Israel Matzav

Ex-agent: Pollard framed by Soviet spy

Claims that Jonathan Pollard exposed 11 U.S. spies – charges that led judges to sentence the Israeli spy to life in prison – are false and were fabricated by Russia's top mole in America, a former senior Mossad operative intimately familiar with the affair says.

Ex-agent Rafi Eitan, one of the most veteran, senior figures in Israel's intelligence community, has never before spoken about his role in the Pollard espionage affair, which to this day stirs up emotions in both Israel and the U.S., and which tainted his reputation and ended his hopes of eventually heading the Mossad.

However, now that he heads the Pensioners Party ahead of the upcoming elections, one of Israel's most fascinating and controversial spymasters decided that as a public figure he must provide an account of his secretive deeds and gave his approval for publishing the information.

In an exclusive interview with Ronen Bergman, Eitan flatly denied charges that Pollard handed over to Israel information used to expose American spies in the former Soviet Union.

"I'm willing to put my hand in fire and swear in everything dear to me that those charges are a blatant lie," Eitan said. "Nothing from what Pollard delivered leaked out of the Israeli intelligence community, nothing. Besides, he never provided us with information that could have exposed American agents in the Soviet Union or anywhere else."

"We weren't interested in those subjects, and he didn’t provide the information," Eitan says.

The former agent says shortly after Pollard's trial ended, Israel discovered Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger sent a top secret memorandum to the judge, accusing Pollard of exposing 11 American agents.

"The information the charge was based on arrived from the CIA, and more accurately, from the counter-espionage branch of the CIA. Only years later it turned out the person who headed the branch and initiated the move against Pollard…was a person by the name of (Aldrich) Ames, who all those years was the top Soviet spy in the U.S.," Eitan says.

"He simply took advantage of the Pollard affair to cast the blame for the affair he (Ames) himself was guilty of on Pollard, thereby clearing himself of suspicion," Eitan says. "I have no doubt that had Pollard been tried today, in light of what is known about Ames and other agents who were exposed, he would have received a much lighter sentence."

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:13 PM