Reported: 13:25 PM - Apr/08/10 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/183996
(IsraelNN.com) A Tel Aviv court on Thursday authorized for publication information on a security case that a gag order prevented Israeli media outlets from publishing. According to the story, Anat Kam, an IDF soldier, stole documents from the office of the IDF Central Command, where she served as a secretary, and smuggled them to Ha'aretz, which published some of the details. Security officials arrested Kam several months ago, and found about 2,000 photocopies of sensitive documents in her home. Among the articles published based on the documents was one that appeared in Ha'aretz about a year and a half ago, which discussed the IDF's policies on eliminating terrorists. Kam has been under house arrest since December, and she was indicted in January. Her attorney says that she confessed to the charges.
Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin said that the incident was “very serious” and had the potential to cause a great deal of damage to Israel's security. He said that there was a great fear in the security establishment that some of the documents, which he termed “super sensitive,” could fall into enemy hands.
by Hillel Fendel Nisan 24, 5770 / April 8, '10 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/136905
Some details still remain classified, as the investigation by police, Shabak (Israel Security Agency) and IDF Information Security Department continues.
Despite protests by the Israeli media over the past several days, the State Prosecution insisted that the investigation remain under a gag order, for two reasons: To exhaust all possibilities of recovering the documents, and in order to prevent interference with the ongoing investigation of what appear to be the very grave crimes committed in this case. Finally, under pressure from Israel Press Council Chairperson and former Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner and others, and in light of developments in the case, the Prosecution has given in and withdrawn its demand for secrecy.
The State Prosecution says it was guided throughout the investigation by the overriding need to ensure that the secret documents not find their way into enemy hands.
The facts that are permitted for publication are as follows:
Journalist Anat Kam, 23, is accused of stealing over 2,000 IDF classified documents, many hundreds of which are termed “secret” and “top secret.” The alleged crimes occurred when she served as a soldier clerking in the IDF military - specifically, in the office of the Commander of the Central District - between 2005-2007.
She allegedly handed over many of the “top secret” and “secret” documents to Haaretz reporter Uri Blau. Blau, who was abroad when the investigation started, has refused thus far to return to Israel for investigation. It is suspected that many of the classified papers are still in his possession – despite an offer made to him that the returned documents would not be used to prosecute him or his source, Anat Kam.
Kam, who was secretly arrested during the investigation, has been indicted in the Tel Aviv District Court. She stands accused of collecting secret information, giving it to unauthorized individuals, and attempting to harm state security.
Some of the documents include detailed plans for military operations, the deployment of IDF forces in routine and emergency situations, operations against terrorist leaders, evaluations, and more. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Reported: 22:29 PM - Apr/08/10 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/184034
(IsraelNN.com) Member of Knesset Michael Ben-Ari asked Interior Minister Eli Yishai on Thursday evening to use his authority under the journalism regulations to close the Haaretz daily in the wake of revelations that the newspaper had printed articles by Uri Blau which contained classified military documents.
In a letter to the Shas party chairman, Dr. Ben-Ari noted the preciousness of freedom of expression in a democracy, but added, "when Haaretz announces that the newspaper will financially support Uri Blau and at the newspaper's initiative, Blau is not returning to the country, there's no choice but to order the closing of Haaretz - and not for a short time - until Blau returns, reports for questioning and returns the documents."
by Maayana Miskin Nisan 24, 5770 / April 8, '10 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/136914
Sources in the defense establishment who saw the article – and other pieces by Blau – realized that the writer's references to the timing and location of IDF arrest operations were unusually detailed. They suspected that Blau had somehow obtained top-secret military documents.
Investigation launched
The Chief of Staff requested an investigation, and the request was approved by then-Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. The Israel Security Agency (ISA), police and IDF began a joint investigation aimed at returning the classified material and finding the person responsible for taking them. The investigation, which was kept under wraps, was subject to oversight by the court system and government legal advisors.
In early 2009, investigators began their search. They soon discovered that Blau was in fact in possession of secret IDF documents.
The ISA took the unusual step of making a deal with Blau, in order to ensure the return of the documents, and in order to respect freedom of the press, including the need for the reporter to protect his sources. It was agreed that Blau would hand over any classified documents in his possession; in return, the documents would not be used as evidence against him or against his source, and he would not be questioned as a suspect or asked to reveal his source.
