Accused spy Anat Kam
Accused spy Anat KamIsrael news photo: file

Journalist Anat Kam, who is accused of stealing thousands of classified IDF files, has waived her claim to journalistic source confidentiality. Kam is calling on the reporter to whom she gave the files, Haaretz writer Uri Blau, to bring them back to Israel.

Kam is accused of stealing over 2,000 classified IDF documents during her service in the IDF, where she worked in the office of the GOC Central Command. She gave many of the documents to Blau, who used them to write an article in 2008 accusing Israel of killing terrorists who could have been arrested.

Blau made a deal with the Israel Security Agency to turn over the files he received from Kam, and in September 2009 he gave agents dozens of files. However, agents later realized that Blau had hundreds of other files which he had not returned.

Blau, who had traveled to London in the meantime, refused to return to Israel and hand over the other files, apparently due to concerns that the files could be used to implicate Kam.

"I think he didn't reveal the documents because he wanted to protect her,” said Kam's attorney, Avigdor Feldman. “Now she has waived her right to confidentiality as a source. She's asking him to return, and as I understand it, his return will help bring this matter to a close.”

Feldman said he does not believe that Blau will be punished if he agrees to return. “I don't think anything bad will happen to him if he returns the files,” he said.

As for Kam, Feldman reported that the young journalist and accused spy is in contact with the Israel Security Agency in an attempt to reach a plea bargain. Feldman did not say whether his client's appeal to Blau was a part of that bargain.

Feldman is a high-profile attorney known for his work on behalf of the extreme political Left. He has represented convicted nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu, young Israelis who refuse to serve in the IDF, and leftist groups filing suit against Israel's policy of assassinating senior terrorists. He is a graduate of a Civil Liberties Law Program run by the New Israel Fund, a foreign-funded organization charged with supporting anti-Israel groups and groups that accused Israel of war crimes.