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Jonathan Pollard
Photo: AP
Micha Lindenstrauss
Photo: Gil Yohanan

Pollard to comptroller: Follow the money trail

Israeli spy urges former Justice Lindenstrauss to continue investigation into Israeli governments' efforts to release him from US jail. 'When the truth is finally revealed, it will cause a virtual earthquake in Israel,' he says

"Has the Government of Israel been using the Jonathan Pollard case as a cover for some much larger 'slush fund' all these years? Or is it something worse? It is the task of your investigation to find this out," the Israeli spy said in a letter addressed to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss.

 

Lindenstrauss was recently ordered by the Knesset's State Control Committee to investigate actions taken by Israel's governments over the years to release Pollard, but senior defense officials and politicians have claimed that such an inquiry may compromise efforts to release Pollard, who has been jailed in the US since 1985 after being convicted of spying for the Jewish State.

 

"Allow me to reassure you one more time: your investigation of the Israeli Government’s handling of the Pollard case can not torpedo efforts to secure my release. There are no efforts to secure my release," Pollard said in the letter.

 

"If your investigation will carefully investigate the money issues I have raised, it is my strong conviction that when the truth is finally revealed, it will cause a virtual earthquake in Israel," he said, "perhaps we will finally understand the real reason that the Israeli establishment did not want me home."

 

'I can be home in time for Passover'

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Pollard claimed that the government was withholding funds he was entitled to as "an officially recognized Israeli agent."

 

Pollard told Lindenstrauss that "this apparent financial malfeasance on the part of the Government may well be just the tip of the iceberg. If you follow the money trail, you may uncover something much bigger than mere financial corruption."

 

The spy added that "one man and one man alone can free me – (US President) George W. Bush; and one man has to make the official request for my release – Ehud Olmert. Our sources in Washington confirm that Olmert has not asked for my release.

 

"I can be home in time for Passover. The only thing standing in the way of my immediate release is that Olmert’s unwillingness to have me home is well known to the President.

 

A few months ago Pollard's attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, sent Olmert a letter demanding that the PM substantiate the government's claims that it was supporting Pollard and his wife Esther financially.

 

Olmert's legal counsel, Shulamit Barnea Fargo, wrote in response that "the claims in your letter are for the most part, baseless, and the style in which they are written is offensive. I do not see any place for providing the information which you requested, out of fear that this will damage Mr. Pollard’s welfare and the efforts of the State of Israel to assist him."

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.27.08, 23:09
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