FBI agents investigating whether a senior U.S. government official has been passing sensitive information to Israel have started surveillance of several top officials of the State Department and the National Security Council staff, The Washington Post reported Friday.
The report, citing sources knowledgeable with the inquiry, cautioned that the FBI has not determined whether any of the people under surveillance had acted improperly. Their names reportedly had been placed on a list of possible suspects because of their access to certain information. The surveillance began in recent weeks.Attorney General Janet Reno confirmed on Thursday that an investigation was under way involving a conversation intercepted last January that suggested Israel may have an intelligence asset who can get sensitive U.S. information.
The conversation intercepted by the National Security Agency was between two Israeli intelligence officials - one in Washington, one in Tel Aviv, the Post reported earlier in the week. The officials discussed whether someone code-named "Mega" could obtain a copy of a secret letter then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher gave Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last January.
The Israeli government has denied that it has a U.S. government informant supplying it with American secrets or that it spies on its American ally.
FBI officials would not comment Thursday. But counterintelligence specialists told the Post that the fact that the FBI authorized surveillance operations on specific individuals in the government was an indication of the belief that "Mega" referred to a U.S. official.