Posted on 10/30/2001 10:44:50 AM PST by AshleyMontagu
Jew who loses security clearance
blames anti-Semitism in the military
By Sharon Samber
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (JTA) — A Jewish reserve officer says the U.S. Army stripped him of his security clearance and forced him to give up command of an intelligence unit because of his ties to Israel.
Maj. Shawn Pine, commander of the 300th Military Intelligence Company of Austin, Texas, holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship and received his top security clearance in 1990 — until it was revoked this summer.
While Pine says the reasons are rooted in anti-Semitism, the army says it's just implementing a simple rules change.
Pine's story, which first appeared in the Jerusalem Post, brings up concerns of heightened sensitivity in the U.S. armed forces to officers with Israel connections.
Pine was born in the United States and immigrated to Israel with his family in the late 1970s. Like other Israeli citizens, he entered the Israel Defense Force, serving in the elite Golani Brigade.
After his discharge, Pine returned to the United States to attend Georgetown University. He later chose a military career and served nine years as an officer in the U.S. Army.
In 1995, Pine returned to Israel to study international relations at the Hebrew University, simultaneously doing his occasional IDF reserve duty.
Pine says he discussed his Israel connection with the U.S. Army when his security clearance came up for a routine update. He even agreed to the unusual step of taking a polygraph test, Pine says, saying it seemed fair because he had "a lot of interaction with Israel."
But now Pine says his career is ruined, as it's unlikely that private companies that get government contracts for security-related work would hire him without a security clearance.
Pine claims there is a "blatant" connection between his case and that of Lt. Col. Jeremiah Mattysse, a senior intelligence officer who converted to Judaism and went AWOL in Israel last year. There was speculation that Mattysse had passed on military intelligence to the Jewish state, but he eventually was cleared.
Pine was contacted about his security clearance update only a month after the Mattysse incident.
"They're looking for Jewish officers," he said.
The Army Reserves says it is implementing new rules that prevent anyone who holds dual citizenship from having top security clearance.
Pine is "not the only one caught up in the rules change," said Joe Hanley, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Reserve Command.
"This is not a punitive action," agreed Steve Stromvall, another spokesman.
A research associate at the Ariel Center for Policy Research in Israel, Pine has published many articles on military and strategic affairs in the Middle East. His writings have appeared in Israel Affairs, The International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence and the Jerusalem Post.
The Anti-Defamation League's Houston office said it had been contacted by Pine and is investigating the case.
Jewish sensitivity to accusations of dual loyalty has increased since the infamous case of Jonathan Pollard.
A former analyst for U.S. Navy intelligence, Pollard was convicted of espionage in 1985 for passing secret U.S. military information to Israel, and was sentenced to life in prison.
Anti-Israel feelings may be "endemic" in the U.S. Army's intelligence community, Pine believes.
"When they see a Jew, they see a Jonathan Pollard," he said.
There is no doubt that certain quarters of the U.S. intelligence community harbor an underlying suspicion of Jews with connections to Israel, attorney Neal Sher said.
Sher represented former intelligence officer Adam Ciralsky, who charged that the CIA placed him on leave in 1997 because of his ties with Israel. Ciralsky sued the CIA last year, claiming that rampant anti-Semitism within the agency destroyed his career.
Sher said he does not know the details of Pine's case, but said it is reasonable that anti-Semitism and anti-Israel animus could have played a role.
"The organized Jewish community should take this very seriously," he said.
Keep in mind that sabra is a lawyer. That explains a lot of his obfuscations and attacks. He is our resident Alan Dershowitz.
Yes, we were discussing the larger issue of loyalty, and divided loyalties with respect to access to U.S. secrets. Only possessing one citizenship is no guarantee that one's loyalties aren't divided. But in your case, citizenship was like marriage. You chose to become an American citizen. I never implied, or meant to imply that voluntarily becoming an American citizen (like your adoption example) makes one love the U.S. more than a native born citizen. But, dual citizenship is by it's very nature an official divided loyalty.
But, and this again proves my point- and I will end here- you write that citizenship qualifies you for such rights as fully participating (lets read that as voting) in a country. That's not exactly true. I don't vote in Israel. And Israelis born in the US don't vote here. There reason is that citizenship is not sufficient, you also need to be a resident.
(BTW,the matter isn't ended until you answer the question--your avoiding the question I asked you only buttresses MY point further.)
I was only referring to voting in the U.S. I'm not familiar with voting laws in Israel.
I am a citizen, live, work, vote and pay taxes in the United States. My Israeli citizenship is manifested by my holding an Israel passport without which I could never travel to Israel as they would not let me out of the country on my American passport alone. At this time, for me, my Israeli citizenship is an issue of paperwork. My affection for Israel would be identical was I a citizen or not.
Well, like it or not, it comes down to this: Your adopted country is telling you that you can't be a dual citizen and expect to get a security clearance. You can qualify for a security clearance, but you'll have to give up the convenience of traveling to and from Israel freely. Such is the case for those who have their feet planted in two camps.
But what you said about not being able to leave Israel without an Israeli passport confuses me. I would have no problem visiting Israel on an American passport alone? Why should you? Or is it that since you're Israeli born, Israel won't allow you to renounce your citizenship and still visit your relatives?
