-Caveat Lector-
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From: Root & Branch Association, Ltd. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: IL/ROOT & BRANCH ASSOCIATION, LTD. <IL/ROOT & BRANCH ASSOCIATION, LTD.>;
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Date: Wednesday, June 16, 1999 11:38 AM
Subject: Armed Forces/Feature: ENGINEER DAVID TENENBAUM SAYS U.S. ARMY HIRED
HIM BECAUSE HE KNEW HEBREW AND THEN SUSPECTED HIM OF ESPIONAGE BECAUSE HE
WAS JEWISH, NOW SUING U.S. GOVERNMENT FOR $110 MILLION by Susan Rosenbluth
>************R&B OMNIBUS************
>
>
>The ROOT & BRANCH INFORMATION SERVICE distributes news, features and
>commentary on Jews, Judaism and Israel. Views expressed are those of the
>authors alone.
>
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>***********************************
>
>
>Armed Forces/Feature: ENGINEER DAVID TENENBAUM SAYS U.S. ARMY HIRED HIM
>BECAUSE HE KNEW HEBREW AND THEN SUSPECTED HIM OF ESPIONAGE BECAUSE HE WAS
>JEWISH, NOW SUING U.S. GOVERNMENT FOR $110 MILLION
>
>
>by Susan Rosenbluth
>
>(Editor and Publisher, Jewish Voice & Opinion; New York Bureau Chief, Root
>& Branch Information Services)
>
>
>TEANECK, N.J., Yom Revii (Fourth Day - "Wednesday"), 2 Tammuz, 5759 (June
>16, 1999), Root & Branch: More than two years ago, David Tenenbaum, a
>41-year-old Orthodox-Jewish chemical engineer who works for the U.S. Army
>in Detroit, was investigated by the FBI for allegedly passing classified
>documents to Israel.
>
>After a 14-month criminal inquiry, which cost the federal government at
>least $2 million dollars, he was cleared. The Justice Department, working
>in cooperation with the Department of Defense (DoD), concluded not only
>that there was insufficient evidence against Mr. Tenenbaum, but that if
>there had been any evidence against him at all, "these agents would have
>found it."
>
>But that official dismissal seems to have meant nothing to the U.S. Army.
>In March of 1998, Mr. Tenenbaum was informed by the army that he could
>return to work, but, he soon learned, the military was continuing its
>investigation. Mr. Tenenbaum's security classification has still not been
>reinstated.
>
>"I sit at my desk, but I am unable to do anything meaningful. I am
>forbidden to speak with Israelis. My friends in the office where I've
>worked for 15 years won't speak to me. They're afraid to be seen in my
>company. They all have the feeling I'm guilty but that there's not enough
>evidence against me. My career is destroyed. My reputation is ruined.
>They're not willing to admit they made a mistake and I'm not a spy.
>They're, in effect, pressuring me to quit," he says.
>
>
>$110 MILLION
>
>But Mr. Tenenbaum is not a quitter. The Southfield, Michigan resident has
>filed suit against the government and against a number of officials in the
>American security and defense establishment for $110 million.
>
>Last month, in the first major decision in the suit, Federal Judge Victoria
>Roberts ruled against a government motion to have the case dismissed.
>
>In his suit, Mr. Tenenbaum has accused the government of maintaining a
>"Nazi-esque" counterintelligence policy that targets Jews.
>
>
>POLLARD AND CIRALSKY
>
>Jonathan Pollard, now in his 14th year of a life sentence on charges of
>having spied for Israel, and his supporters have long maintained that
>anti-Semitism played a role in influencing the way the government has dealt
>with him.
>
>Just recently, 28-year-old attorney Adam Ciralsky filed suit against the
>C.I.A., accusing the agency of anti-Semitism which cost the young lawyer
>his job. According to his attorney, Neal Sher, Mr. Ciralsky was placed on
>leave from the agency in October, 1997 because, while undergoing a routine
>polygraph exam, he did not disclose visits he and his family had made to
>Israel or that his family supported the U.J.A.
>
>At least one official document seems to back up the charges made by Messrs.
>Pollard, Ciralsky, and Tenenbaum. In 1996, the Jewish magazine Moment
>published an article about a DoD advisory the publication had obtained. In
>it, the DoD warned American defense contractors to keep an eye out for
>Israeli spies and their "ethnic" allies.
>
>
>"ETHNIC TIES"
>
>According to the advisory, "Israel aggressively collects military and
>industrial technology" and "the United States is a high priority collection
>target." This collection effort has been "very productive," in part, says
>the DoD report, because of "the strong ethnic ties to Israel present in the
>U.S."
