London Sunday Times
By James Adams
July 6 1997
American investigators are on the verge of revealing the identity of a senior official in the Clinton administration they suspect of spying for Israel, according to intelligence sources.
The suspect, who works in the National Security Council, was put under surveillance because of previous contacts with the Israelis, and FBI investigators are convinced he has been passing secrets to Israel under the codename "Mega".
FBI counter-intelligence agents, who have been hot on his trail for several months, are trying to gather enough evidence for an arrest, but given the pro-Israeli political climate in Washington, a prosecution is unlikely.
The hunt for Mega began last January, after the National Security Agency intercepted a coded conversation between a Mossad agent in the Israeli embassy in Washington and his supervisor in Tel Aviv.
The conversation was decoded by the NSA. In it, the Israelis discussed "going to Mega" in order to obtain a copy of a letter from Warren Christopher, then secretary of state, to Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader.
When news of the interception surfaced, the Israeli government issued furious denials that it had a mole in the White House. One Israeli spokesman claimed that Mega was an abbreviation of Megawatt code for a communications system that has existed for years between friendly intelligence agencies. In fact, the system a method of sharing information about terrorism is called Kilowatt.
Another Israeli official claimed that Mega was a Mossad nickname for the liaison officer at the CIA, an explanation that is not believed by either the CIA or the FBI. Publicly, the Clinton administration, which was anxious to appease the Israelis, appeared to accept the explanation, but the hunt for the spy continued.
Arab organisations want action to prove that the administration will prosecute Israeli spies in the same way it deals with spies from other countries.
The reality is that even if there is enough evidence to stand up in court, a prosecution is unlikely. Jonathan Pollard, a naval worker jailed for life in 1986, is the only person to have been sentenced in America for spying for Israel, even though dozens of other Israeli agents have been identified by the FBI.
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