Netanyahu Meets With Pollard In North Carolina Prison

Associated Press - January 10, 2002

BUTNER, N.C.

- Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with convicted spy Jonathan Pollard at a federal prison, officials said.

Netanyahu, accompanied by Pollard's wife, Esther, met with Pollard for just over two hours Monday. It wasn't known what they discussed.

"It was a long meeting, and it was a very constructive, very appropriate, and a very good meeting," Esther Pollard said in a statement.

Pollard is a former civilian analyst for the U.S. Navy convicted in 1985 of providing Israel with thousands of highly classified documents. He is serving a life term at the federal prison, 30 miles north of Raleigh.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in October 1998 almost foundered when Netanyahu said then-President Clinton broke a promise to grant clemency to Pollard and allow him to leave for Israel with Netanyahu.

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