Anne Henderson Pollard

The Israeli official who headed the espionage operation that bought U.S. military secrets from Jonathan Jay Pollard broke his silence Wednesday and said he acted with approval from his superiors. The statement by Rafael (Rafi) Eitan conflicted with parliamentary findings that the Pollard case was a "rogue operation" conducted without the knowledge or approval of senior government figures.

Rafael Eitan, the Israeli named recently in an alleged espionage ring in the United States, traveled in 1968 to a nuclear plant in Apollo, Pa., where large amounts of weapons-grade uranium disappeared and was allegedly diverted to Israel, documents showed today. Eitan, a former chief of operations for the Mossad, the Israeli CIA, was one of four Israelis who received U.S. clearance to meet with officials at the NUMEC plant in Apollo on Sept. 10, 1968, according to declassified FBI documents.

FBI agents investigating the espionage of admitted spy Jonathan J. Pollard retrieved 163 classified government documents from Israel, according to court papers filed today. In a 55-page sentencing memo filed by federal prosecutors in U.S. District Court, the Justice Department said FBI agents found the classified documents during a trip to Israel in December, 1985. The papers were retrieved from the Israeli government, according to the memo.

The arrest of retired CIA analyst Larry Wu-tai Chin adds another name to an already lengthy list of U.S. military, defense contracting and intelligence agency employees publicly accused in the last two years in espionage cases. The others are: -Richard Craig Smith, a former Army counterintelligence agent indicted April 9, 1984, on charges of giving the Soviets the identities of up to six U.S. double agents. He claimed he was working for the CIA. -Michael T. Tobias, a Navy crewman accused Aug.

The State Department announced Friday that Israel has returned all classified documents it received in an "unauthorized manner" from a U.S. Navy employee and his wife who are accused of spying. Moreover, Israel gave a team of State and Justice department investigators "full access" to Israeli officials involved in the case, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said at a briefing on the findings of the investigating team.

Federal prosecutors, urging that Israeli spy Jonathan Jay Pollard be sentenced to a substantial prison term, depicted him Tuesday as a money-driven operative addicted to the high life who did far more damage to national security than previously disclosed. In an unusually detailed sentencing memorandum filed in federal court, U.S. Atty. Joseph E.

The wife of Israeli spy Jonathan Jay Pollard, challenging the U.S. government's contention that she accepted a $7,000 ring from Israel as part of a newly acquired addiction to the "high life," said Thursday that the jewelry was meant only to encourage the couple to get married. In a rare interview, Anne Henderson-Pollard told The Times: "In espionage, they like individuals to be married--for stability."

Senior State Department officials, concerned by new indications that the Israeli government has concealed evidence of broader espionage operations against the United States than it has admitted, now are receiving daily updates on a Justice Department probe of the alleged spying, a department source said Friday.

Justice Department officials investigating evidence of Israeli espionage in the United States are resisting State Department objections to seeking the indictment of a senior Israeli air force officer who is believed to have directed spying, a government source said Saturday. The dispute continues despite strong public denials Friday by both departments that they differ over the inquiry into Israeli espionage, said the source, a knowledgeable official who declined to be named.

The inauguration of President Clinton is expected to be quickly followed by a request from the Israeli government--probably through diplomacy's "back channels"--to release American spy Jonathan Jay Pollard to Israeli custody. Pollard spied against the United States, giving thousands of classified, highly sensitive documents to a foreign country.