By Yaakov Lappin

Source:

October 10, 2010

Young woman in IDF said to have taken home about 600 documents on USB key, including documents with data on Iranian nuclear program.

A female IDF soldier from the IDF’s Computer Unit was indicted recently at a military court on charges of stealing a memory stick containing classified, sensitive information – including data on Iran’s nuclear program – from a National Security Council facility in central Israel.

The soldier, who was charged at the Southern Command Military Court in Kastina, near Kiryat Malachi, is accused of removing a memory stick which reportedly contained around 600 documents, 45 of them marked top secret, and driving to her home in the South with the information.

Officials realized the memory stick had been taken hours after it went missing, according to a Ynet report, and on the same evening state representatives appeared at the soldier’s home to retrieve the data.

Security officials detained the soldier for questioning and seized her computer and cell phone.

During quesioning, the soldier said her intention had been to expose a security lapse, adding that it was wrong for classified information to be stored on a memory stick. The soldier said she had planned on transferring the memory stick to her commanding officer, and denied planning to pass the information to any hostile elements.

Her claim was deemed insufficient by military prosecutors to explain her actions, although prosecutors believe there is no evidence that she copied the information or transferred it to a third party.

The IDF Spokesman Unit said on Sunday that the soldier was indicted in recent days on a count of straying from her duty to the point of endangering national security.

“As this is an ongoing judicial process we are unable to comment further,” the IDF Spokesman’s Unit added.

The soldier’s trial is expected to begin in the near future.

The National Security Council operates under the Prime Minister’s Office, and is tasked with advising the premier and government ministers on national security issues.

A little under a year ago, former GOC Central Command clerk Anat Kam was formally indicted in a military court for stealing thousands of military documents, some of which dealt with army West Bank counterterrorism operations, and leaking them to Haaretz journalist Uri Blau.