Israeli Journalist Held Under Secret House Arrest (Exposed Illegal Assassinations]

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April 1, 2010

New York - Ma'an- An Israeli journalist has been held secretly under house arrest for months, sources confirmed this week, amid allegations she obtained and leaked classified military information to an Israeli newspaper.

Israel's Shin Bet intelligence service has banned news media from mentioning the case or identifying the reporter, Anat Kam, 23, who former colleagues say worked for the Israeli news site Walla! until her arrest last December.

A group of Israeli journalists will challenge the ban in court on 12 April, 48 hours before Kam goes on trial for espionage and treason. Prosecutors will claim she copied at least two classified military documents during her mandatory army service years earlier. These two documents are believed to have inspired a 2008 investigation by Haaretz reporter Uri Blau detailing Israeli army assassination procedures.

A number of Israeli journalists who contacted Ma'an said they believe Israel's intelligence community wants to make an example of Kam in an effort to dissuade others from exposing secret documents in the future. But knowledgeable Israeli sources have also said Blau could be the real target. "This is bigger than you think," said one source who remains in contact with the Haaretz reporter. "They're really after him."

Blau's report alleged that the Israeli military has repeatedly violated a 2006 ruling by the High Court of Justice against certain types of "targeted assassinations," predominantly those in which a non-combatant was killed. Some killings were planned more than a month in advance and were later excused as arrest raids gone wrong, according to the story in Haaretz Magazine that republished sensitive documents.

A year after the story's publication, Israeli authorities seized Blau's computer, Ma'an has learned. Blau, who happened to be in China at the time, remains abroad. Colleagues say he fears arrest if he returns to the country. Blau did not respond to inquiries about his present location, although his colleagues say he is somewhere in the United Kingdom. His latest story's dateline is London.