with him. He invited him to cafés, to dinners, and to expensive Broad-
way shows. Each time, he got from Pollard a sheaf of documents that
Pollard had stolen from top secret U.S. intelligence archives. Sella in-
troduced Pollard to Yosef Yagur, the Israeli scientific attaché in the
New York consulate. In the fall of 1984 Sella together with Yagur in-
vited Pollard with his future wife Anne to Paris to meet the director of
the Bureau of Scientific Liaison, Rafael (Rafi) Eitan. At the meet-
ing, Eitan assigned Yagur as Pollard’s direct handler. Sella commuted
on shuttle flights between New York and Washington, D.C., many
times to collect the copied documents from Pollard.
Pollard was arrested on 21 November 1985. Sella, Yagur, and the
secretary in the Israeli embassy in Washington, Irit Erb, who had as-
sisted in copying the documents stolen by Pollard, quietly slipped out
of the United States. Eighteen days after the meeting, Israel an-
nounced that Sella would not be promoted to the command of the Tel
Nof air force base. Returning to Israel in 1985, Sella was appointed
commander of the smaller IAF base at Ramon. Following Pollard’s
arrest, Leonard Garment, a Brooklyn-born attorney, was hired to rep-
resent Sella. On a trip to Israel to meet with Sella and his circle, Gar-
ment was told two contrasting versions of Sella’s role. The official
version, favored by Sella’s Israeli legal team, essentially dismissed
Sella’s role. On the one occasion when Garment spoke at length with
his client alone, however, he received Sella’s account of his extensive
involvement and took notes.
In June 1986 Sella’s Israeli team arrived in Washington and told
Garment they wanted him to give the U.S. Justice Department their
version alleging Sella’s noninvolvement. Garment’s proposed draft
was overruled and the Israelis insisted that theirs would be the one
handed to the Justice Department. Garment told the Israeli officials
he would have no part in it because it was demonstrably false, and the
U.S. prosecutors could prove it.
The Israeli team demanded to know how Garment could be so cer-
tain that his version of events was correct. When he read them his
handwritten notes from his conversation with Sella, they heatedly de-
manded that he hand them over. He refused. After some physical alter-
cation, Garment was dismissed. According to Garment, Israel tried to
keep Sella’s name out of the investigations because U.S. intelligence
experts would know that if an officer of his senior rank was involvedSELLA, AVIAM• 25106-102 (04) Q-Z.qxd 3/24/06 7:26 AM Page 251