not foresee that these steps we have taken would remain in effect for a long period of time.”

On Friday, The Times reported that intelligence officials have focused on the theory that the Israeli government sanctioned the espionage to obtain U.S. reconnaissance data denied it since the 1981 bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor.

1981 Restrictions

The data, including satellite photos, had been freely supplied for more than 20 years, sources said. They said the 1981 cutoff in reconnaissance data did not interrupt the flow of other intelligence of importance to Israel, including information on Soviet arms used by its enemies.

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In another development Friday, Israel denied that it illegally obtained American technology to make tank cannon barrels more durable and accurate.

U.S. Customs agents Thursday raided three firms--Napco Inc. in Connecticut, Abernathy Lead Construction Co. in Pennsylvania and G-and-B Packing Co. Inc. in New Jersey--after filing affidavits that they were seeking evidence on whether the companies illegally exported technology for chrome-plating cannon barrels to Israel.

Menachem Meron, a Defense Ministry official, said Israel contracted with Napco in 1984 to buy a new chrome-plating plant, G-and-B Packing Co. forwarded the equipment and Abernathy Lead was a Napco subcontractor.

Napco was responsible for obtaining any necessary licenses, Meron said, suggesting that any violations might have been the fault of that company.

“We behaved according to the law,” Meron said.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State George P. Shultz showed a flash of anger but held his tongue Friday when asked about President Reagan’s new executive order requiring officials with access to classified information to take lie detector tests.

“This is a domestic U.S. issue, and I’ll respond to it in a domestic setting,” Shultz snapped when asked about the order at a news conference following a North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.

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Administration sources said earlier that Shultz argued strongly against requiring senior officials, including Cabinet members, to submit to polygraph tests.

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