>
>The report goes on to say that "Israeli personnel are always seeking to
>recruit knowledgeable human resources with access" to the information it
>wants.
>
>"[Israeli] recruitment techniques include ethnic targeting," the report
>says, adding that Israel has also achieved "great success" by "placing
>Israeli nationals in key industries."
>
>
>OTHER INCIDENTS
>
>While the "most highly publicized incident involving Israeli espionage" is
>the Pollard case, DoD cites other "documented incidents" of Israeli
>industrial spying. According to the report, in one 1986 case, Israel paid
>an Illinois-based contractor $3 million for the damage it caused.
>
>The DoD also reports one 1993 source as saying that "Israeli Air Force
>personnel have repeatedly gained access to top secret military research
>projects by paying off Pentagon employees."
>
>The DoD advisory warns that "US firms engaged in [relevant] research,
>development, and manufacturing," may be "high priority collection targets"
>of the Israelis.
>
>According to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Israeli defense personnel
>serving in the U.S. "have the most explicit and categorical instructions
>forbidding them from receiving classified material unless it's authorized
>or through official channels established by the two countries."
>
>
>HIRED FOR HEBREW
>
>Mr. Tenenbaum, an expert in the protection of armored vehicles, began
>working for the U.S. Army Tank-Automatic and Armaments Command (TACOM) in
>1984 in Warren, Michigan. Fluent in Hebrew, Mr. Tenenbaum told his
>recruiters he had spent time in Israel studying at a yeshiva in Jerusalem.
>Mr. Tenenbaum, who also has a black belt in karate, believes his Hebrew
>helped him get the job with the agency which coordinates
>procurement, storage, and maintenance for tanks and other military
vehicles.
>
>"They hired me largely because of my Israeli background. They saw me as an
>asset because of my connections with Israel," he says.
>
>As part of his job, Mr. Tenenbaum was sent to Israel for six weeks to
>inspect an Israeli project for protecting armored vehicles. His goal was
>to ascertain whether it would be useful to the Americans.
>
>"My Hebrew helped me to write programs that were to the benefit of the U.S.
> I learned things that the Israelis freely told me about. The Americans
>knew there were things to learn from the Israelis' combat experience," he
>says.
>
>
>SAVING TIME AND MONEY
>
>According to Mr. Tenenbaum, his final report on the project saved the U.S.
>a great deal of time and money in research and experimentation. As time
>went on, Mr. Tenenbaum met and maintained working relationships with many
>Israeli military personnel. His position required him to visit the Israeli
>Embassy in Washington, but, he says, each time he went, it was with the
>full knowledge of his superiors.
>
>"My job was to be in contact with foreign armor officers, including
>Germans, British, and Dutch. Israelis, too, but not exclusively," he says.
>
>
>"ENTERTAINING" DURING SHIVA
>
>In the course of its investigation into his activities, the army accused
>Mr. Tenenbaum of "entertaining" Israeli military personnel in his home.
>According to Mr. Tenenbaum, the visit to which the army referred was
>actually a shiva call paid by a member of the Israeli military when Mr.
>Tenenbaum's father passed away.
>
>"The Jewish community here is very united and very supportive. When a Jew
>arrives here from anywhere in the world, everybody adopts him as part of
>the community and helps him out. When the Israeli attache arrived and
>didn't speak English, I helped him become acclimated. When an officer
>wanted to make a bar mitzvah for his son but didn't know where, I arranged
>it for him in the synagogue. When you have work connections, you know that
>you work for the government and you know what the limitations are. Outside
>of work, I'm allowed to meet friends any time, at my house
>or theirs. Everything was done in the open and with the knowledge of my
>superiors," he says.
>
>
>SIGNS
>
>In retrospect, Mr. Tenenbaum says, there were signs that something was not
>right at work by the mid-1990's. During the Gulf War, his office asked for
>volunteers. Mr. Tenenbaum responded, but his superiors said his skullcap
>was an impediment.
>
>"They said I'd come back in a box," he recalls.
>
>He then volunteered to go to Israel to help protect the operators of the
>Patriots missiles.
>
>"Some people were afraid to go to Israel, but I wasn't. I even got a gas
>mask and all the other equipment. But they never got back to me," he says.
>
>In 1993, he again asked to go to Israel to participate in an
>engineer-exchange program.
>
>"But the papers got stuck somewhere again," he says.
>
>But, Mr. Tenenbaum, he did not suspect anything was wrong.
>
>"I was always different because of the kippah," he says.
>
>
>WARNING
>
>During this period, one of his co-workers cautioned him to "be careful who
>you work with."