Computer destroyed
In late September, 2009, Blau returned dozens of classified documents to the military. His personal computer, on which he had stored classified information, was destroyed.
Investigators continued to seek Blau's source, and soon afterwards identified her as 23-year-old Anat Kam of Tel Aviv, a media-affairs journalist at the Walla news portal.
Kam was questioned, and revealed that during her military service in the office of then-Central Command Head Major-General Yair Naveh, she had stored thousands of classified documents on the computer provided to her by the IDF. Shortly before her release from service in June 2007, she stored more than 2,000 of the files on a 'disc-on-key' device.
She then copied the files onto her personal computer at home, despite being aware that possession of the documents was a serious crime. The documents taken included top-secret files with information on special operations, intelligence reports, General Staff meeting notes, ongoing IDF operations, troop deployment, and more.
'Soldiers would have died'
Had the information fallen into enemy hands, it would very likely have led to the deaths of military personnel, military sources said.
Investigators also discovered that Kam had attempted to give top-secret information to a different reporter before giving it to Blau in September and October of 2008. The reporter expressed interest in the documents, but Kam was unable to hand over the information as planned.
On January 14, 2010, Kam was indicted for spying, handing out classified information in an attempt to undermine national defense, and gathering and possessing classified information with the intent of undermining national defense.
Danger continues
After discovering that Kam had sent Blau many of the documents in her possession, investigators suspected that Blau had returned only a small percentage of the information he had committed to return. Blau, who has been abroad since December 2009, was summoned back to Israel for questioning, but has not yet returned. The ISA negotiated with his lawyers in hopes of receiving the missing documents, but on April 6, 2010, realized negotiations were futile.
Investigators fear that top-secret documents remain in the possession of unauthorized persons, and that if even a handful of the documents were to find their way into enemy hands, they could cause serious damage to Israel state security.
Reported: 14:57 PM - Apr/08/10 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/184001
(IsraelNN.com) Responding to the revelations that its reporter, Uri Blau, had used information allegedly stolen by Anat Kam from the IDF Central Command for its reporting, Ha'aretz said Thursday that all the articles published had been approved by the IDF censor. In September 2009, the paper said, Blau was questioned by the Shin Bet, which demanded he hand over the documents he used in his reports. The paper negotiated on his behalf, and an agreement was signed with the Shin Bet, in which Blau sent the agency dozens of documents, and in return the Shin Bet agreed not to question Blau on his sources or to use the documents as evidence against him. Blau was also asked to submit his personal computer for examination, and he agreed to do so as well, the paper said.
Now, Ha'aretz said, with the arrest of Kam, Blau is also being sought for questioning, violating the deal between the reporter and the Shin Bet, the paper said. In response, the Shin Bet said that Blau still had hundreds of security documents, and that he was the one in violation of the agreement. Blau is currently in London, in order to avoid arrest in Israel.
by Hillel Fendel Nisan 24, 5770 / April 8, '10 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/136909
MK Uri Orbach (Jewish Home): “Under the cover of freedom of expression and civil rights, extremist wild weeds are growing in the greenhouses of the left… The army must be extra careful in deciding whom it recruits and in whose hands it deposits the security of Israel’s citizens.”
MK Ronit Tirosh, of the centrist-left Kadima party, was very strident: “It is infuriating that on the eve of Holocaust Day [this coming Sunday night and Monday], we find that displays of anti-Semitism exist even in our midst. Justice must be meted out to all those involved in this story, and the media and especially Haaretz must take careful stock of their actions. Spies in our midst are the last thing that the State of Israel needs now.”
A fellow Kadima MK, Nachman Shai, was more concerned about the media aspects of the case. He said that the fact that the case was ultimately permitted for publication shows that “wisdom has emerged victorious. The decision to remove the gag order from the case shows that the public pressure at home and abroad was fruitful... The main message from this case is that Israel is not an isolated island and no media siege can be placed upon it. Regarding everything else, the court will have its say at the proper time.”
