Prayer for Pollard's release ahead of Obama inauguration

Esther Pollard, wife of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, has been spending the last few hours of US President George W. Bush's term at the Western Wall, praying that he makes a last minute gesture and set her husband free.

Jonathan Pollard was a United States Naval civilian intelligence analyst who was indicted and convicted of spying for Israel in 1986. He was later convicted of one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government; and though he never faced treason charges, he was sentenced to life in prison, without possibility of parole.

Members of the Free Pollard Committee, an organization which has been lobbying for his parole for over a dozen years, see Tuesday – when Barack Obama stands to be sworn in as the next president of the United States – as a pivotal point in their fight.

Their hopes, however, are not with the new president, but with the outgoing one. Bush, they say, might decide to grant Pollard clemency minutes before his administration officially ends.

Their hopes stem from a precedent set by former US President Bill Clinton, who during the last days of his administration in 2002, pardoned Marc Reich, an American Jew convicted of illegal trade with Iraq and tax evasion.

Reich's pardon sparked a controversy on Capitol Hill, prompting the White House to reveal that Clinton received a personal plea in the case from them-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, which he could not refuse.

The Free Pollard Committee has been working tirelessly over the past few weeks to push the clemency idea. "Some things are better left unsaid. We won't give any details, we only pray justice will prevail," said Adi Ginzburg, of the Committee.

Tens of thousands of those supporters of the cause, he added, have also been calling the White House Ombudsman's Office, "and we've been told that President Bush is aware of the number of callers… The US defense establishment knows that Pollard has served his time, even element who previously contested any possible parole."

Esther Pollard and the committee held a mass prayer at the Western Wall about two weeks ago. The service was presided over by both Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger and Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar.

"Now is the time to unite in prayer," said Pollard at the service. "To pray for truth, justice and morality; to pray for saving the life of the one who has devoted his life for us all."