By the way, I appreciate being able to debate with you without it degenerating into an ugly Israel-bashing/Israel-apologist session, which so often occurs. Dual citizenship and loyalty to one's country (or countries) aren't necessarily incompatible, unless or until the interests of one country threaten the security of the other--then you're pretty much screwed. That's why I believe it's perfectly sensible, for any country, not just the U.S., not to allow dual citizens access to its secrets. I don't think Israel should allow dual citizens access to its secrets, either. It's the principle of the thing.
Get a grip. Having spent two decades of my life in the U.S. Army, I can state unequivocally that it is not in the least bit anti-Jewish. This is a personnel security matter, not a Jewish issue, whether you choose to believe that or not.
I was born in America, to an American mother, who's father was a career U.S. Air Force pilot (rank: Lt. Colonel at retirement). There is no question then to my status as an American citizen.
But, at the time of my birth, my father was a French citizen. According to French law, like the American law, a child of a French citizen is French. So, I am French. I am not "dual loyal" I am loyal only to America. But, I am a dual citizen. I can't help it. I didn't make the laws. I didn't choose my parents. That's just the way it is.
My father has since been naturalized an American, but that doesn't change the fact that I am a Frenchman according to France. I didn't have to declare any oaths or renounce anything. It is simply a matter of the laws of the USA and France, and has nothing to do with my loyalties.
I don't know exactly how it works, but if the U.S. does recognize your French citizenship, well then, sorry--no security clearance for you.
That's a meaningless statement. I can't imagine any reason for the US to need to recognize the dual citizenship status of one of its own citizens.
You can't use the fact of having a foreign citizenship as a defense for braking any American laws. Or to seek a special (American) status.
Which is again my point. "Dual citizenship" is a paper issue and nothing else.
If you're reading this Ashley: I put "dual citizenship" in quotation marks for you.
Under the same circumstances in Israel, at passport control they would make it very unpleasant- even under your facts considering none of minimal contact with France(Israel)- and you would likely miss your flight.
It's an impossible scenario and I tried to show that such dilemma would be available to people who are not dual nationals.
If you are attempting to question my specific loyalty to the US, that is not your place: even if I had not made my feeling about the US very clear over many years on this site.
No, you didn't answer the best you could. All you had to say was, "I would keep my mouth shut", or "I would spill my guts", or "It would be really tough and I don't know what I would do", but you didn't. You didn't answer at all, you merely threw the ball in my court and hoped I wouldn't notice.
It's an impossible scenario and I tried to show that such dilemma would be available to people who are not dual nationals.
It's not an impossible scenario, it's merely a hypothetical question, and I already know that you don't need dual citizenship to have divided loyalties.
If you are attempting to question my specific loyalty to the US, that is not your place: even if I had not made my feeling about the US very clear over many years on this site.
I was attempting to use a real-life example to prove my larger point, not to single you out in particular and give you a "loyalty" test. If you'd have just answered the question, it would never have gotten to this point. But anyway, I won't bring it up any more.
I would rather ask you another question, since someone mentioned you're a lawyer. If the US Army applies its "no top security clearance for dual citizens" rule equally across all nationalities, does this Mr. Pine have a discrimination case? And do you know what the outcome was of the guy who sued the CIA for ruining his career by taking away his security clearance? The author of the article conveniently neglected to mention the status of the case.
One could make an argument that since the status of dual citizenship is permitted, it would be illegal for the Government to discriminate. But then national security is allowed certain prerogatives. The courts keep busy because anything can be argued.
And because they are kept busy, unless that CIA case was settled, its probably pending.
You are correct, loyalty should be, and was, the sole criteria for clearances. This article refers to “new rules” which the others didn’t.
You and the others might enjoy reviewing a few of the cases involving security clearances. You will note, in the past, clearance was withheld “when an individual acts in such a way as to indicate a preference for a foreign country over the United States”. Yes, the EXERCISE (voting, use of passport, military service etc) of dual citizenship could be an issue. If you read the decisions, you will note that in the case of Israeli dual citizenship, use of the passport is not an issue, since it is required of Israeli citizens to enter or leave Israel, and military service is generally not an issue for the same reasons. And among the mitigating circumstances that would allow the granting of clearance, “dual citizenship is based solely on parents' citizenship or birth in a foreign country”, exactly the circumstances we are discussing.
INDUSTRIAL SECURITY CLEARANCE DECISIONS-Search for Foreign Preference; Foreign Influence
I believe the CIA entered into settlement negotiations. Since this hasn’t been in the news for a couple of years I’d guess they were successful. If you review some of the articles on the Ciralsky case (do a search, you'll find plenty) you will find that the real issue was not dual-citizenship, but that he was an observant Jew. Among the criticisms noted in his file, buying Israeli bonds, donations to the United Jewish Appeal, attending an Orthodox synagogue having a “rich Jewish” daddy and "rich Jewish friends", wearing a yarmulke to work, a minor in college in Judaic studies, travel to Israel, and an apparently bogus polygraph test (his case has often been cited in reference to the unreliability of polygraphs). In general, the information used to strip him of his clearance was, according to George Tenet, “"insensitive, unprofessional and highly inappropriate,".
Ironically, the clearance he was denied was necessitated by a transfer to the Clinton White House.
Without even being aware of these cases, a cursory reading shows that what I wrote above is pretty much how these things are handled. Each case turns on facts and not on a simple idea of being a dual citizen.
I wish you had posted this yesterday and saved me the time.
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