friend who worked in the ISA research department in his capacity as
ISA coordinator in Galilee. He had persuaded his friend to give him
some of the material on the grounds that it would be of great help to
him in some private investigations against Arab citizens. The ISA
thereupon arrested the friend, who admitted his guilt, expressed re-
morse, and denied knowing Amit was using the materials for other
purposes; he was dismissed from the ISA, tried, and sentenced to a
three-month jail term and a one-year suspended sentence. In April
1987 Amit was convicted on the basis of his confession and sen-
tenced by the Haifa district court to 12 years in jail. His trial was held
behind closed doors and remained secret, any mention in the Israeli
press being erased by the military censor. A few terse and inaccurate
accounts appeared in the non-Israeli press. The Israeli émigré news-
paper Israel Shelanu in New York reported the arrest of an intelli-
gence officer as if he were spying for Syria, not the United States.
Israeli intelligence also kept secret its knowledge of Waltz’s in-
volvement in the affair. The U.S. authorities were not asked to remove
him from the embassy in Tel Aviv; about two months after Amit’s ar-
rest, Waltz even accompanied an ISA and Israeli Military Intelligence
delegation to a meeting in Washington. Before the Israeli delegation’s
departure, the head of the counterespionage department and foreign li-
aison in the ISA, Yosef (Yossi) Ginossar, was told not to intimate any
knowledge of Waltz’s activities. The only time the Amit affair was
raised between Israel and the United States was at a meeting between
the director of the ISA, Yosef Harmelin, and the CIA station chief in
Tel Aviv. Harmelin presented the facts and asked for an explanation.
A few days later the CIA chief informed him that Amit had ap-
proached the United States on his own initiative and had been turned
away. When the idea was mooted to Amit in prison that he be ex-
changed for Jonathan Jay Pollard, Amit sent a harsh letter to the Is-
rael state attorney’s office, stating that he had no desire for any such
exchange. He claimed that his confession had been extracted illegally.
Amit was paroled in 1993 for good behavior (even though he often vi-
olated prison regulations) and because of his psychological condition.
For the Americans, Amit was considered a minor spy.ANGLETON, JAMES JESUS (1917–1987).Born in Arizona, Angleton
moved to Milan in 1933 with his father, who sought employment in12 • ANGLETON, JAMES JESUS06-102 (02) A-G.qxd 3/24/06 7:23 AM Page 12