Zionist Movement Head Denounces Anonymous' Attempt

November 21, 1994

New York - PR Newswire - The following was released by the American Zionist Movement:

The head of an umbrella organization of 21 American Zionist groups was sharply critical today of what he charged were efforts by anonymous U.S. intelligence sources to scuttle chances of sentence commutation or parole for Jonathan Pollard.

Seymour Reich, president of the American Zionist Movement, accused these sources of repeatedly leaking a "

ludicrous and unfounded charge

" that Mr. Pollard was attempting to pass classified information from behind prison walls, in order to prejudice efforts to resolve the Pollard issue during the scheduled meeting between President Clinton and Prime Minister Rabin:

Mr. Reich's statement follows:

"Once again, anonymous sources in the American intelligence community have repeated the ludicrous and unfounded charge that Jonathan Pollard sought to reveal classified information from behind prison bars. As in the past, the unproved charge has been curiously timed to coincide with a high-level U.S.-Israel meeting at which the Pollard case may be raised.

"The current meeting between President Clinton and Prime Minister Rabin appears to be such an occasion.

"It requires

a wide stretch of the imagination

to believe that as highly intelligent an individual as Pollard, who knows that his mail is carefully censored and his every move monitored, would attempt to transmit compromising information, particularly since he has been in prison for eight years without access to classified data.

"The vendetta against Mr. Pollard ignores the fact that he pleaded guilty to a single charge - passing information to an ally:

it was information that the American intelligence community had reportedly

withheld

from Israel, despite an American-Israeli Information exchange agreement. His offense, while illegal and inexcusable, was not treasonable, and

he was never accused of or indicted for treason

"Yet, as a result of improper interference by the Defense Department,

he was given life imprisonment, despite a plea bargain agreement

with the Justice Department not to seek such an unjustifiably harsh sentence.

"In the face of the inexplicable efforts by the anonymous sources in the intelligence community who seek to scuttle possibilities of commutation of Pollard's sentence or parole - for which he will be eligible next year - one cannot help but wonder what the Intelligence community has to hide in this matter.

"The time has come to put the Pollard case behind us. He has already served his hard time and more.