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US officials believe recent convert Mattyse fled to Israel
The
United States has asked Israel to help track down a US Army Reserve
intelligence officer who is believed to have deserted, possibly with
classified information.
Lieutenant-Colonel
Jeremiah Mattysse, 50, was declared absent without leave over a week ago,
after failing return to his base near San Antonio, Texas.
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He left in disguise, wearing a wig, moustache and a
beard
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Girlfriend
Ricky Niv
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Israeli police said on
Sunday they had begun to search for Colonel Mattysse, a recent convert to
Judaism, whom US officials believe fled to Israel after an army inquiry
began into his relationship with a married woman.
He commanded the US
Army Reserve Intelligence Support Centre, where he had access to classified
material produced by the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
"We've taken
reasonable and prudent steps to ensure that the security of the military
intelligence mission remains as high as it ever is," said US Army
Reserve Command spokesman Joseph Hanley.
In disguise
Ricky Niv, Col
Mattysse's girlfriend, told Israel Radio that he had been forced to escape
from the US because he was being persecuted for his love of Israel.
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Colonel
Jeremiah
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She said he had fled to
the Syrian capital, Damascus, although she did not explain why an Orthodox
Jew would seek refuge in a country which has no links of any kind with
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 she had been sent
by Col Mattysse.
She said that he had
been dismissed from his post after he converted to Orthodox Judaism.
Israeli officials
dismissed Ms Niv as "unstable" and denied her implication that
Col Mattysse had been spying for Israel.
They also said that any
comparison between Col Mattysse and Jonathan Pollard, a US citizen serving
a life sentence for spying for Israel, was "preposterous".
"Niv is trying to
keep Mattysse close to her and is making up a story," an official
said.
Both
Col Mattysse and Ms Niv are members 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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