US man admits leaking secrets to "Israel"

Ben-Ami Kadish walks out of federal court after confessing to leaking US military secrets to Israel.
A former US military engineer has pleaded guilty to a criminal charge accusing him of serving as a spy for ‘Israel' during the 1980s.

Ben-Ami Kadish admitted on Tuesday to leaking classified documents to an ‘Israeli' handler between 1980 and 1985, when he worked at a US Army research and engineering center.

The documents included information about nuclear weapons, fighter jets and the US Patriot missile air defense system.

Kadish pleaded guilty in the federal court in Manhattan to only one of the four counts in the original complaint -- conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without United States authorization.

The other three counts that were dropped included obstruction of justice and an espionage charge.

Kadish is scheduled to be sentenced in February facing a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Prosecutors say the 85-year-old provided classified documents to an ‘Israeli' agent, Yosef Yagur, who was a handler for former Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard.

Pollard is currently serving a life sentence in a federal prison after pleading guilty to spying for ‘Israel' in 1986.

The espionage case of Pollard, which triggered a scandal, has long been a source of contention between the United States and ‘Israel'.