Israel looking for U.S. intelligence officer declared AWOL
Saturday, 19 August 2000 21:16 (ET)

Israel looking for U.S. intelligence officer declared AWOL

TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Israeli police said Saturday that they
will look for a U.S. Army Reserve officer who reportedly went AWOL from his
unit in Texas and joined a lover in a town northeast of Tel Aviv.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv said Lt. Col. Jeremiah Mattysse did
not return from leave as scheduled on Aug. 8, and the Army declared him
absent without leave. He also has been charged with desertion and conduct
unbecoming an officer.

"We have reason to believe he is in Israel and we have asked the Israeli
government to help us return him to the U.S.," spokesman Larry Schwartz
said.

A spokesman for the Israeli police confirmed that the United States had
filed a request for help in locating for Mattysse. "We shall try to locate
him," Ofer Sivan said, but declined to provide further information,
including whether Mattysse is in Israel.

Israeli police maintain a computerized record of all arrivals to and
departures from the country.

The San Antonio Express-News reported that U.S. Army Reserve officials
would not discuss specifics of Mattysse's case. The 49-year-old officer
formerly commanded a unit at Camp Bullis, Texas, that had access to
classified information from the CIA and other intelligence sources, the
Express-News said. He was reassigned from that position in February.

The newspaper also reported that Mattysse's estranged wife, Vanda, had
accused him of having an affair. Joseph Hanley, a spokesman for the U.S.
Army Reserve Command, confirmed that an inquiry into Mattysse's conduct had
been started as a result of his relationship with a married woman. Hanley
would not disclose the woman's nationality or other details, however.

Rikki Nir, 48, of the town of Kfar Sava, was quoted by Israeli media as
saying that she had met Mattysse in Texas. She reportedly is or was married
to a U.S. Navy doctor.

Nir told Israel Radio that a U.S. military court had ordered the officer
not to approach or contact her. "He told me, 'Rikki, I love you so much and
I so much want to be in Israel,'" she related.

She said Mattysse had converted to Judaism, hid in her house and asked to
resign from the Army, but he was not discharged.

Hanley, told the Express-News that Mattysse had written the Army Reserve's
commander, Maj. Gen. Thomas Plewes, explaining his decision to resign. He
said the letter was postmarked from the United States.

In an account that seemed to mix the plausible with the fanciful, Nir said
that Mattysse had stayed in Israel in a tent, hitched rides on trucks,
avoided public transportation and disguised himself with a wig, a beard and
a mustache that "he replaces all the time."

She said Mattysse left her home early Friday morning and was picked up by
a white car with red license plates, which in Israel are assigned to police
vehicles. Later in the day, Nir said, Mattysse called her at a telephone
booth in Kfar Sava that the couple had agreed on, saying he had crossed the
border to Syria and was in Damascus.

"He doesn't know what he is going to do," she said.

A U.S. military attaché and two security guards arrived at the woman's
home on Friday and took some papers, Nir said.

She said that before coming to Israel, Mattysse had mailed classified
intelligence documents that were later deposited in the safes of several
Israeli banks under her name.

Several military sources interviewed by the San Antonio newspaper said
they did not whether Mattysse was Jewish or could claim Israel citizenship.
Israel has an extradition agreement with the United States and has often
deported U.S. Navy sailors who miss their ships after shore leave in the
northern port of Haifa.
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Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
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