In Israel, U.S. Officer Denies Taking Secrets

A U.S. Army Reserve intelligence officer who alarmed the American military when he went AWOL turned up Monday in Israel, saying he hasn’t revealed any government secrets.

Lt. Col. Jeremiah Mattysse met with U.S. diplomats and Israeli police for more than three hours on the understanding that he was free to go when he wanted.

“I’m not a spy,” Mattysse told reporters after leaving Israel’s international crimes unit in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva. “There’s been many things said about me which aren’t true. I didn’t give any classified information to anyone.”

Mattysse said he had “not decided yet” how long he would stay in Israel. He left the station in a police car, not saying where he was headed.

American military officials said they were especially concerned about Mattysse’s absence because of his background in U.S. intelligence.

Joseph Hanley, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Reserve Command in Atlanta, said last week that it would be logical for an investigation to include ensuring that nothing was missing from offices where Mattysse worked.

Police located Mattysse, 50, at a youth hostel in Mitzpeh Ramon, a desert town famed for its crater and its hippie culture. He wore the knitted skullcap typical of Orthodox Jews and a T-shirt with a floral motif.

Police emphasized that he was cooperating of his own free will. Israel has no provision for arresting someone who deserts a foreign army.

Until February, Mattysse commanded the Army Reserve Southwest Intelligence Support Center in San Antonio, as a full-time Reserve officer. The unit’s primary mission was to train reservists in intelligence work. Mattysse failed to report to duty Aug. 8 after a vacation, making him AWOL, or absent without leave.

Mattysse had been reassigned to the 90th Reserve Support Group in San Antonio earlier this year after an investigation began into his wife’s allegations that he had an extramarital affair. The San Antonio Express-News reported that his wife, Vanda Mattysse, filed a divorce complaint March 7 in Virginia.

Rivka Nir, a woman who lives in Israel and identified herself as Mattysse’s girlfriend, has told Israeli newspapers that he became devoted to helping Israel after converting to Judaism 10 years ago.

Nir, 28, had gone to the police station but said police told her that Mattysse had no interest in seeing her and denied a relationship with her. She said Mattysse had sent her classified material through the mail. She showed reporters a photo of the two sitting on a porch, arms linked.

Lawyer Yoram Sheftel, who successfully defended Cleveland auto worker John Demjanjuk against charges that he committed crimes against humanity while serving as a World War II concentration camp guard, said he is ready to defend Mattysse and accused police of kowtowing to American interests.

Michael Kleiner, a right-wing Israeli legislator, compared Mattysse to Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. for selling secrets to Israel.

“Hundreds of Israeli soldiers are in the United States who fled the army. No one arrested them,” Kleiner said.