MK Yaakov Katz, head of the National Union party: “It is regrettable that the agendas of Netanyahu and Israeli policy are guided by the media, in which nearly 100% of the microphones are of the left-wing – those who represent 2% of the population and are engaged in daily tattling and informing, and have now reached even espionage and treachery. Once again we see that we are a healthy nation and people being led by unhealthy microphones.”
Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe, Chairman of the Our Land of Israel movement: “Anat Kam is not an individual person, but rather part of a large phenomenon of left-wing willingness to give away the Land of Israel and betrayal of values and Israeli security.” He asked Sheldon Adelson, publisher of the young freebie nationalist-leaning Israeli newspaper Yisrael HaYom (Israel Today) to cease printing its paper at the Haaretz printing plant.
Haaretz, for its part, did not agree to the offer proposed by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) regarding the return of the documents. So said ISA head Yuval Diskin at a press conference on Thursday. Haaretz reporter Uri Blau, who received the secret documents and published an article based on them, including copies of two secret documents, is abroad, and refuses to return to Israel for questioning. Blau returned 50 of the documents, but still retains the rest.
Based on the above, Diskin said: “We have additional indications that Blau is still holding documents that were not returned. He has now become an intelligence target for hostile elements, and therefore we will make sure to speed up the investigation. Our attempts to retrieve the documents by consent didn’t work; our overall goal is to make sure that they don’t fall into hostile hands… We acted too softly here. We should have taken off the gloves much earlier. We were too sensitive to the media, and we drew the story out too long. It should have ended much earlier. This is the main lesson we have learned.”
“It is the dream of every enemy nation to put its hands on documents of this sort,” Diskin said. “Anat Kam belongs in prison.”
The Mattot Arim (Cities of Israel) grassroots organization: “This story must be a warning light for all IDF generals and security officials, who have long been convinced that their enemy is the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria and that the radical pro-Palestinian elements are ‘progressive’ and deserve their trust and encouragement. This explains how then-Central District Commander, Yair Naveh, didn’t ‘notice’ that 2,000 documents were being copied under his nose – because he was so busy running after Jewish settlers and patriotic Israeli outposts.”
Residents Committees in Judea and Samaria: “Radical left-wing elements serving in official positions are like a fifth-column against Israel’s interests. This is a black day for free press when extremist propagandists infiltrate it disguised as objective journalists.”
MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), demanding the urgent convening of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, of which he is a member: “We must investigate how it is that members of the radical left are exposed to classified information… It turns out that left-wing positions bring some of them to undermine the country’s existence and to cooperation with the enemy.”
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union): “The ideological left has once again crossed all lines and acted to harm the security of Israel and the IDF. Those who don’t hesitate to recruit countries and donors to harm Israel in the framework of associations supported by the New Israel Fund are liable to go even further and actually spy, in order to turn Israel into a ‘state of all its Arabs.’… Worst of all is the media’s deep involvement in the plot to harm the country.”
Baruch Marzel of Hevron wants to know why Kam was placed under house arrest for so long: “The Prosecution and courts knew how to throw 13-year-old girls from the nationalist camp into prison until the end of the proceedings against them just because they blocked a highway – but allow a spy to remain in her home? The rule of law in Israel is in trouble.”
by Gil Ronen Nisan 24, 5770 / April 8, '10 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/136918
“Freedom of expression is the soul of democracy and indeed, the authority to shut down a newspaper is granted only in extreme and unusual cases,” Ben-Ari wrote, “but when Haaretz announces it will pay Uri Blau's expenses, and Haaretz is behind the initiative to keep Blau from returning to Israel – there is no alternative but to order the shutting down of Haaretz newspaper, if only for a short time, until Blau returns, shows up for interrogation and hands over all of the classified documents.”
MK Yisrael Hasson (Kadima), the former Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) did not go as far as Ben-Ari but called upon Haaretz's subscribers to freeze their subscriptions until Blau gives back all of the documents obtained illegally "and is immediately fired.”
Why isn't Kam in jail?
Terror victims' advocacy group Almagor issued a statement in which it demanded that Anat Kam – who is accused of stealing the documents and giving them to Blau, be placed under full arrest until her trial ends, and not under house arrest as she is presently. It noted that in previous espionage cases, the individuals charged were always jailed during their trials.
