Israel Matzav

Israel to reopen case against Uri Blau?

Claiming that he violated the terms of his plea bargain, the Israeli government is considering reopening its case against Uri Blau, the Haaretz reporter to whom Anat Kam passed some 2,000 confidential IDF documents.

Blau was abroad when the Kamm case broke last year, and returned only after brokering a deal through lawyers that would give him immunity from prosecution as long as he handed over classified documents in his possession.

The Justice Ministry is now considering charging Blau for holding unauthorized information, Ynet and Haaretz reported Wednesday.

Israeli authorities are now accusing Blau of violating his agreement, although it was not clear how, Ynet reported.

Haaretz said in a statement that it "regretted" the decision.

"We are confident the hearing will make it even clearer that throughout this affair, Uri Blau was doing nothing but his work as a journalist, and was acting according to the accepted norms in covering the defense establishment," the newspaper said.

Blau was 'acting according to the accepted norms in covering the defense establishment'? Really?

Security sources say the documents contain top-secret information concerning General Staff orders, personnel numbers in the Central Command, intelligence information, information on IDF doctrine and data on sensitive military exercises, weaponry and military platforms. The files also allegedly contain details on what the Central Command does in the event of a major escalation – how it deploys forces to the West Bank and where it stations them there.

Far less comprehensible than Kamm’s alleged ideologically motivated decision to steal so many documents is Blau’s refusal to hand them back. He’s had the documents since at least October 2008, when he began publishing reports based on them.

Damage control is possible only after the Shin Bet verifies precisely which classified documents were taken by Kamm and who received them. The public interest in such damage control, given the sensitivity of the material, should be obvious to Blau and to Haaretz. This is a matter of life-and-death national security.

...

Regrettably, however, the unwillingness of Blau and his newspaper to meet the Shin Bet’s demand to return stolen documents whose content would aid our enemies and render our people more vulnerable raises grave questions about the paper’s priorities.

I hope they throw the book at him.

Labels: Anat Kam, Israeli national security, Uri Blau

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:25 AM