>
>When Mr. Tenenbaum asked for clarification, the co-worker said, "Make sure
>you're working for the United States and not for Israel."
>
>"That was a warning posed as friendly advice, but I was naive and didn't
>pay much attention to it because I knew I had sworn loyalty to the U.S.
>government, something I took very seriously," he says.
>
>In 1996, the project to which he was assigned was not classified at all.
>"It was an international program with Israeli and German participation.
>Everything was done in the open," he says.
>
>But by the end of 1996, Mr. Tenenbaum asked and was turned down for
>permission to travel to Israel or even to a conference in San Antonio. He
>did not know it, but the army was already at the height of an intense
>investigation against him.
>
>
>SETTING THE TRAP
>
>In January 1997, the investigators set their trap. Mr. Tenenbaum was
>summoned for an interview which they said would raise his security
>classification. Although he had not submitted a request for a change in
>security clearance, he agreed, he says, in order to be able to perform more
>duties.
>
>Before the interview, he was asked to send them a detailed report of his
>entire life history, including everything he had ever done and all of his
>meetings. "I did not know that this whole interview had nothing to do with
>my promotion. It was meant to trap me. They thought I was a spy," he
says.
>
>During the interview, he was asked about phone calls in Hebrew that he made
>from the office. He explained that he often spoke to his children in
>Hebrew. He was asked in-depth questions about projects he had worked on
>and all of his connections.
>
>
>NO MISUNDERSTANDING
>
>After a lunch-break, one of the two investigators said, "Mr. Tenenbaum,
>it's hard for me to believe you haven't passed secret information to
Israel."
>
>Shocked, Mr. Tenenbaum believed there had to be a misunderstanding. "I
>thought I could convince them. I did not understand that these men had
>come with the supposition that I was a spy and that they were going to
>prove it," he says. "They didn't want to hear the truth. They wanted a
>confession."
>
>According to Mr. Tenenbaum, the investigators then accused him of espionage
>and asked for his resignation, which he refused to tender.
>
>"They threatened that if I didn't resign, I would wind up in jail," he
says.
>
>They then told him his choices were to take a polygraph exam, be fired, or
>go to prison. "I was shocked and angry at the affront to my integrity and
>the contempt for the dedicated work I had done for the army," he says.
>
>
>POLYGRAPH
>
>Feeling he had no choice, he agreed to submit to the polygraph exam, which
>was administered two weeks later. During that time, he told no one what
>had happened. "I didn't want to scare my wife, and I felt certain the
>polygraph would prove my innocence," he says.
>
>According to Mr. Tenenbaum, the exam was a nightmare. The two agents
>arrived with Albert Snyder, a DoD polygraph examiner who immediately
>announced that he "knew" Mr. Tenenbaum was a spy and that he "would break"
>him.
>
>Mr. Snyder intimated to Mr. Tenenbaum that he was the examiner who "did"
>Jonathan Pollard. "He said he 'did' other Jews who gave him a confession
>and that he was going to get a confession from me as well," says Mr.
>Tenenbaum.
>
>Mr. Tenenbaum refused. "I thought I was going to leave that office in
>handcuffs, but they told me to go home and think about it and get back to
>them," he says.
>
>
>PREPARING FOR TROUBLE
>
>That night, he told his wife what had happened and that they were in
trouble.
>
>The next morning, a Friday, he arrived at work to discover his computer had
>been removed. Soon a group of about a dozen investigators confronted him.
>
>"Things were said openly now, with all my co-workers standing around," he
>says.
>
>The agents told him they had discovered espionage at the plant.
>
>"Am I the spy?" asked Mr. Tenenbaum. He stood up and told them, "If you
>want to arrest me, go ahead and arrest me, but, if not, I'm getting out of
>here."
>
>They told him they were not accusing him of anything, but then they asked
>if they could search his house. Mr. Tenenbaum told them that would be all
>right.
>
>"I knew I could be arrested at any minute. I couldn't believe I would make
>it out of there," he says.
>
>
>STRIPPED OF SECURITY
>
>On the way to his car, a policeman stopped him and removed the
>identification tag from his shirt which enabled him to enter and leave the
>plant. Then the officer scratched off the parking sticker from Mr.
>Tenenbaum's car.
>
>"It was really demeaning. It seemed as if the whole base was watching me
>through the office windows. I didn't believe I would make it home safely.
>The trip home took 15 long minutes. I glanced in the mirror every second to
>see if someone was going to order me to stop," he says.
>
>When he arrived at his home, he and his wife spoke to an attorney for the
>first time.
