Liberty and Espionage
A just-landed Martian encountering Israel’s media for the first time might be forgiven for concluding that this is a country where freedom of expression is ruthlessly repressed.
Lamentations about our supposed lost liberties were triggered by the attorney-general’s decision to indict Haaretz reporter Uri Blau on espionage charges for obtaining, recording and hoarding without permission purloined classified military information, even if without intent to harm state security.
It all began when, as a young conscript, Pvt. Anat Kamm worked in the OC Central Command’s office, duplicated 2,200 documents, hid her haul and hung on to it long after her 2007 discharge. Kamm, now serving a 4.5-year sentence, basically dumped everything in her commander’s computer. She wasn’t selective. She didn’t home in on a specific controversy (which would have been bad enough).
In 2008, Kamm passed her contraband to Blau. Thus the touchiest IDF documents - including comprehensive battle plans that put lives at risk - fell into unauthorized hands. In Blau’s custody, and with Haaretz abetting him, they might have ended up anywhere.
Espionage’s bottom line is acquiring confidential information without consent from its legal proprietors. That the secrets reached Blau’s possession, rather than Hamas’s, is no consolation and most certainly no justification.
Top secrets on the loose can wreak havoc. Careless blabber or reckless publication constitute treasure troves for enemy intelligence analysts.
The depiction of Blau as a martyr to safeguarding journalism could not be more ludicrous. Indeed, were it not for Blau’s slapdash revelations and pretentious publication, Kamm’s role in supplying him with forbidden secrets would have never been discovered. Blau and his paper practically served Kamm’s head on a newspaperlined platter.
Blau promised to return the illicit stash, but handed back only 50 of nearly 2,000 documents, and even copied those. He later absconded to London, where his prolonged stay was bankrolled by Haaretz. He only came home in October 2010, after holding on to Kamm’s material for more than two years.