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Mattysse
is being questioned in Tel Aviv
A senior American army
intelligence officer who is wanted after disappearing from his job in the
US has been found in southern Israel.
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Jeremiah Mattysse: Religious clue to disappearance
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Lieutenant Colonel
Jeremiah Mattysse was found after a nationwide search in the Negev desert.
He is being questioned
at a police station in Petah Tikva in Tel Aviv.
The 50-year-old officer
was declared absent without leave over a week ago after he failed to return
to his base near San Antonio, Texas.
Local reports said his
girlfriend Ricky Niv told police where his hiding place was.
He had been in command
of a unit that trained military intelligence staff and which reportedly had
access to sensitive information.
Immigration bid
Israel is currently
discussing his case with Washington, which had requested for the search for
Colonel Mattysse.
Israeli police do not
have the authority to detain him as he has not committed any crime in the
country.
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Jonathan Pollard
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Extradition agreements
with the US also do not cover the charges that he is facing in the US.
Israel's Interior
Ministry confirmed that Colonel Mattysse, a recent convert to Judaism,
filed a petition for immigrant status two weeks ago.
US officials believe he
fled to Israel because of an army investigation into alleged adultery,
which had led to his transfer to another post in February.
'Love of Israel'
Ms Niv told Israel
Radio that he had lost his post after he joined the ultra-Orthodox Jewish
sect Habad.
She said he had been
fled to Syria because he was being persecuted for his love of Israel.
"He left in
disguise, wearing a wig, moustache and a beard," she said.
Ms Niv, a dual US and
Israeli national, said that US officials had visited her at her home in the
Israeli town of Kfar Saba, and removed various materials sent by Colonel
Mattysse.
But Israeli officials
have dismissed Ms Niv as "unstable" and denied her implication
that Colonel Mattysse had been spying for Israel.
They also said that any
comparison between Colonel Mattysse and Jonathan Pollard, a US citizen
serving a life sentence for spying for Israel, was
"preposterous".
Ms
Niv is also a member of the ultra-Orthodox Habad sect, known for emotional
displays of fervent prayer, and a belief in the universal immanence of God.
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