Colonel [[Aviem Sella]] was an [[Israel|Israeli]] Air Force officer and a nuclear targeting expert who was implicated in the [[Jonathan Pollard]] espionage case, where he worked with [[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard]] to obtain intelligence from the [[USA|U.S.]] Navy.[^1] ### Nuclear Targeting Expertise Sella was one of the Israeli Air Force's leading nuclear bombing and targeting experts. He was specifically assigned to serve as [[Jonathan Pollard]]'s handler. Pollard insisted that his spying did not begin until July 1984, after a social meeting with Sella. Sella's mission was to help Pollard gather and evaluate essential intelligence, including advanced American intelligence on weather patterns, communication protocols, and data on emergency and alert procedures, as well as knowledge of the electromagnetic fields between [[Israel]] and its main targets in the [[Soviet Union]].[^2] ### Operational Shortcomings Sella's superb skill and knowledge of nuclear targeting blinded [[Rafael Eitan]] and the Israeli intelligence community to the fact that Sella was a pilot who knew nothing about running a covert operation. When Pollard got into trouble in late 1985, Sella's main concern was fleeing the [[United States]] as quickly as possible before he, too, was arrested.[^2] ### Legal Consequences and Aftermath Sella, who retired from the air force in disillusionment and disappointment, remained in [[Israel]], as of mid-1991 a fugitive from American justice. He has given friends and colleagues an account of his involvement that is more credible, but still far short of the whole story. He claimed he was recruited to try to control Pollard, who was drowning the Israeli intelligence bureaucracy in documents. By 1984, when Sella was approached, he had almost completed his requirement for a Ph.D. in computer science at [[New York University]], and the obvious thought was that his technical training would be an asset in evaluating and perhaps winnowing down Pollard's materials. Sella knew that Pollard had been recruited long before 1984, but he was eager for the assignment, believing that running a spy as important as Pollard would make his own climb to the top inevitable. Before taking the assignment, he checked with his superior, Major General [[Amos Lapidot]], the air force chief of staff, who assured him that Pollard was not a rogue and that clearance for his new assignment had been obtained from [[Yitzhak Rabin]], the minister of defense. Once involved, Sella complained to a friend that Pollard "was running crazy" and "was giving him things he didn't want and didn't need."[^2] ### Footnotes [^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War") [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.