>
>
>SHABBAT SEARCH WARRANT
>
>On Shabbat, he arose at five in the morning and began reading Tehillim. "I
>pray in shul every morning, but this was the first time I had ever recited
>the entire Book of Psalms in one sitting," he says.
>
>Around noon that day, he and his family along with some neighbors were
>sitting at home when the house was surrounded by cars. Seven or eight
>investigators knocked on the door, presented a search warrant, and
>proceeded to tear the house apart.
>
>"They turned the house upside down for four hours. They looked inside
>mattresses, took my four-year-old daughter's drawings and her music books.
>This was a traumatic experience that my wife, my children, and I have still
>not gotten over," he says.
>
>The investigators also took two computers-one was his wife's eight-year-old
>machine and the other was Mr. Tenenbaum's from work. He had brought it
>home with certified permission, but the investigators accused him of
>stealing it. Later, in court, Mr. Tenenbaum was able to produce a
>certificate in writing from his superiors proving he was permitted to take
>the computer home.
>
>Before the investigators left-with seven boxes of records-they informed Mr.
>Tenenbaum that he was suspended from work but that he would continue on
>salary.
>
>"When they left without arresting me, I breathed easy, but then Madeline
>and I had to discuss how we would finance the lawyers' fees. We thought we
>would have to sell our house," he says.
>
>
>"LIKE THE MOVIES"
>
>By the next day, Mr. Tenenbaum was certain he was being followed.
>
>"Just like in the movies," he says. "There were three or four cars lying
>in wait in the vicinity. For three or four months, my wife and I were
>followed 24 hours a day."
>
>Asked why he thought the surveillance finally stopped, he says, "I guess
>they got tired of doing carpool."
>
>On the Tuesday after he was suspended from work, Mr. Tenenbaum left his
>home to run some errands. When he called his wife to tell her he was on
>his way home, she informed him that the house was surrounded by reporters
>and photographers, some poking around their mailbox and others trying to
>peek through the windows.
>
>"One of my lawyers later told me that criminal search warrants are supposed
>to be confidential. He was amazed to discover that, in a case of suspected
>espionage, the officials had not asked for the documents to be sealed," he
>says.
>
>Mr. Tenenbaum hid out at a friend's house, where he stayed until a few days
>later when a heavy rain storm chased the media away. He managed to sneak
>home at three in the morning.
>
>
>LEAKED INFORMATION
>
>Very quickly, the story, with information leaked by the government,
>appeared in newspapers and on television. The headlines declared that the
>F.B.I. was accusing Mr. Tenenbaum of leaking secrets to Israel via military
>attaches in the U.S.
>
>According to the articles, the F.B.I. was declaring that Mr. Tenenbaum had
>"admitted to inadvertently giving classified information about Patriot
>missiles and armor for battle vehicles to Israeli liaison officers assigned
>to TACOM."
>
>Further, the FBI was stating that, during the search at the Tenenbaums'
>home, agents had seized "tax records, earnings statements, address books,
>notebooks, torn documents relating to armor systems, books from a tank
>command armor conference, two computers, and disks."
>
>
>SLANDER
>
>Mr. Tenenbaum calls the stories "rubbish." "As part of my job description,
>I shared unclassified information-with official permission-with Israeli
>officers, as well as officers from Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and
>other US allies," he says, adding that nothing taken from his home during
>that search was classified or in his
>possession illegally.
>
>Mr. Tenenbaum is also suing the Detroit News and its parent company, Gannet
>Newspapers, for slander. In stories about the case, the paper used
>headlines such as "Leak Damage Hard To Gauge" and "Search Yields Classified
>Items."
>
>"The media reported that I leaked documents, that I lied on the polygraph
>exam, and that I was arrested. These are completely false. It amounts to
>'media McCarthyism,'" he says.
>
>
>THREAT OF PRISON
>
>The threat of prison hanging over his head was serious. Had he faced
>prosecution for violating laws against gathering and delivering defense
>information to a foreign government, he could have been threatened with
>life imprisonment or even execution.
>
>Perhaps the most difficult part of the ordeal was watching his children
>suffer. After the FBI confiscated scrap paper her father had given her to
>draw on, Mr. Tenenbaum's daughter was afraid to go into her room or answer
>the doorbell.
>
>In many ways, the entire Orthodox community of Southfield suffered along
>with the Tenenbaums. The community, like the Tenenbaums, are convinced his
>experience was a result of anti-Semitism.
>
>The community has banded together to raise the money to pay Mr. Tenenbaum's
>legal bills.
>
>
>"PROFILE OF HONESTY"
>
>The local Southfield Jewish News ran an article on Mr. Tenenbaum which the
>paper titled "A Profile of Honesty." According to Mr. Tenenbaum's
>neighbors, the engineer is the quintessence of honesty, a man who would not
>cross the street against the light because it was illegal.