Almagor further demanded that Kam be tried before a military court since she was a uniformed soldier when she carried out her alleged espionage. “Only a panel of judges that includes people of military background can fully appreciate the severity of her deeds, especially given the light atmosphere that is being created by her attorneys and those who side with them in some of the media,” the group said.
Media supportive
Indeed, much of Israel's media coverage of the treason case show news outlets playing defense for the suspected journalist spies and placing the media's rights to information above the law, this despite IDF statements that Israeli lives might have been threatened by the in the stolen documents.
For hours on end Thursday, Israel's online media outlets in English headlined the espionage case involving two journalists, one of whom was a soldier at the time, in a way that appeared to favor the suspects. In the afternoon and evening, the top stories in the Ynetnews, JPost and Haaretz websites curiously focused on the accused spy's version of the affair, depicting her as more of a victim than a villain.
Ynetnews's top headline was “'Case threatens democracy'” – actually an abbreviated version of a quote from Kam's defense lawyer. JPost also gave prominence to the defense lawyer's version, with the headline “Former IDF soldier's lawyer: Case damaging to democracy.” The English-language version of Haaretz, a suspected culprit in the affair, quoted the same attorney's claim that his client, who is accused of wilfully copying thousands of IDF classified documents on to her own computer, had been “made a scapegoat” in its headline.
Channel 2's central evening newscast featured numerous sound bites from another one of Kam's lawyers, high-profile attorney Avigdor Feldman, and a sympathetic interview with Kam's mother. Anchorwoman Yonit Levy spoke with Guy Peleg, the channel's reporter on legal affairs, and suggested that the accusation of espionage was "too harsh."
Ynet in Hebrew provided a long video report on a demonstration by a dozen radical leftists in Tel Aviv who accused the IDF of crimes and praised Kam.
By evening, Haaretz in Hebrew had moved the story that caused shockwaves throughout Israel down to the number five position, giving it less importance than a story about the Obamas' intention to appear on American Idol.
"Haaretz correspondent Uri Blau exposed over the last two years a series of affairs pertaining to the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces and branches of the defense establishment in the Palestinian territories," said Alfon.
These included "an investigative report in November 2008 which revealed the result of discussions in which participated IDF Chief [Gabi] Ashkenazi - who was then the GOC Central Command - and the heads of the Shin Bet, which essentially gave instruction to carry out activities in violation of an order from the High Court of Justice," said Alfon. "All of the articles which were published in Haaretz were sent to the censor and received its full permission for publication," said Alfon.
"In September of 2009, Haaretz reporter Uri Blau was summoned to the offices of the Shin Bet and was told to hand over the documents on which he based the articles.
"Following this incident, a lawyer appointed for Haaretz and Uri Blau began a dialogue with the Shin Bet's legal adviser regarding the return of the documents. The dialogue was meant to guarantee the confidentiality of the reporter's sources and freedom of action, without harming Israel's security.
"On September 15, 2009, these discussions led to an agreement under which Uri Blau transferred to the Shin Bet dozens of documents that were in his possession, and in exchange the Shin Bet committed to refrain from investigating the reporter regarding his journalistic sources, refrain from investigating the reporter as a suspect, and refrain from using the documents as evidence in legal proceedings against the person responsible for leaking the information.
"Once all the conditions were agreed upon and the documents were transferred, the Shin Bet requested Uri Blau's personal computer. Haaretz agreed, and the computer was destroyed.
"A short time later, the Shin Bet arrested Anat Kam, a former soldier in the IDF Central Command, on suspicion that she was Uri Blau's source. In January 2010, the Shin Bet informed Blau's lawyer, Mibi Mozer, that his client was wanted for investigation. Mozer said that the demand contradicted the conditions of the agreement and that he would advise Blau not to comply.
"From that point on, the Shin Bet refused to fulfill the conditions of the agreement it had signed. The Shin Bet also rejected Mozar's proposal to draft another agreement that would highlight the Shin Bet's goal of protecting Israel's security, while still preserving the conditions of the former agreement.
"Haaretz regrets the sudden change in the Shin Bet's position and its consequences, which have resulted in threats and heavy pressure on a reporter who was just doing his job.
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