Ben-Ami Kadish, spy for Israel arrested at age 85, dies

Pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and was sentenced in mid-2009 to pay a $50,000 fine

19 July 2012, 11:23 am

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JTA — Ben-Ami Kadish, a former civilian employee of the US Army who was arrested at the age of 85 for spying for Israel, has died.

No date of death or cause of death was made public, according to the New Jersey Jewish News, citing a funeral home death notice.

Kadish, a former Army mechanical engineer, was arrested in December 2008 for passing classified documents between 1980 and 1985 to an Israeli agent, reportedly the same handler as Jonathan Pollard.

He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and was sentenced in mid-2009, at the age of 85, to pay a $50,000 fine.

“I’m sorry I made a mistake,” Kadish said before sentencing. “It was a misjudgment. I thought I was helping the State of Israel without harming the United States.”

Kadish was born in Connecticut and moved to what was then Palestine. He returned to the United States after World War II. He was employed by the Army for 27 years after serving in the US Air Force and had security clearance.