>
>"My gut reaction when I heard this was it sounds like they got the wrong
>person. He's so straight, so honest. He's not the type of person who
>would do what was considered not right," said Reggie Tovbin, a neighbor.
>
>Rabbi Yerachmiel Stewart, another neighbor, agreed. He called Mr.
>Tenenbaum "more than honest."
>
>For a while, Mr. Tenenbaum and Rabbi Stewart played bar mitzvahs and
>weddings together in a band they called Segulah."
>
>
>MODEST
>
>At the Young Israel of Oak Park, Rabbi Steven Weil told the paper about Mr.
>Tenenbaum's involvement with Matan B'Seder, a local charity that provides
>clothing, food, and utilities expenses to needy families.
>
>"All expenses incurred are paid by David and other members of the group,"
>said the rabbi, explaining that the recipients and the donors do not know
>each other.
>
>The rabbi described Mr. Tenenbaum as "modest about his charity work and his
>learning." "He's a very fine human being," he said.
>
>
>REMEMBERING MITZVOTH
>
>When reports about the supposed espionage began appearing in local papers,
>Mr. Tenenbaum, at his lawyer's suggestion, put himself under "house
>arrest," refusing to leave home.
>
>Rabbi Weil used the occasion to address his congregants about the learning
>of the mitzvah "B'tzedek tishpot amitecha."
>
>"Every human being is a judge and the courtroom is our mind. We have an
>obligation to judge a human being meritoriously. I said that before anyone
>jumps to any conclusions, to remember that mitzvah," he said.
>
>
>WASTE OF MONEY
>
>It probably would have been better-and cheaper-for the government to have
>remembered it, too. In his lawsuit, Mr. Tenenbaum is accusing the
>government not only of anti-Semitism, but also of leaking false reports to
>the media.
>
>Before submitting to the polygraph text with Mr. Snyder, Mr. Tenenbaum
>asked to tape-record the session. Permission was refused. To this day, the
>government has not permitted Mr. Tenenbaum to see the results of his
>polygraph exam, but the courts may soon force the F.B.I. to do so.
>
>Besides the $110 million Mr. Tenenbaum says the government owes him in
>compensation for his suffering, the engineer says he is now being paid to
>do virtually nothing.
>
>
>DOING NOTHING
>
>After he was cleared, the government ordered him back to work. "They
>ordered me back to my place of work, but not back to work," says Mr.
>Tenenbaum. "They took away all my programs, and they don't let me do
>anything, not even menial tasks. What a waste of taxpayers' money."
>
>These days, he spends his time at his desk learning Torah, reading books,
>or sketching.
>
>"They destroyed him. No one will ever hire him as an engineer," says Juan
>Mateo, one of Mr. Tenenbaum's attorneys.
>
>While the federal prosecutor's office would not comment on the case because
>of the litigation, an Israeli reporter working on the story says he was
>able to reach a former federal investigator who told him, off the record,
>that, in the Tenenbaum case, "we messed up big time."
>
>But, pointing to his family responsibilities, Mr. Tenenbaum says he will
>not quit.
>
>"Where should I go? I didn't do anything wrong. I've worked here for 15
>years. I always helped the army. I brought in money, and I saved money,
>and did nothing wrong, but I will continue to be suspect in their eyes
>because I am a Jew and I have a connection to Israel. It's true that it's
>very difficult to go to work under these
>conditions. There is always tension. They're always looking for me. But
>I can't just get up and leave. I have a responsibility to provide for a
>family, and I have a responsibility toward myself and my good reputation,"
>he says.
>
>
>Shalom,
>
>Susan Rosenbluth
>Teaneck, N.J.
>[[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------
>
>
>ABOUT SUSAN ROSENBLUTH:
>
>Susan Rosenbluth is the Editor and Publisher of The Jewish Voice & Opinion
>and the New York Bureau Chief for the Root & Branch Information Services.
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>
>ROOT & BRANCH ISRAEL OFFICE
>Aryeh Gallin, President
>Root & Branch Association, Ltd.
>P.O.B. 8672, German Colony, 91086 Jerusalem
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>
>ROOT & BRANCH UNITED STATES OFFICE
>c/o Lt. Col. Martin Gallin, Esq., A.U.S.A. (ret.)
>Law Offices of Gallin & Newman
>860 Grand Concourse, Bronx, N.Y. 10451
>Tel: 718-585-3512, Fax: 718-993-3712
>
>
=================================================================
Kaddish, Kaddish, Kaddish, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================
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